Happy October!

It's finally that time of year again.

Wishing a very happy October to us all!

Autumn achievment unlocked - The Big E 2023!

One of my favorite seasonal rituals has been achieved - my annual visit to The Big E!

It was a gorgeous weekday, and we got there on the early side before things got too crowded. The sun was out, the temperature just right, a perfect autumn day from morning til evening.

The free wine tasting, featuring 6 New England area wineries, was one of the highlights of my late morning. It gets crowded during peak times and I hadn't been able to go in years. We didn't have to wait too long. I'm not even a big wine or alcoholic beverage person, but I do like new experiences and flavors, so this is always a fun time.

Of course, one of the main attractions to the fair is the food. This year I broke with tradition and mostly tried foods that were new: either new to me, or new to the fair this year, starting with plantain fries topped with pork, grilled onion/peppers, and a yummy sauce. Loved this and would get it again.

Next up: the apple fries, new to the fair this year and highly recommended. These were fantastic, crispy fries made of apples and dusted with cinnamon sugar - we opted for the caramel sauce addition.

New to me this year was the deep-fried taco, the outer skin reminded me a bit of an egg roll. We chose the chicken option, which also had lettuce, tomato, cheese, & sour cream. I would've loved some hot sauce on this, but it was otherwise pretty great.

 

 
We also shared a Mass Sea Breeze, a refreshing and very sweet drink.

And last up: the smoked salmon on a stick from the Maine building - which usually sells out as it is extremely popular. It's definitely some of the BEST salmon I've ever eaten, and I am a huge fan of salmon. I've had it before, but most years they run out before I can get it. 

 

Pickle lemonade was one of the new offerings at the fair this year, but we didn't try it. There were a lot of pickle-flavored items, including pickle-topped pizza and a pickle cupcake. I didn't try any of those either. I like pickles, but not sure I need a pickle cupcake. Maybe if I'd had more wine it would've sounded like a good idea.

 

 

Last food item of the day, which is my usual custom, is buying a cream puff or 2 to bring home. This year's special flavor was MAPLE which I am extremely excited about. Maple is one of my favorite New England flavors, 10/10 would recommend this cream puff.

I was happy to see some Halloweeny vibes here and there as well, mostly in the Storrowtown/craft area of the fair.

The Rhode Island building always showcases the Great Jack O'Lantern Spectacular, which returns every year to the Roger Williams Park Zoo (and is absolutely worth visiting; I blogged about it a couple years ago)

Our night concluded with a spooky moonrise. And that's it for my 2023 Big E adventure!

To read more of my more in-depth posts about The Big E, check out these links:

Part 1: Intro / Part 2: Crafts & shopping / Part 3: Animals & agriculture /

Part 4: State buildings / Part 5: Food / Part 6: Other stuff

And just like that - Autumn is here.

 The autumn season is here!

It's cozy candle season;

wandering through mysterious woods season;

harvest abundance season;

cozy blanket and sweater weather season;

pumpkin madness season;

 haunted house season;

 

fall festival season;

 Halloween party season;

 

leaf-peeping season;

 -- and generally, the absolute best time of the year.

HAPPY FALL, EVERYONE!

Pumpkin Pals

 Spotted at  Party @ Display & Costume over Labor Day weekend.

Artist Brett Kelley's Pumpkin Pin

Do you like Halloween stuff AND supporting independent artists? 

Brett Kelley, a friend of mine who's a prolific artist located in Western Massachusetts, USA, has just launched a Kickstarter to create these wicked cool enamel pins based on his original illustration of a bat-winged jack o'lantern! His original run of these pins sold out in TWO DAYS and he's raising the funds needed to release more color variations. You can support this project by clicking the pic below, and get your very own FlapJack pin! The funding is well under way and runs til 6th March, 2022.

Brett Kelley is an amazing illustrator, and you can check out more of his art on his Facebook page and Instagram feed.

Memories of Elm Knoll Farm

 Elm Knoll Farm, Somers, Connecticut, circa mid-2000s:
Memories of my favorite pumpkin patch ever.

