Halloween Health and Safety Tips

Hilltown Trick-or-Treater's. (c) Sienna Wildfield

For many people, fall events like Halloween and Harvest Day are fun times to dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating, attend parties, and eat yummy treats. These events are also opportunities to provide nutritious snacks, get physical activity, and focus on safety. Below are tips to help make the festivities fun and safe for trick-or-treaters and party guests…

READ MORE:  CDC - Family Health - Halloween Health and Safety Tips

Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns

Here is a quick video (>30 seconds) both kids and parents find interesting.  Through time lapsed imagery, this video shows what happens to a carved pumpkin over the course of three weeks:

Here’s another version, just a little bit longer and more dramatic:

THE SCIENCE OF FLAME COLOR
By Robert Krampf

Have you ever wondered why some flames are yellow, while others are blue?

Garlic braids at harvest time.

SUGGEST AN EVENT

HIGHLIGHTED EVENT: ASHFIELD FALL FESTIVAL

The Ashfield Fall Festival happens all weekend long from 10am-5pm.  It’s a wonderful small town festival and a great event to take the family to.  Find out more at: www.ashfieldfallfestival.org.

SATURDAY - 10/11

• A family science program, Pondering Pumpkins, will be happening at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst.
• Add to your family reading library at the Meekins Library Booksale in Williamsburg.
• In Holyoke the Children’s Museum will continue with their Second Saturday Series, featuring Mad Science.
• The Historic Deerfield Museum in Deerfield will continue with their “Made-by-Hand-Trades of the Past” demos with tinsmithing, along with their open hearth cooking demo and storytelling.
• It’s Kids’ Apple Day at the River Valley Market in Northampton, as part of the grand opening celebrations.
• The town of Easthampton will have their monthly art walk, including a town wide scavenger hunt.
• Over in Pittsfield the Berkshire Museum will be having a family performance, Birds in their Habitat and hands-on art project.
• Family Fun weekend at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge.
  

SUNDAY - 10/12

• The Eric Carle Mueum in Amherst will host an additional art activity as part of their Second Sunday Series.
• Free Kids’ Art Activity at the River Valley Market in Northampton.
• Wilder Homestead will host a 1775 sampler in Buckland.
• Harvest Festival happens at Clarkdale in Deerfield.
• Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield invites folks to come make a feeder for their birds.
• Family Fun weekend at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge.

MONDAY - 10/13

• Wally’s 11th birthday family celebration happens at the Berkshire Musuem in Pittsfield.
• Family Fun weekend at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge.
• Harvest Festival at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst.

Weekday 10/13-10/17

For more events happening this week, visit our SUGGEST AN EVENT page. There are also fun suggestions on our THINGS TO DO, PLACES TO SEE page. If you know of an upcoming event that you would like to share with other families, please feel encourage to do so by posting it HERE.

Notes from Nan: Fall Festival and a Black Gospel Choir, All in Ashfield on the very same weekend !
BY HF Contributing Writer, Nan Parati

Okay—

First off, you know that this weekend is Fall Festival in Ashfield! (All of you who do not live in Ashfield should talk among yourselves right now as this particular part will probably not interest you. I’ll let you know when to come back in.)

So! This weekend (Saturday and Sunday) all a y’all come back around to Elmer’s for our good old

• Authentic New Orleans Crawfish Pasta

which has become an annual tradition for us at Fall Festival.

For Breakfast we will not have our sit-down breakfast of usual, but instead will have our Breakfast Burritos out front at our tent. You can come inside and get other things, (including a few surprises this year!)

Then, Saturday night we will have a special added Fall Fest event: 

The Gospel Tent

at the Congregational Church!

Gregarious, powerful, uplifting, inspiring evening of gospel music   held October 11 at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Ashfield, Main Street.  Rollicking after-party at Elmer’s following for ticket holders.  Ticket sales at Elmer’s starting October 1.

This is a benefit concert for C.E.C. a non-profit organization encouraging and supporting inner city children who want to ride horses, join the world of equestrian sports, and make new friends. Tickets in advance: $15

Tickets night of the show: $18.

