Lifestyle

Thanksgiving is a few weeks away and planning ahead is always your best bet. By planning your menu early and shopping for your needed groceries when they are on sale will help keep your stress level and the expenses lower than if you didn’t take the time to plan. The USDA offers many helplines to get you through your holiday meals and I will list them in this column, but first let’s get busy by asking ourselves a few simple questions. First, how do you decide on the turkey? Well, that depends upon if you want to purchase a fresh or frozen bird and how big of a bird that you want. Either way, plan on purchasing a bird that isn’t bigger than what your refrigerator can hold. A fresh bird will need to be kept cold until you are ready to cook it and you should only purchase it about one to two days in advance. A frozen bird can be purchased at any time ahead of the holiday, but it needs to have enough time to thaw and the best method of doing this is in your refrigerator. If you don’t get it in the refrigerator in time, you can use the cold water thawing method. Either way, please avoid purchasing a prestuffed turkey.

Hold off before throwing that porch pumpkin into the trash along with Halloween candy wrappers. Those jack-o’-lanterns don’t have to end up in the local landfill. Consider composting pumpkins in the garden, donating them to community gardens, farms or even a zoo, or simply leaving them as a snack for backyard wildlife. Gardeners can add pumpkins to the compost pile after removing any remaining seeds and being sure to cut off decorative material such as glitter, paint, stickers and candle wax. Slice the pumpkin into smaller pieces, scatter and bury them into the pile. And don’t worry if the pumpkin has already started getting moldy — those microorganisms aid the composting process.

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Marie Green reads a book to her children, Jacob, 5, and Elsie, 18 months, Saturday in the Finney County Public Library’s Nature Explore Center. Reading was one of the activities at the facility available during its annual Halloween Festival with games and activities in the afternoon event, as well as treats being handed out. BRAD NADING/GARDEN CITY TELEGRAM

Did you know your choice in Halloween candy can affect the status of wildlife around the world? It may seem a little farfetched, but because that chocolate bar or piece of candy you eat almost certainly contains palm oil or one of its derivatives, if it is not sustainably sourced its production may be resulting in the loss of vast areas of animal habitat. Without knowing it, most of us probably eat or use palm oil every day.

This weekend, Lee Richardson Zoo will come alive with familyfriendly ‘spooktacular’ treat stops, singing witches, and more for the 27th annual Boo! at the Zoo today. The next day, on Sunday, we’ll be celebrating two conservation days – World Lemur Day and World Snow Leopard Day! The zoo is closed today until Boo! at the Zoo begins, with gates open for the event from 4 p.m.