ottawa foodies

Hi Everyone,

So I was out last night with some friends, and we got to talking about Halloween... and how it differed this year from those in previous years.

First off, at least at my house, the numbers were down. I usually see anywhere between 35 and 75 kids, ranging in age between the neighbours with babes in arms to some Trick or Treaters in their mid-teens.

This year.... Zip, Zero, Zilch. NOT A ONE.

Door bell never rang. I attribute this of course to the recent H1N1 Outbreak here in Ottawa. My friends saw similar situations, with numbers way down... although I was the only one to report not a visit.

So now I am stuck (lol) with a whack of mini-chocolate bars.
Of course "The Man" has offered to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way.
;-)

So how was it at your house? Any Ghosts & Goblins visit? What did you give out? And if you are a Parent how did you handle Hallowe'en... did your youngsters go out? Did you do anything different? Or take precautions that you normally would not?

I went trick or treating with my adorable, pumpkin-clad toddler. It was super fun, but a little tiring herding him around!

We visited two streets and went to about 12 houses, I'd say. There seemed to get a good number of other revellers out and about.

Now I have a bunch of choco bars and bags of chips and am not sure what to do with them. I won't let my son eat them and I don't want/need to eat them. Maybe I'll bring them to work...

But I'm also a little concerned about consuming them - in Nova Scotia someone found a needle inserted in a Tootsie Roll, and a razor blade in an apple... I could go over all the candy with a magnifying glass, but even then, if someone stuck a needle in, how could I tell??

Any thoughts on Halloween candy and dangerous tampering?

we had no one. i don't take my toddler out, i don't see the point since he personally doesn't care about halloween and he can't eat the treats. there will be many years in our lives where halloween matters, so no sense rushing it.

excess candy can be given to the foodbank. here is their stance on it (thanks to missfish)

“We accept excess candy from Halloween, classifying it as “a category “C” item (the same category that we place other donated items like cookies and chips in). It is distributed to those in need as a bonus item, over and above the other healthy and nutritious items that food banks provide. We certainly encourage those making a Halloween candy donation to also include some of their family’s favourite nutritious non-perishable goods.”

Read more: www.quietfish.com

Ms Foodie - Tampered food has been an issue since at least the 70s, how much of it really goes on, whether it is Fact or Fiction, is a bit of a mystery (and Urban Myth).

When my kids were little we only went to houses we knew the families at. And anything that was not packaged was tossed out (apples in particular... not a big loss... as they usually highly bruised by the time we got home anyway). So basically we were "safe" knowing everything we got came from people we knew personally, and was commercially prepared.

The exception, was I did have a girlfriend who made special treats for those kids she knew... she used to package the stuff and put a sticker with her name and address on it so the Parent's would know it came from her house... or in our case because a Parent always went along, she would let us know when we went to the door that there was something special for our little ones... The kids really liked the treats from her house best... Homebaked and decorated gingerbread cookies in Hallowe'en shapes, or homemade spooky lollipops, etc. And oftentimes, a cup of hot coffee for the accompanying parent, she really loved Hallowe'en and went all out.

HipFunkyFun - I know that some of the smaller community Food Banks package up donated Hallowe'en Treats (Chips, Chocolate Bars etc) and add it to the Christmas Hampers that they give out. The Hampers tend to include as much as they can a variety of goods beyond the nutritious base that they are built upon (Christmas Dinner), so things that the Families don't normally see such as Chips, Pop, Candy, Personal Hygiene Items and Cleaning Supplies are added whenever there are some in the donations. Something that the average person doesn't think about, these little "extras" can make a world of difference to a family at Christmas.

Carp was full of kids - the streets were packed. I live in a more rural setting, and traffic is 0/light, so we pack up the kids and head into the big city (i.e. Carp). I love it - especially with the small town feel - you know a bunch of the people and are running into lots of the kids friends along the way.

We've seen a decline of children coming to our door on Halloween over the years. We live in the Manordale area and it's quiet and safe enough. But I attribute it to busy parent's schedules, cold nights and an unsafe society. I do like the idea of community hall parties/gatherings and shopping mall trick or treatings, but it's lost its charm.

Maybe with the left over candies and chocolates, people can incorporate it with vanilla ice cream, like DQ or McDs and save it for X-mas holidays. Not sure how it can be done though. Maybe partially melt a big tub ice ice cream and chop up the candies and mix them all in?
I also like the fact food banks take them. No point in letting the treats go to waste.

We had several hundred kids for sure (suburban Stittsville). I did notice there were a lot fewer teenagers, not sure why, but certain it was not because of H1N1. We ended up giving out just short of 9kg of candy, leaving only a handful for ourselves.

Saddly, we only had 5 kids and 3 adults (collecting for the food bank). We don't get many kids on a good year, but this was very low for us.

Suburbs are where it's at; always has been, always will be. The difference is that the suburbs continuely move away from the urban centres.

Westboro was pretty dead. South of Richmond there were a few dozen, but north? Forget about it!

We live in an older Stittsville neighbourhood. Over the last twelve years, we’ve watch the numbers drop from 150 kids to less than 50. I like the fact that many of my neighbours get into the Halloween spirit. As I went trick-or-treating with the kids, several houses along the way had treats for the grownups- adult beverages!

I thought it was just our street. We didn't have one trick or treater this year : ( It was so sad. I look forward to Halloween every year, and this year we had to eat, and donate, all of our candy. I hope this changes for next year.

LWB - I'd usually agree that "the burbs" are where it's at... but that IS where I was at on Hallowe'en. Think Ed though might be right, my neighbourhood is generally a bit older, so maybe that is also effecting the demographics... still though, I was surprised to see no-one.

Ed - That is interesting, and the first time I've heard of that going on in Ottawa... it is pretty common in cities out west... usually the Parent with the kids sets off with a thermos of coffee... and several houses in the neighbourhood will "top up" the coffee cups with liqueurs (Baileys seems to be a favourite).

Now that is what I call getting in the "Spirit" of Trick and "Treat".

8 years here on Main Street = ZILCH

then again, the two nearby community centers usually host parties as does the big apartment building at the oorner of Lees and Main

considering the nutbags out there of recently history with razor blades etc and the H1N1 thingie, it's probably the safest thing to do

a friend took her two kidlets to Sandy Hill and ended up tossing over half of the
acquired candy for being suspect

100+ kids a few years ago, maybe 25 last year, less than a dozen this year. Hubby was very bummed out. It was a Saturday night trick or treat--can that make a difference???

I was in Whitby for Hallowe'en, where there were a fair number of kids, but not huge numbers.

I sat on the porch of my SO's parents, dressed as a dummy scaring kids: it was great. I didn't scare the wee-little ones, but one kid was so scared he tried to run into the house.

But I did watch the kids that were out and they were very selective in the houses they went to: if they were decorated (spider webs, lights, music/sound etc) the kids went straight for the houses. No jack-o-lantern and the kids just hit the 'sure thing' homes.

When I was a kid in my small town, there were way more kids out. It makes me sad to see so few trick-or-treating because Hallowe'en is my favourite holiday of the year.