Halloween in Park Slope & Pumpkin's Organic Market

Yesterday's Halloween celebration in Park Slope was quite an event! The day was fairly quiet, but at around 4:00 costumed people of all ages started coming out of the woodwork and promenading the avenue demanding candy (see picture here taken on our block). We thought we'd learned from last year and had enough candy (10 bags!) but by 5:00 we were already wiped out. This invited heckling, so we closed shop early, vowing that next year we will hand out less per kid, and we'll dress up. Who knew there was so much pressure to join in? Yeesh.

These are a few shots of fun costumes yesterday.

Halloween may not be my favorite holiday of all time, but up the street from Greenjeans is one of my favorite places in Brooklyn: Pumpkin's Organic Market (corner of 8th Ave. and 13th St.). At Pumpkin's they're planning for Halloween all year long, and the results are very impressive!

Click here to see a slide show of the amazing work they do to turn their sweet general store into a house of horrors! (The "brain juice" here amidst the dusted almonds and white chocolate chips is only the beginning...)

Stocked with Christina Cassano's beautifully curated collection of foods, Pumpkin's features local produce, organic dairy and juices, organic free-range meats, and a great selection of bulk rice, beans, flour, and nuts, not to mention lots of indie small-batch dessert treats. Jae and I love to stop in for dinner ingredients or just to browse what wonderful new items Christina has found.

Pumpkin's is as brimming with values and philosophy as it is with bountiful goods. Favoring local and small-scale producers, they don't rely on a lot of big agribusiness organic producers like most health food stores these days. And there's more than food. There are also organic cotton one-sies and yoga pants, pure bath products and candles, green and progressive magazines, and a huge selection of loose tea and herbs, all organic.

One of my favorite details is rather than sell bottled water, there's a porcelain drinking fountain standing under a sign for "City Soda." Nice!

Now, to start planning my costume for next Halloween...

Posted and photos by Amy Shaw.