Fall is my favorite time of the year, and it’s also a great time to practice eco-friendly living. From decorations to family activities, there is lots to do and a variety of different ways to stay green. My first bit of advice is to use local ingredients when baking apple or pumpkin pies. I was able to pick organic apples with zero pesticides straight from my parents’ apple trees.
Northeastern Pennsylvania has a lot of local pumpkin patches and apple orchards to choose from, and by choosing local, you can support your local economy. Roba Family Farms (RR 1 Box 247 Decker Road, Dalton) offers a fall festival from now until Halloween. There you will find a corn maze, pumpkin patch, hay rides, a farm animal center and even fall activities for the kids. Brace’s Orchard (444 Brace Road, Dallas) offers a variety of apples to pick from and even make fresh apple cider.
Instead of buying fall decorations, try getting natural items like apples, pumpkins and Indian corn. You can use the Indian corn for a few years, and when fall comes to an end, you can use the apples and pumpkins for pies. Another great decoration is to gather leaves and foliage from around the neighborhood. You can use twigs, branches, nuts and leaves for tabletop decorations, or you can string them together for a natural garland.
Mason jars, or just any regular jars, are a great decoration year round. For fall, you can fill them with LED lights, and by using wire, hang them in trees or around your porch. You can even paint jack-o’-lantern faces on them to change it up and stick to a Halloween theme.
Once you’re finished reading the Weekender, or any newspaper for that matter, you can get crafty while recycling your newspaper. Paper mache is simple, and all it’s made out of is newspaper and paste made from flour and water. Balloons are a good design frame to use if you want to paper mache a shape of a pumpkin.
One of the easiest ways to recycle around Halloween is to stop by your local Salvation Army to pick up items for your costume. Instead of buying something new that you’ll probably only wear once, it’s worth checking out gently used clothing to scavenge up something unique. Craftster.org has some great D-I-Y Halloween costume tips.
If you don’t have a big budget for fall and Halloween d�cor, try to create things on your own. Not only will you save money, you’ll help the planet out a little and even have something hand made that you can be proud of!
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