Quick Answer: 10 East Coast Fall Food Festivals in 2026

The Mushroom Festival (Kennett Square, PA): Sept 12–13, the 41st year in the Mushroom Capital of the World
Cape Cod Scallop Festival (East Falmouth, MA): Sept 22–24, New England’s largest scallop festival
Beaufort Shrimp Festival (Beaufort, SC): Oct 2–3, the 32nd annual Lowcountry shrimp showdown
Beach Haven Chowder Cook-Off (Long Beach Island, NJ): Oct 3–4, formerly Chowderfest
Chincoteague Island Oyster Festival (Chincoteague, VA): Oct 10, the 53rd annual, marking the start of oyster season
Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Festival (Ocracoke Island, NC): Oct 10, a working fishing island’s own celebration
Connecticut Garlic & Harvest Festival (Bethlehem, CT): Oct 10–11, the 21st annual, timed to garlic planting season
Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta (Damariscotta, ME): Oct 9–12, giant pumpkins turned into actual racing boats
Capital Apple & Wine Festival (Chatham, NY): mid-to-late September, New York’s Hudson Valley apple and wine tasting weekend
Urbanna Oyster Festival (Urbanna, VA): Nov 6–7, Virginia’s official state oyster festival since 1957

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The list runs roughly north to south, so it doubles as a route if you’re chasing more than one this fall.

The Mushroom Festival
Kennett Square, PA · mushroomfestival.org · Sept 12–13, 2026
Kennett Square grows more mushrooms than anywhere else in the country, and this is its biggest weekend of the year.
Now in its 41st year, this two-day street festival takes over downtown Kennett Square, the self-declared Mushroom Capital of the World, with a full culinary stage, a mushroom growers’ exhibit walking visitors through the actual cultivation process, and a “Chopped”-style cooking competition built entirely around the fungus. Expect fried mushrooms, mushroom soup, and gourmet dishes from local chefs, alongside craft vendors, a car show, and a kids’ zone.
41st Annual$5 admissionSignature bite: fried mushrooms
Plan your visit 

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Don’t Hide a Key Here
Do This Instead

Under the doormat
Keypad lockbox mounted away from the door

Flowerpot or garden statue
Magnetic key holder on a hidden metal surface

Fake rock
Fake electrical outlet with a hidden compartment

Mailbox
Empty utility or junction box

Top of the doorframe
Under heavy, movable outdoor furniture

Taped under a windowsill
In or under a doghouse

In your wallet
With a trusted neighbor

Why the “Classic” Hiding Spots Don’t Work Anymore
Every one of these spots shows up in local police department safety guides, over and over. That’s the problem: burglars have read the same advice you have, just from the other side of it.

1
Under the doormat. The Albuquerque Police Department’s home burglary guide lists this as the very first place a burglar checks, before anything else on the property.

2
Inside a flowerpot or under a garden statue. Close to the door, easy to lift, and exactly where anyone casing a house expects to look first.

3
In a fake rock. These are sold at every hardware store, so the shape, weight, and texture are familiar to anyone looking. A rock that doesn’t quite match the ones around it gives itself away.

4
In the mailbox. Not private, not weatherproof, and reachable by anyone who walks up your driveway.

5
On top of the doorframe. Takes no real effort to check, especially on a single-story entry.

6
Taped under a windowsill or patio furniture. Tape fails in heat and rain, and the spot itself is too predictable to rely on.

7
In your wallet. If your wallet is ever lost or stolen, whoever finds it now has your key and your address in the same place.

The common thread is proximity to the door and predictability. King County’s Sheriff’s Office advises against hiding keys anywhere outside the home at all, since the handful of spots homeowners tend to choose are already well known.
Does a Hidden Key Affect Your Homeowners Insurance?
This is a detail most spare-key articles leave out entirely. If someone enters your home using a hidden key instead of forcing a door or window, it’s still legally a burglary, but the lack of visible forced entry can draw more scrutiny during a claims investigation. Most homeowners policies require 

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This guide covers 11 real haunted restaurants and bars you can eat and drink at across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Every one is a working restaurant or bar today, not a museum, and every ghost story here is tied to documented history: a real death, a real historical event, or decades of consistent staff and guest reports. You’ll find the address, what to order, and what’s confirmed fact versus tavern legend at each one.
We checked booking status, hours, and the historical record for every spot below directly against the businesses themselves, local historical societies, and newspaper archives, rather than recycling it from other lists.
This corner of the country earns its haunted reputation honestly. Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware were settled in the 1600s and 1700s, so a lot of their taverns are old enough to have survived the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and, in Gettysburg’s case, an actual battle fought through their dining rooms. Add Prohibition-era violence and organized crime in cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, and you get a region with an unusually high concentration of buildings that have witnessed a documented death on-site, which is exactly the kind of history that produces a ghost story with a real paper trail behind it, rather than a made-up one.

