While the holiday shopping season normally kicks off at Thanksgiving, local businesses inNorthfield are stocked with a variety of items for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

With Halloween one week away, Petricka's County Market and EconoFoods continue to do a brisk business in pumpkins, convenient to customers displayed outside the store, while fall plants such as mums are the hot items inside, available in the floral departments.

Pumpkin carving kits will soon be replaced by turkey carving apparatus, but in the meantime merchandise at stores reflect a bountiful fall harvest.

At Irwin's Flower Market, Becki Closson said that mums are definitely the most popular flowers sold this time of year. They can be purchased potted at most florists, or at Irwin's Flower Market they also put together an arrangement of flowers inside a real pumpkin, which is used as the vase.

Other items of interest at Irwin's include fall wreaths and fall silk arrangements. Indian corn can be purchased by the ear or as a hanging wall arrangement, and there are gourds of all shapes and sizes.

A new product by Simple Pleasures Candle Company is a fragrant addition to fall merchandise -- candles scented like candy corn, harvest pumpkin and Macintosh apple.

At D. Butterfield's on Division Street, owner Maureen Vosejpka has brought the essence of her country home, Thorn Crest Farm, to her shop on Division Street. There are a few pumpkins, dried flowers and wreaths along with a variety of novelty items such as ceramic gourds, candles, and linens and napkins with fall motifs.

Vosejpka balances her time between her Division Street business and the farm in Bridgewater Township. This year marks the 14th annual Fall Harvest and Craft Festival at Thorn Crest Farm, where customers can pick pumpkins from the field, shop at three craft sheds, wind their way through a grass maze, and go through the petting zoo.

Whether shopping at a local farm or browsing through a shop, it is evident fall has arrived, with plenty of merchandise for customers to choose from.

Registered members who identify themselves by name are authorized to automatically post comments to stories. Readers who wish to remain anonymous submit comments to a pending queue, where they will be reviewed for approval within 24 hours of their submission. To determine the author of a comment, click on the user name.
Those who identify themselves will be given broader boundaries to express their opinion. Only those anonymous comments that contribute to the conversation in a thoughtful, respectful, civil manner will be approved. The decision to approve or reject a comment is a subjective one and is ours alone. Authors of rejected comments will receive an email response.