Recent Posts

Follow Me

Exotic Flowers in Boston

Exotic Flowers Boston - Jon Bornstein Shares his top 7 Halloween Treats

Posted by Rick Canale on Fri, Oct 21, 2011

STEVE JOBS PUMPKIN resized 600

Halloween from Boston to Salem and Beyond by Jonathan Bornstein (one of Exotic Flowers in Boston's top clients).

It’s October, and if the sight since late August of shelves stuffed with blinking plastic skulls, fake cobwebs and creaking miniature coffins didn’t clue you in, then allow me to spoil it for ya – Halloween is here ! A fan favorite for those who love a good holiday, Hallow’s Eve is a delight for your sweet tooth as well as a paradise for your inner dress up doll.  It’s also vastly underrated for one other thing – community. 

 Halloween is perhaps the only time of year when my family gets to spend a few moments reconnecting with all of our neighbors in Newton. Busy lives lead us to run around with blinders on, and amazingly, it takes an event where everyone dresses up like fiends and fairies to create a scenario where, we can reconnect and exchange a pleasantry or two before extending some goodwill to tide us all over til next year.

 PETER FALK PUMPKIN resized 600

That’s not to say that our more colorful and somewhat less altruistic sides don’t get aired out as well. I’m not referring to that kid or two well past the accepted trick or treat age that shows up on your front doorstep around 9pm with no costume and a brown paper grocery bag to claim the last of your bulk bought candy. I’m actually conjuring up the cherished memory of my late father who loved to negotiate the terms this time of year for taking my sister and I out to trick or treat. The number of houses and streets we got to visit each year was directly tethered to the percentage of candy we had to surrender to Dad’s considerable sweet tooth. Fortunately for me and lil’ sis, he loved the stuff that we were just as happy to throw out, like Bit O’ Honeys, Mary Janes, and Good n Plenty’s.

 I now bemusedly put forth the same deal each year to my kids, and fortunately for them, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. My sweet tooth hangs out in a completely different area code than theirs. They love sugary pixie sticks, Nerds and “sucker style” ring pops. So what then, might you ask, are my top five trick or treats? Can’t narrow it down to five, but I can do seven -

 

1)   Milk Duds – love the gooey sticky taste of caramel that blends with the chocolate coating after just a couple of chews.

2)   Charleston Chew – seeing a pattern here? Sweet vanilla taffy blending with a chocolate coating – even better when put in the freezer first!

3)   Snow Caps – the rich, sweet flavor of dark chocolate mixed with the sugary crunch and texture of the tiny white pellet coating? Just the right amount of crunch, and sublimely delicious.

4)   Anything Reese’s – you put your chocolate in my peanut butter, indeed!

5)   Mike and Ike’s – love the chewy, fruity sweet nature of these guys, and that includes their lesser known cousins, “Hot Tamales”.

 

6)   Junior Mints – creamy, chewy mint covered in pure chocolate? Done and done. Extra credit for their Seinfeldian cred.

7)   Dots! – LOOOOOVE Dots. Sweet, chewy, and always a surprise which flavor comes out of the box. Especially when the yellow ones emerge, cause I don’t like ’em, and they are promptly returned to their cardboard home to await new ownership.

Honorable mention goes to Milky Ways and Three Musketeers, because the experience gets enhanced when they're placed in the freezer, and I love the word “nougat”.

So now that you know what I sneak out of my kids plastic pumpkins, tell me, what treats don’t make it back to your kitchen for sorting?

- Jon Bornstein

photo credits: Jon Bornstein

follow me: twitter.com/zucrow

CANDY CORN AND FLOWERS resized 600

Tags: Halloween Flowers, Frankenflora, Halloween 2011

Exotic Flowers Enters Teleflora Halloween Design Contest

Posted by Rick Canale on Fri, Oct 22, 2010

Frankenflora

 
The term "Halloween" originates from the Catholic Church.  It comes from "All Hollows Day" or "All Saints Day", which was an annual observance celebrated on November 1st in celebration of the saints.  In the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31st.  The day was called "Samhain", (the Celtic New Year,).

During Samhain, many believed that the division between the living world and the dead world became extremely thin during this time, allowing the dead to return to the world in search of their physical bodies, which allowed the dead to co-mingle with the living!!

 

The villagers feared demonic/spiritual possession and would dress up in all sorts of ghoulish costumes and parade thorugh town howling and reveling to help frighten away the spirits that were looking for bodies to possess.

 

The custom of trick-or-treating traces its origin to 9th century European custom of "souling".  On November 2nd, (All Souls Day), early Christians would walk from village to village begging for soul cakes, made out of square pieces of bread with currants.  The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors.

 

Halloween continues to be a popular holiday at Exotic Flowers in Roslindale and Quincy Market. We give out candy to trick or treaters. We encourage our floral associates and drivers to come to work in costume.

 

As a local florist in Boston, we are also asked to create some one of a kind Halloween floral arrangements for Halloween parties. The photo above is Frankenflora.

 

Frankenflora is a Frankenstein mask with candy eyeballs. His head is stuffed with newspaper and rests on a bed of spanish moss, surrounded by blood red roses and sits under a sphere of bittersweet. James story orchids spew from his lips and celosia oozes from his head.

 

For Halloween 2010, Exotic Flowers has entered Frankenflora into the Teleflora Halloween Design Contest. Please wish us luck.

 

 

Tags: Halloween Flowers, Frankenflora, Halloween 2010

Subscribe via E-mail

Contact Us for All Your Floral Needs