Quick Answer: 11 Haunted Restaurants and Bars in the Mid-Atlantic

Dobbin House Tavern (Gettysburg, PA): a real Underground Railroad stop with hiding places you can still see
McGillin’s Olde Ale House (Philadelphia, PA): Philly’s oldest continuously operating tavern, open since 1860
Dante & Luigi’s (Philadelphia, PA): the South Philly restaurant where a masked man shot the son of a mob boss on Halloween night
Standard Tap (Philadelphia, PA): a Northern Liberties gastropub with a ghost named Mr. Smeigelski
Jean Bonnet Tavern (Bedford, PA): a stone tavern with a documented 1700s hanging, and you can book the room
General Warren Inne (Malvern, PA): a Revolutionary War-era tavern with a Tory-spy interrogation history
Deer Park Tavern (Newark, DE): where Edgar Allan Poe allegedly cursed the building after falling in the mud
Jessop’s Tavern (New Castle, DE): a 1674 building where staff say the ghost has a taste for Prosecco
Middleton Tavern (Annapolis, MD): a 1740s harborside tavern once frequented by the Continental Congress
Reynolds Tavern (Annapolis, MD): a 1747 hat shop turned tavern, haunted by its own former proprietress
The Horse You Came In On Saloon (Baltimore, MD): the bar tied to Edgar Allan Poe’s final, mysterious hours

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The list moves roughly north to south through Pennsylvania, then into Delaware and Maryland, so you can string a few together into one trip if you’re up for a haunted pub crawl across three states.

Dobbin House Tavern
89 Steinwehr Ave, Gettysburg, PA · dobbinhouse.com

Gettysburg’s oldest building was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and the hiding plac 

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The Short Answer: Transmission fluid is petroleum oil with a red or amber dye added, so it behaves like a grease stain and a dye stain at the same time. Treat the oil first with dish soap and an enzyme-based remover, then check for any leftover color and treat that separately with oxygen bleach on white or colorfast fabric. Skipping the second step is why the stain looks gone right after washing and then reappears once the fabric dries.

Why Transmission Fluid Stains Are Different
Most guides treat transmission fluid like any other automotive grease stain: oily, petroleum-based, needs dish soap. That’s true as far as it goes, but it skips the part that actually causes most of the frustration. Automatic transmission fluid is almost always dyed, usually red or amber, so manufacturers and mechanics can tell it apart from motor oil, coolant, and brake fluid at a glance. That dye doesn’t wash out the same way the oil does. You can fully break down and rinse out the petroleum base and still be left with a faint colored shadow, because you’ve solved the oil problem without ever addressing the dye problem sitting underneath it.
The Golden Rule
Treat this as two stains, not one. The oil comes out with dish soap and an enzyme-based treatment, the same approach that works on any fat or grease stain. The dye is a separate job that needs an oxidizing treatment like oxygen bleach. Wash the garment once, thinking dish soap solved everything, and you’ll usually find out a day later that it didn’t.
Fresh vs. Dried Stains
A fresh spill is much easier to fully clear than one that’s had time to sit. Transmission fluid is thin and spreads readily into fabric, so the sooner you blot it, the less it works into the weave. Once it’s dried, both the oil and the dye have had time to bond more firmly to the fibers, and you should expect to repeat both treatment steps at least once.
How to Get Transmission Fluid Out of Clothes: 4 Methods

1

Blot and Absorb First
Blot, don’t rub, any excess fluid with a clean cloth or paper towel, then sprinkle baking soda or cornstarch over the area and let it sit for fifteen to twenty minutes to pull out more of the oil before  

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This guide covers 14 real haunted hotels you can book in the U.S. right now, from the Stanley Hotel that inspired The Shining to the actual Lizzie Borden crime scene, now a bed and breakfast. Every hotel here is tied to a documented death, a public paper trail, or decades of consistent guest reports, and each entry includes current pricing, the exact room number to request, and what’s verified fact versus hotel legend.
We checked booking status, pricing, and the historical record for every hotel below directly against hotel sites, newspaper archives, and paranormal research accounts, rather than recycling it from other lists. If you like your hotel history with a side of eerie, our tour of Dracula’s Castle is worth a look too.

