The Operation Pumpkin Festival

Image from Operation Pumpkin website
www.operation-pumpkin.org

A yearly tradition that my family and I have is to go to the Operation Pumpkin Festival in downtown Hamilton, Ohio. The unique thing about it compared to other local fairs and festivals is that it's held right smack in the middle of downtown Hamilton. My wife likes to go because her candle and cupcake vendors have a booth set up there. I like to go because it's a fall festival. It's a win win for everyone so we headed over last Saturday to check it out.

The festival opens at 9:00 usually but the unfortunate thing about weekend was that is was cold and extremely windy when we went in the morning. So much so that some of the vendors and the rides weren't even open yet due to the wind. In past years, the place has been crazy at 10:00 in the morning but not this year due to the cold and wind. However, the pictures above should give you a general idea of what the festival encompasses. If you look at the top picture, you'll see a monument in the background. That's how far the festival stretches.

Pumpkin carving is one of the draws to the festival. Every year they bring out expert pumpkin carvers to do creative and unusual pumpkins. Their display/workshop in set up right in the middle of one of the main intersections of downtown.

Another major draw is the giant pumpkin weigh-off from the Southern Ohio Giant Pumpkin Growers (SOGPG for short). Some of these pumpkins can weigh in excess of 2,000 pounds. As I'm writing this, the results aren't available yet but just by the pictures, you can see how enormous these pumpkins are. I was also able to snap a picture of my wife and my son next to one.

A few random pictures. The first is a monument in the middle of the street to Alexander Hamilton, who the city was named after. The other one is a giant box of pumpkins that I took while trying to embrace my artistic side.

All the small businesses such as craft boutiques, markets, and bakeries were open as well. We stopped into the Almond Sisters bakery, which is a place that was featured on the local morning news recently and someplace we wanted to try for a while. As you can see by the display cases, they had pastries and cookies of all kinds available. 

We picked up a pumpkin pastry, which was filled with cream cheese and a very nice pumpkin filling, a red velvet ganache brownie which a red velvet brownie topped with chocolate ganache and chocolate chips, and a geode, which is a chocolate chip cooke stuffed with a brownie. The pastry was amazing but the other two things were a bit of a let down. We'll definitely be back though to try some of their Christmas offerings.

On the way out of the bakery, I spotted this graffiti mural on the side of a building ...

Someone is obviously a fan of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and drew this fantastic piece of art. I tried to get a picture of it without the glare from the window but this was the best I could do. All in all, despite the cold, windy weather and the absence of some of the vendors due to such, we still had a great time and definitely will be continuing our tradition next year.

Crazy Halloween Junk Food

I'll have to admit, September has pretty much been a blur. Between work kicking my butt and being busy nearly every weekend, I had precious little time to write. Fear not though, since it's now officially fall it's really time to embrace the season ... and by embrace the season I mean gorge myself on Halloween junk food. These items have no relationship to each other whatsoever other than the fact that I couldn't get enough out of them for a full fledged article.

Hostess Scary Cakes

Yes! These are back for another year. Sure, they're just the basic Hostess cupcake any other time of the year, but not in the fall. In the fall, they are "Scary Cakes" with S'cream filling. If these aren't a sign that the Halloween season is in full force then I don't know what is. The box design this year is great with a spooky design that just grabs you. The icing on the cupcake has that standard Hostess squiggle design but the frosting is orange! Name another time of year you'll find a cupcake with orange icing! Now, if you've had a Hostess cupcake before, you know what this tastes like, however I think it has just a little bit better flavor and taste because it has a Halloween style. Put some of these out along with a cold glass of cider for the Great Pumpkin when he comes and your Halloween will be that much better.

Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

I've always looked at Pepperidge Farm stuff from afar, it being more expensive than your normal Chips Ahoy or Oreo cookie pack. I've gotten a few of their products before and haven't been too terribly impressed which is mostly the reason I stray away from them (the other being cost). These were one of the first "fall" products I saw in the stores, so I grabbed it. The package design is very bright as has a design of falling leaves on the top. Opening these, I couldn't discern any particular smell so I just hoped they wouldn't be horrible. Well, they weren't horrible, but they weren't great either. The chunks you see picture in the cookie on the package are cheesecake flavored chunks. The cookie itself had a slight sort of gingerbread-y flavor to it. I can't say I can recommend these but you could do a whole lot worse.

Count Chocula Cereal Bars

Speaking of doing a whole lot worse, I found these on a display at the grocery store lumped in with all the Halloween cereals (side note: review of the cereals coming soon) and though they looked interesting. The box has a very cartoonish  vibe to it, probably to appeal to kids or fans of the Count Chocula cereal. I had the cereal itself before I had this so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Well, everything I expected went right out the window when I bit into it. It's got a very processed and marshmallow heavy taste and has the consistency of cardboard. The chocolate looks and tastes incredibly fake and it's very heavy on the artificial sweetener. I tried to offer part of the bar to my 3-year old son and he promptly screamed and ran away. Even if kids are running from this, that should tell you something.

Hi-C Ecto Cooler

This was all the rage back in the summertime when the new Ghostbusters movie came out in July. People were looking high and low and grocery retailers big and small just so they could get a nostalgic taste of their childhood. I didn't find any in my area until mid-August, just before the movie left theaters. That didn't stop me though, I grabbed a bunch of the 10-box packs. It tastes just like I remember it, very citrusy with orange and tangerine. You better believe that when I found more of these at the store, I loaded up. There's no telling if this is back for good or if stores are just going through what stock they have left. One thing is for sure though, this is the perfect drink to have on a fall night when you're staying up late to watch a Pumpkinhead marathon.