Children seven and under free.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a real, live black gospel concert, but it will pick you up and shake you out before turning you loose!  At the Jazz Fest in New Orleans we have an entire stage devoted entirely to Gospel groups, and the place is packed, all day long.  I do not care whether or not you are religious, it will be a fine, fine night of entertainment!  And it supports an excellent cause:  The Children’s Equitation Center, which does just what Roberta up there says it does.  Save the world and your soul, all in the same evening!

Then, after the concert, dance on over to Elmer’s for our post-concert party.  Guaranteed fun, food and more of the music!  This, again is something one doesn’t usually find in tiny towns in New England and so bring yourself and your Festival guests on over to the Congregational Church and be transported to a Black Gospel Tent down south!  ‘Cause children, we gonna have CHURCH!

Friday night dinner:

Fall Festival taken into consideration, we are still doing our Friday night dinner this week with

Lemon and Herb Marinated Chicken

over Pasta Fagioli  (Cannelini Beans, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Zucchini, carrots, celery, onions, Parmesan Cheese, Oregano, Fresh Basil)

Field Greens Salad

Vegetarians will have the Pasta Fagioli

With the Field Greens Salad

Okay, now the out-of-towners can jump back in here.

So, with last week’s edition of “Grocery Talk with Rob” which had nothing in the world to do with groceries at all, I think I have to concede the Funny Title to Rob.  We got the most fan mail off of that article than we’ve ever gotten in life—and most of it was good!  (If you missed reading it then you’re going to want to go back.  It was freakin’ hilarious!

And now that I got my own recognition plug in, here is

Ed. Note: Whoa, whoa, whoa.  I brought you into this organization Rob and I can take you out!  Do not ridicule the building of the corridor.  You know how when it snows and Mike Skalski comes to plow and he pushes the snow up against the barn, and then it snows 35 more times, and then the barn is completely encased in snow until mid-August and we can’t get to anything that’s out there and we forget what we put in there or even that we ever had storage space at Elmer’s at all?  THAT’s why we’re building the Bridge to Nowhere.  Because in Massachusetts, Seemingly Nowhere is Somewhere!  It’s where we keep our stuff!  And is that important?  You betcha it is!

And now it’s time for the Farm Report!  (And looking at it, Little Donna Elwell seems to be whooped up, herself!)

And don’t forget that we begin:

Dinner 3 Nights a Week at Elmer’s!

Beginning October 23, 2008

Thursday nights: Dinner from 5 – 8 pm and it will be Meat and Potatoes night.  Nothing fancy, still changing from week to week, but simpler, easier, not-as-gourmet-but-still-as-good fare—a night where you say, “I don’t feel like cooking” so let’s just go out night.  Some nights like that you go to the Lakehouse, some nights like that you get pizza, and some nights like that you can now go to Elmer’s, as well!  Down Home night will also include vegetarian offerings, just like usual.

Friday nights: Dinner from 5 – 9pm Elmer’s regular Friday night dinners, exactly like before.  More local food, more gourmet, (but not elitist) more date night sort of fare.  Meat and vegetarian offerings, just like always.

Saturday nights: Dinner from 5 – 9pm and live music at 9pm!  Dinner will be Tapas—smaller, appetizer-sized dishes that you can order as little or as much as you like of!  Order a variety or concentrate on what you love.  Mix and match and share with your friends!

And then at 9pm on Saturday nights we will have live music—a variety of sorts:  Blues, Bluegrass, Folk, Classical, R&B, changing with the week just like our menus do!   Come early and have dinner with no music, or come later and have dinner with music and switch over to hanging out and listening to good stuff with good desserts and a glass of wine or beer!

We are kicking off the festivities with

Compton Maddux and the Dirt Simple Band. A 40-year stage veteran of
nightclubs and concert halls, Maddux writes acoustic-based blues which
blend humor and irony along the lines of Allison Krause and Steve
Earle. He is a founding member and frontman of the Outer Space Band,
and has led many other roots music ensembles in his long career.
Appearing with Maddux will be electric hammer dulcimer virtuoso Bill
Ruyle of New York, bassist Klondike Koehler of Wendell, and special
guests.