Quick Answer: 14 Haunted Hotels You Can Book Tonight

The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, CO): the real hotel that inspired The Shining
Hotel del Coronado (San Diego, CA): Kate Morgan’s Room 3327, unsolved since 1892
The Queen Mary (Long Beach, CA): a retired ocean liner with nearly 50 recorded deaths aboard
Hotel Jerome (Aspen, CO): the wet, vanishing boy of Room 310
Jerome Grand Hotel (Jerome, AZ): a 1927 hospital turned hotel in Arizona’s actual ghost town
Myrtles Plantation (St. Francisville, LA): often called America’s most documented haunted home
Hotel Monteleone (New Orleans, LA): a family owned French Quarter landmark where a toddler ghost still visits
Menger Hotel (San Antonio, TX): built next to the Alamo, with reported soldier ghosts to match
1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa (Eureka Springs, AR): a fraudulent 1930s cancer hospital hiding under a luxury resort
The Read House (Chattanooga, TN): Room 311 and its long-running Annalisa Netherly legend
The Pfister Hotel (Milwaukee, WI): the hotel visiting MLB players keep saying is haunted
Omni Mount Washington Resort (Bretton Woods, NH): the founder’s widow, Room 314
Hay-Adams Hotel (Washington, DC): a Gilded Age death, two blocks from the White House
Lizzie Borden House (Fall River, MA): sleep in the real 1892 crime scene

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The list runs West to East, grouped loosely by region, so it doubles as a road trip guide if you want to chase a few of these in one trip.

The Stanley Hotel
333 East Wonderview Ave, Estes Park, CO · stanleyhotel.com
Stephen King checked in for one quiet night in 1974 and left with the idea for The Shining.
F.O. Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer car, opened this Colonial Revival hotel in 1909 as a mountain retreat for wealthy East Coast travelers. It sat on the National Register of Historic Places by 1977, and its more famous chapter began decades later, when Stephen King and his wife stayed there as nearly the only guests in the off season. That eerie emptiness became the seed for The Shining, and Room 217, King’s actual room, is now the most requested in the hotel. Staff and guests continue to report a piano playing on its own in the Music Room and childr 

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Updated August 6, 2026: We originally tested the Ninja Foodi Grill AG301 in 2019, and the review and recipe below reflect that hands-on test. Ninja’s indoor grill lineup has grown a lot since then, so if the AG301 is hard to find near you, it’s worth comparing current models before you buy.
Do you love to grill, but don’t do it as often as you like? Maybe you don’t like the hassle or your outdoor living space won’t accommodate a BBQ? Or maybe you don’t have an outdoor living space?
A new kitchen appliance by Ninja called the Ninja® Foodi Grill is about to change all that and make grilling easy year-round, even if you have limited space to work with. We got a chance to give it a test drive before its official release and after using it for a few weeks we’re officially hooked!
Not only does the Ninja Foodi Grill grill foods amazingly (see below), but it also performs a variety of other functions to make it worthy of adding to your collection of kitchen appliances.
If you’re currently thinking, “Do I really need another kitchen gadget?” – let me be the first to tell you, yes.
Keep reading to see what our first impressions are and scroll down for the first yummy recipe we created using the Ninja Foodi Grill.
The Ninja Foodi Grill AG301, ready to go with a full Vietnamese mixed grill platter alongside it.
First Impressions And Grilling Experience with Ninja Foodi Grill
When I first learned about the Ninja Foodi Grill, I have to admit I was skeptical about how it would perform. I wondered if it actually gives food those amazing grill marks. Would the flavor be there? Would the food be juicy? Would we get that beautiful caramelization if the meat was glazed with a BBQ sauce or marinade?
I can now confidently say the answer is yes, yes, and yes. Not only is it an amazing indoor grill, but it exceeded my expectations in every way.
My first test cooking with the grill was with some zucchini and squash simply seasoned with salt and pepper along with some jumbo shrimp I had marinating.
Zucchini, squash, and shrimp on the grill grate during our first test run.
The grill can take up to 8 minutes to pre-heat so this is a good time to do any prepping or other tasks you might need to do. I made sure the grill grate was inserted and selected the max heating setting for 510 degrees, which is suggested for grilling the shrimp and veg.
The display on the unit will show the pre-heating progress and alert you with an ‘ADD FOOD’ message. This is your cue to open the hood and get that food on the grill.
I tossed my veggies in a bowl with some grapeseed oil and got them on the grill first. It’s recommended to flip halfway between cooking so you get those gorgeous grill marks on both sides. I forgot to do that, but the amazing result is pictured just below.
Ninja Foodi Tip: It’s recommended you use oils with a high smoke point like canola, grapeseed, or avocado to prevent smoking while grilling.
Now check out these amazing grilled shrimp ma 

