Halloween Experts

October is National Popcorn month! What better way to celebrate the harvest season with these tasty treats! Wrap your popcorn balls in cellophane or plastic wrap and secure with orange and black ribbons for a traditional Halloween treat!

POPCORN BALLS

Ingredients
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup margarine
2 teaspoons cold water
2 5/8 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup marshmallows
5 quarts plain popped popcorn
Directions
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the corn syrup, margarine, cold water,
confectioners’ sugar and marshmallows. Heat and stir until the mixture comes to a
boil. Carefully combine the hot mixture with the popcorn, coating each kernel.
Grease hands with vegetable shortening or butter and quickly shape the coated
popcorn into balls before it cools. Wrap with cellophane or plastic wrap and store at
room temperature.

ROCKY ROAD POPCORN BALLS

Ingredients
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1/4 cup butter
8 cups freshly popped popcorn
1/2 cup dry-roasted unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
Directions
1. Place the marshmallows and butter into a large pot over medium-low heat, and melt them together, stirring often. Cook until blended and smooth, about 5 minutes, and remove from heat.
2. Stir in the popcorn and peanuts, and stir gently to thoroughly coat them with the marshmallow mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. With greased hands, shape the mixture into 3 inch balls, and wrap each ball in plastic wrap.

CARAMEL POPCORN BALLS

Ingredients
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups unpopped popcorn
1/4 cup butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
1. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to a 4 quart saucepan, and heat over high heat. When oil is hot, add 1/2 cup of popping corn. Keep pan moving constantly. When corn stops popping, remove from heat. Place popped corn in oven to keep warm. Repeat until all corn has been popped. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan with a candy thermometer inserted, combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup. Stir well and bring to boiling over medium heat. Stir in condensed milk; simmer, stirring constantly, until thermometer reads 238 degrees F (114 degrees C). Stir in vanilla.
3. Pour caramel over popped corn and stir to coat. Butter hands lightly; shape popcorn into balls about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.

CANDY CORN POPCORN BALLS

Ingredients
8 cups popped light butter microwave popcorn (about 1 [3-ounce] bag)
1 cup candy corn
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (10-ounce) bag marshmallows
Cooking spray
Preparation
Combine popcorn and candy corn in a large bowl.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and (10-ounce) bag marshmallows. Reduce heat to low; cook for 7 minutes or until the marshmallows melt and the mixture is smooth, stirring frequently.
Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn mixture, stirring to coat well. Lightly coat hands with cooking spray; shape popcorn mixture into 20 (2-inch) balls

During the dark months of February though September, 1692, hysteria swept through New England, centered around the increasingly unbelievable accusations of witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Even Puritan ministers, Cotton Mather, whose writings on witchcraft had helped to fuel the flames, and his father, Increase Mather, became skeptical of the kinds of evidence the Salem court was using to convict accused witches. The testimony of afflicted young people, who claimed to have been visited by the spirits of the accused, and by the ghosts of their victims was referred to as “spectral evidence”. They questioned the credibility of the afflicted girls, the forced confessions of witches, and the court’s reliance on spectral evidence. When heads began to clear a little from the initial hysteria, some people began to question the veracity of the afflicted. The girls, then accused anyone who voiced doubt in their testimony. In all, about 200 people faced accusations of witchcraft. Nineteen men and women were hanged on Gallows Hill that summer. An 81 year old man was pressed to death for not entering a plea in his case. As many as 17 people died in prison, awaiting trial. The nightmare ended when powerful people, including the wife of the governor of Massachusetts, publicly denounced the proceedings, and were then accused of witchcraft themselves. Governor Phipps ordered the Salem court dissolved.

Salem was not through the dark times yet, however. Because the area was so consumed with the witch hunt, trials and executions, fields lay fallow. Very little harvest was reaped that year, leaving the town facing a long hard winter. Some relief came from the generosity of a wealthy villager who had fled Salem after being accused of witchcraft. Upon hearing of the town’s plight, he sent a shipload of corn to ease their suffering. The feud between the farming community and townspeople that contributed to the unrest had taken its toll, when people finally recognized that many of the accused were rivals or enemies of the powerful Putnam family, whose daughter, Ann, was the most dramatic of the afflicted. In 1697, it was Ann who became the only one of the afflicted girls to ever offer an apology or admit any culpability in the horror that gripped the area. She stood before her church while her apology was read, which stated: “ I desire to be humbled before God. It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time.” It is believed that Ann may have been as much a victim as those she accused, being manipulated by her parents and elders to achieve their own goals.

Salem, Massachusetts has had over 300 years to recover from the scars of these infamous injustices. How have they fared? Salem became one of the most significant seaports of early American history. It was given the very first to designation by Congress as a National Historic Site. Today, Salem is a thriving community of about 40,000 people, whose major industry is tourism. The city is a mixture of important historic sites, New Age and Wiccan boutiques, and Halloween and witch-themed attractions. In October, they host a month long Halloween festival. Touted as the “Ultimate Halloween Experience”, it will include, this year, a psychic fair, tours of haunted places in the city, featuring the “Witch House” and the House of Seven Gables, a Haunted Happenings Parade, a street fair, and the annual Halloween Ball. The popularity of the festival, and the history of the area, have inspired Salem to boast that they are the “Halloween Capital of the World”.

In Puritan households, women were totally subservient to men. It was believed that women were naturally and uncontrollably lustful, and more susceptible to temptation. It was, therefore, assumed that women were far more likely to enlist in the Devil’s service. The old adage that “children should be seen and not heard” described Puritan belief about child rearing. Girls were particularly oppressed, since toys and games were discouraged and girls were required to learn to spin, sew, cook and take care of a household. Boys, on the other hand, had the options to hunt, fish and explore the forest in their free time.