Okay!

See you at Fall Festival and at the Gospel Concert!

Big E

Noah Webster’s Birthday

Dictionary Day commemorates the birth of Noah Webster (October 16, 1758), who was the “father of the American dictionary.” Celebrate the day by planning a dictionary scavenger hunt, playing Scrabble, creating a classroom dictionary, or any of the dozens of other ideas presented on this special Lesson Planning page from Education World.

READ MORE: Education World: Noah Webster’s Birthday.

V-log: Conway Festival of the Hills
by Tom Adams (Hilltown Families Contributing Writer)

Join the Adams’ on another family trip … this time to the Conway Festival of the Hills … 10 minutes of quintessential Hilltown Family fun: maple cotton candy, bunnies, dunking booths, a parade and a helicopter ride (well sorta). Perfect thing to do on a beautiful October Sunday afternoon! If you weren’t able to make it, after watching this video you’ll feel like you were right there! Enjoy.

HOW TO MAKE A HALLOWEEN PAPER-MACHÉ PIÑATA
with HF Contributor, Kara Kitchen

The history of piñatas is rich, with historical traditions found in China, Europe, and Mexico, and are made out of a variety of materials, including clay pots, tissue paper, ribbons and paper-maché. In Mexico, piñatas were originally clay pots filled with sweets and treasures, later transformed into a seven-point star with religious symbolism. In today’s modern world, piñatas come in a menagerie of traditional and commercial characters and icons.

READ MORE:  DIY: Halloween Paper-Maché Piñatas

Banned Books Week
By J. Douglas Archer
Chair, American Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee

Celebrate book banning? No way! Why would you do that? The answer, of course, is that Banned Books Week celebrates the continued availability of books that some folks tried to ban, not their attempts to ban them. Banned Books Week celebrates books and the people and institutions that defend your right to read them. For over twenty-seven years Banned Books Week has celebrated the freedom of Americans to write, publish, sell, buy, borrow, and read. It does this by publicizing attempts to have books removed from America’s libraries — whether those attempts where successful or not.

Banned Books Week is an annual event sponsored by a coalition of organizations representing America’s writers, publishers, booksellers and libraries – those segments of our society most directly committed to supporting the unimpeded creation and distribution of information. This year’s participants are the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, and National Association of College Stores. In addition, Banned Books Week is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

This year’s data collected by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 420 formal attempts to have books removed from America’s school, public and academic libraries. Since only a portion of challenges are report (some estimate only 20 to 25 percent), it’s fairly obvious that the impulse to censor is alive and well in America.

READ MORE: I Love Libraries - Celebrating Banned Books Week

Great weekend to go apple picking!

SUGGEST AN EVENT

If you’re looking to stock-up on clothes and books for your kids, this is the weekend!  Plus there’s opportunities to go on a hike in the hilltowns, visit a weekend long fall festival, get a dose of history, or just hang out and listen to some great music on the lawn.  Check out what’s happening here:

Saturday - 10/04

Festival of the Hills is happening in Conway all weekend long

There will be a kids consignment sale in Easthampton

Brewmaster’s Tavern is sponsoring a scarecrow competition in Williamsburg

The Forbes Libray in Northampton is hosting a free outdoor concert

The Lilly Library in Florence will be having a book sale

The Buckland Library in Buckland invites families in for a story hour

There will be a nature walk at the Bryant Homestead in Cummington


In Deerfield at the Historic Deerfield Museum families can find demonstrations of trades from the past and can discover the history of chocolate

Families with kids ages 4 and under are invited to visit the many open houses happening at our area family centers

Sunday -10/05

Festival of the Hills is happening in Conway all weekend long

There will be a free family nature day at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown.

Great weekend for apple picking!

Weekday 10/06-10/10

For more events happening this week, visit our SUGGEST AN EVENT page. There are also fun suggestions on our THINGS TO DO, PLACES TO SEE page. If you know of an upcoming event that you would like to share with other families, please feel encourage to do so by posting it HERE.