 

Back in the 1990s til the mid-2000s or so, Elm Knoll Farm was THE area pumpkin patch destination. 

 

Everything essential to the feeling of autumn and Halloween in New England was concentrated here in rural Somers, CT in the month of October every year. 

 

This place has everything...

 

Here is a list of some of the things I loved most about Elm Knoll, with photos I took over the years:

1.) Pumpkins and gourds (obviously) -- you could choose your pumpkin from pre-picked ones, or take the hayride out to the fields to pick your own right from the vines. I always opted for the latter, which was a fairly long ride out to the scenic hills and fields.

 

 

2.) Hayrides -- The best kind where the benches are made of hay bales, and the floor is scattered with loose hay, in a rickety old wagon.

3.) A corn maze -- and acres and acres of golden cornstalks drying out in the shady autumn sun.

4.) Gorgeous views --  of the rolling hills, fields of wildflowers, and spooky forests at the edges of the farm, the perfect way to enjoy a brisk, overcast, moody autumn day.

5.) Farm animals --  geese, chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, pigs, and puppies.

6.) Weekend entertainment -- which usually included live music, a kids' magician, and a mulled cider & hot chocolate stand.

7.) Scarecrows and other Halloween structures -- made out of cornstalks, hay, and wood; probably designed for children, but delightful to adults, too.

8.) Overgrown and dilapidated old stuff -- crumbling buildings, seemingly abandoned farm equipment, and various other signs of rural decay that make the countryside spooky AF.

 

 
9.) And: A fantastic haunted hayride on weekend nights in October. 

Picture this: A hayride through the aforementioned spooky rural woods, on the aforementioned rickety trailer full of sweet-smelling hay, which takes you to various spooky scenes along the journey. Best of all: the entire trail is lined on either side with carved, lit jack o'lanterns, literally miles of them. The moon is out, and you're huddled up with your friends, laughing and enjoying the whole sensory spectacle of the whole thing.

 

One of the most vivid and precious Halloween memories I have is of being on that hayride sometime in the mid to late 1990s, on a night when the moon was full or nearly so, dark clouds partially obscuring the moonlight as they passed, and the warm glow of jack o'lanterns all along the way; the smell of the hay and the forest, of earth and decaying leaves, of night air and fire and pumpkin guts. The props and scares were all home-made, as I recall; simple and effective. And, the farm itself already felt seriously haunted to begin with, day or night.

 

How I wish I had photos of those times I went. Those was pre-mobile phone days, and I didn't usually carry a camera. It would have been too dark then to capture anything well enough to do it any justice. Most of it was hidden away in the woods, but here and there around the farm, hints of it were visible, like this facade that was the official entrance to the haunted forest:

This haunt is on my top all-time favorite Halloween attractions: I rate it 10/10 Jackos.

[🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃]

The Demise of Elm Knoll

It seems as though things of this nature never last, and Elm Knoll was no exception. The haunted hayrides stopped sometime in the late 1990s, if I remember right. I imagine it must have been too much work and not enough people to do it. I can't even imagine how much it must have taken just to carve all those hundreds and hundreds of jack o'lanterns for the hayride path -- and to light them every night, on top of that! 

 

Around 2006, the elderly owner of Elm Knoll sold off the Somers property to his son, a sad and heartbreaking ending to the legacy of this wonderful place. You can read about it here, in an article from about 12 years ago, but fair warning: it's pretty dismal, with accounts of animal neglect, etc.

 

A farm by the name of Elm Knoll still exists, but on different land. It spent some time at a spot in Enfield, CT for a few years, and is currently located in Stafford Springs, CT. I have no idea how these iterations of Elm Knoll were/are connected to the old farm, and I haven't been to either location. They might be perfectly nice places, but I doubt they could ever compare to the sheer Halloween greatness that once existed at the old location.

[All photos and content by Petrichor & Pumpkins/ Nebulosus Severine/ CMPauluh, with the exception of the Stefon picture. Do not reuse without permission & credit.]