In this small community, rumors, gossip and opinion about neighbors were accepted as fact. Betty Parris, Abigail Williams and their strange behavior enflamed the village. Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard soon began to exhibit similar symptoms, wailing, throwing things about, contorting themselves in apparent fits. They complained of being pinched and pricked by pins by unseen hands. These children became known as the “afflicted girls”, and the elders determined to find out just who was afflicting them. The witch hunt had begun. Upon examination, the girls accused three women of causing their torment. The first three accused witches were Sarah Good, a homeless beggar woman, Sarah Osborne, who rarely attended church services, and Tituba, the slave who had been part of their circle, and who had told them stories of demonic possession and witchcraft.

If you were accused of witchcraft, there were four options open to you:

1. You could declare your innocence. This plea was met with shrieks and convulsions of the afflicted girls, who were ensconced in the front row of the court, further incriminating you. Evidence would be brought forward by your neighbors and former friends attesting that crops failed or livestock sickened and died at your whim. The hysteria raged through the village, and new “afflicted ones” fell into fits and accused you of causing it. There was no hope. You would stand trial as a witch. The accused who were found innocent by the jury were greeted with the howls and shrieks of the afflicted, who claimed that you were torturing them right there in the courtroom. This would cause the magistrates to instruct the jury to reconsider, and the next verdict was always “Guilty”.

2. You could confess. Tituba and Sarah Osborne took this route. They admitted to consorting with the devil and named others who they claimed were part of their coven, and hinted that there were even more, yet unnamed. Pleading guilty and giving evidence against your neighbors would save your life, but, according to Puritan belief, damn your soul.

3. You could become one of the “afflicted”. If you were dramatic enough and named enough names, your own accusation would lose importance as pity for you grew and the evidence you gave increased the prison population. Anne Putnam and her sometimes afflicted mother were so dramatic in their behavior in court, that people came from surrounding towns to witness it.

4. You could, as 80 year old Giles Corey, simply refuse to stand trial. According to the law, a person who refused to plead could not be tried. He refused to plead either innocent or guilty, and the magistrates, in frustration, ordered him tortured with “pressing”. They piled heavy stones on his body hoping to evoke a plea. After two days of increasing weight being applied, Corey died rather than comply with the court’s wishes.

In the months between February and September of 1692, about 200 people were involved in the trials, either afflicted, accused, or giving evidence. Many of the accused were jailed, and even if found innocent, could not gain their freedom unless they paid for their room and board. As many as 17 people, including an infant, are thought to have died in prison during the trials.

There were many factors which caused the hysteria and horror of the Salem Witch Trials. Politics, religion, family feuds, fear and superstition all contributed to the atmosphere that spawned the one of the darkest moments in American history. In a few short months, as many as 200 people would be jailed, 19 hanged, and 1 tortured to death in this small New England town.

Salem Village, Massachusetts, in 1692, was a thriving community of 600 God-fearing citizens of the Puritan faith. They were a stern and somber lot, adhering very strictly to the letter of God’s law. Pious though they were, the population was split between those town dwellers who believed that the city of Salem Town should rival Boston as a center of commerce, and the village should be part of that, and those who believed that such a course of action was too individualistic and in opposition to the communal tenets of the Puritan faith. These separatists wished for it to remain a simple farming community, and wanted to form a separate community to make it so. Tensions between the two factions had been intense in the years preceding that dreadful summer.

A village meetinghouse was built, and hired for its minister was one Samuel Parris, who was, by all accounts, a greedy and grasping man who used the word of God to justify his less-than-scrupulous behavior. His loyalties lay with the wealthy farmers, led by the Putnam family, who had been instrumental in hiring him and setting his controversial contract. The usual agreements of the day would provide a minister with a modest salary, use of a house, and firewood. Parris’s contract included these things, but at his insistence, also included the deed to the parsonage and the land surrounding it. Those citizens who wished to remain part of Salem Town, objected strongly to this, refused to attend the village meetinghouse, and withheld their local taxes, which were used in part to pay the minister’s salary and provide his firewood. In October, 1691, a new Village Committee was elected, mostly comprised of Parris’s opponents, and they voted to withhold his salary. Parris was forced to rely on private contributions to provide for his family, and the Putnam family was worried about losing their pet minister, and the support from his congregation for separating from Salem Town.

Young Puritan girls, aside from household chores, had little to do during the winter months. Play was discouraged, because it was a form of idleness, and especially in the Reverend Parris’s view, the idle mind was the devil’s playground. The girls, instead, formed reading circles, and would gather to read and discuss books of interest. During those winter months of 1691-1692, the popular topic of discussion was fortune telling and prophecy. In the Parris household, his nine year old daughter, Betty and her twelve year old cousin, Abigail Williams formed such a circle with their friend Ann Putnam, age twelve, and Ann’s friends Mercy Lewis, seventeen, and Mary Walcott, seventeen. The Parris family slave, Tituba, an Indian woman who had been purchased in Barbados, joined in the discussion group, and told the girls the stories of magic and witchcraft, spirit animals and demons, that were told by her people in South America. The circle of girls practiced fortune telling, to determine things like the trade of their future sweethearts. At one such gathering, Ann claimed to have seen an apparition of a specter in a coffin. It was after this incident that Betty, Abigail and Ann began to exhibit strange behavior, contorting and writhing, presumably in pain, speaking in gibberish and crawling under furniture. A doctor was called in, but could find no explanation for the girls’ symptoms, and no explanation, to a Puritan family in 1692, could only mean one thing…WITCHCRAFT!