The Farmplate Blog

Happy Halloween! Hopefully the day finds you enjoying some of our most beloved fall activities: picking and carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating and celebrating with friends and family. Whatever the holiday brings, you will probably encounter two items that dominate the Halloween spotlight: pumpkins and candy. Glowing as round, orange jack-o'-lanterns and crinkling in colorful, iconic packaging, we often don't recognize these pillars of Halloween as food. In fact, Halloween may be the American holiday that shares the most confusing relationship with food. At FarmPlate, we see Halloween as a great chance to get in touch with local farmers and food artisans in your area.

When we think of pumpkins, we usually think of jack-o'-lanterns. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, turning pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns can be a seasonal outlet for artistic ambition or a showcase of unwieldy knife skills. This October, the news reported some new records in pumpkin history, including the largest pumpkin, carved up in New York City last week, and a community in Chicago that set a new world record for most pumpkins carved, lit and displayed. President Obama even picked out some white pumpkins last week, which became White House jack-o'-lanterns.

Despite their common association with jack-o'-lanterns, the vast majority of pumpkins grown in the United States go to processing (AgMRC). These medium-sized, white cucurbits become the pumpkin pie filling we buy in cans in grocery stores, and we often forget that pumpkins are, after all, a food item and a fruit. As a squash at center stage of our Halloween celebrations, pumpkins have the potential to bring our communities together around food. This year they served as the focus of food drives, helped highlight local produce, and were the topic of community traditions. With all this potential, I'm often surprised that local food proponents don't do more to equate Halloween with connecting to our community's food system.

Sharing the Halloween spotlight with pumpkins, is candy. Halloween candy is tricky because it is pretty far from the real, whole foods that can be dug up from our backyards. And despite the First Lady's efforts to incorporate alternative treat options in Halloween bags, we can assume that most candy passed out at Halloween is not locally or sustainably made. But, there are other options. The FarmPlate team has highlighted a few great confectioneries to show you what to look for when shopping for your Halloween treats.

Red Kite Candy (Thetford, VT) - With a dedication to the finest local ingredients, including fresh Vermont dairy products and world-famous maple syrup, Red Kite hand crafts each of their caramels and toffees with care, assuring a unique tasting experience.

Whimsical Candy (Chicago, IL) - Taking a fun approach to artisanal candies, Whimsical Candy Company makes small batches of sweets that blend a grown-up taste for quality with the fun and classic flavors of childhood candy.

Cabot’s Candy (Provincetown, MA) - A Cape Cod tradition since 1927, Cabot’s Candy is a truly unique candy store with a friendly, old-fashioned atmosphere, born from a true passion for candy making.

Angell Organic Candy Bars (San Diego, CA) - Angell’s “good old-fashioned” candy bars bring back the classic chocolate, chew and crunch in a local candy bar with ingredients and you can feel good about.

Haven’s Candies (Scarborough, ME) - A premium Maine confectionery since 1915, Haven’s Candies uses timeless recipes and the finest ingredients to make delicious chocolates, fudge, salt water taffy, nuts and chocolate novelties.

Lake Champlain Chocolates (Burlington, VT) - Crafted in small batches in Burlington, Vermont, sweet treats from Lake Champlain Chocolates are created using fresh, natural ingredients.

It's not too late to incorporate local food into your Halloween celebrations. Stop by a farmstand to pick up a last-minute pumpkin, or find alternative candy options by searching for a local confectionery near you. When next Halloween rolls around, think about making Halloween a special opportunity to support the local food movement by shopping with growers and food artisans in your community.

NATIONAL NEWS:

October 31: Trick-or-Treaters around the country will be handing out fair trade chocolate to adults today, as part of the fifth annual Reverse Trick-or-Treating. The initiative focuses awareness on child slave labor, traficking, poverty, and hazardous environmental conditions in the cocoa industry. Civileats

October 31: The UN estimates that the global population reached 7 billion today. Can we feed the world population without ruining the planet? Grist

October 26: According to recent announcements from the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, there is a possibility that the Food and Farm Bill will be pushed through in the coming weeks. Tom Laskawy discusses the implications of this "quick and dirty" farm bill for small farmers and anyone interested in supporting rural economies, diversified agriculture, healthy food access, conservation, and research. Civileats

October 26: A national outbreak of cantaloupe-related listeriosis has affected more than 130 people in 26 states, resulting in 28 deaths. Food Safety News 

October 25: Mayors from eight cities convened in Chicago for the first ever Let’s Move! food dessert summit, discussing the importance of creating and supporting policies for urban agriculture in an effort to eliminate food desserts. Obama Foodorama

REGIONAL NEWS:

October 31: Ohio produce is going local as businesses respond to consumer demand. Owners of restaurants, grocery stores and produce companies discuss how they're keeping up with the new trend. The Packer

October 29: Due to declining numbers of crustaceans in the Long Island Sound, Connecticut Lobstermen can no longer make a living. Scientists suggest several causes of the declining lobster populations that are threatening a way of life. Huffington Post

October 29: Utahns Against Hunger are challenging Salt Lake City residents to eat on $28 for a week, raising awareness of how difficult it is to live on food stamps. Deseret News

October 28: The number of craft breweries in St. Louis has been growing since 2008, bringing back a scene that fostered what became one of the best-known large-scale breweries in the country. NY Times

Remy Franklin is a junior music and environmental studies student at Dartmouth College. In addition to writing for Farmplate, he pursues an interest in local food through work with the Dartmouth Office of Sustainability, The Sustainable Living Center, Dartmouth Ecovores and the Dartmouth Organic Farm. 

Photo credit (pumpkin): Remy Franklin