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Does Nutritional Yeast Go Bad: At a Glance

Unopened, pantry
Up to 2 years in a cool, dark place

Opened, pantry, airtight
Best quality for 1 to 2 years

Opened, refrigerated or frozen
Optional; helps preserve flavor and B vitamins

Refrigeration required for safety?
No

Biggest real risk
Moisture getting into the container, leading to clumping or mold

Common myth
It does not cause or worsen yeast infections; it’s inactive

Fresh appearance
Bright yellow, loose, flaky, savory smell

Key Takeaways

Nutritional yeast is deactivated during production, unlike active dry yeast used for baking, so it can’t grow or ferment the way live yeast does.
Per Bragg’s own storage guidance, it lasts up to 2 years stored in a cool, dark place, and the fridge is optional rather than required.
Flavor and B-vitamin potency fade gradually with heat, light, and time. That’s a quality issue, not a safety one.
Moisture is the real enemy. A damp container can cause clumping and, in rare cases, mold.
Fresh nutritional yeast is bright yellow and flaky. Dull color, a musty smell, or visible mold are the actual signs to watch for.
It does not cause or worsen yeast infections. Nutritional yeast is inactive and cannot colonize the body the way live Candida does.

Why Nutritional Yeast Is So Shelf-Stable

The science: deactivated and dried, not alive
According to Bragg, nutritional yeast (often nicknamed NOOCH) is made by fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast in a nutrient base, then drying it out and breaking it into flakes for harvesting. That drying step is what makes it fundamentally different from the active dry yeast used in bread baking. Active yeast is alive and needs to stay viable to leaven dough. Nutritional yeast is deliberately deactivated and dried during processing, so there’s no living organism left to keep dormant or to accidentally reactivate. Its low moisture content also means there’s very l 

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Do Sardines Go Bad: At a Glance

Canned, unopened
2 to 5 years in the pantry

Canned, opened, in brine or oil
Best eaten within 1 day, refrigerated

Canned, opened, in tomato sauce
Best within about 3 days, refrigerated

Fresh sardines, never canned
1 to 2 days refrigerated

Biggest safety flag
Bulging, leaking, or badly dented cans

Unique risk for this fish
Histamine (scombrotoxin) buildup, undetectable by smell

Normal, not spoiled
A little surface rust you can rub off the can

Key Takeaways

Unopened canned sardines are shelf-stable for 2 to 5 years per USDA guidance for low-acid canned goods, and often safe well beyond that if the can is intact.
Once opened, the packing sauce matters more than most advice suggests. A 2022 peer-reviewed study found sardines in brine or oil hold peak quality for about 1 day refrigerated, while tomato-sauced sardines hold up for about 3 days.
Sardines are on the FDA’s list of fish prone to histamine (scombrotoxin) formation, a toxin that forms from delayed chilling after catch and cannot be removed by cooking, freezing, or washing.
Never buy or use bulging, leaking, or badly dented cans. These are classic botulism warning signs per USDA.
Light surface rust that rubs off with a finger is cosmetic. Rust inside the can, or a can that hisses forcefully or spurts liquid when opened, is not.
Fresh, never-canned sardines are highly perishable and should be treated like any other fresh oily fish: used within 1 to 2 days refrigerated.

Why Sardines Need a Little Extra Caution

The science: histamine, not just bacteria, is the real concern
Most fish spoilage comes down to ordinary bacterial growth, the kind that produces an obvious off smell. Sardines carry an additional, less intuitive risk. According to the FDA, sardines are among the fish species prone to scombrotoxin poisoning, more commonly called his 

The post Do Sardines Go Bad? Everything You Should Know first appeared on STL Homelife.

The Short Answer: Let the wax harden completely before touching it, scrape off the excess, then use a warm iron over paper towels to draw out what’s left. Treat any leftover dye color with an oxygen bleach soak. If the candle was scented, especially a paraffin candle, check for a separate greasy residue from the fragrance oil and treat that like a grease stain with dish soap or enzyme remover, since heat alone won’t touch it.

Why Candle Wax Stains Are Different
Most guides treat candle wax as a single stain: scrape it, iron it, done. That misses that a candle wax spill can actually be up to three separate problems layered on top of each other. There’s the wax itself, a solid film that needs cold to harden and heat to lift. There’s the dye, since colored candles carry pigment that can leave a shadow behind even after the wax is gone. And there’s the fragrance oil, which many scented candles carry in real quantity, paraffin candles especially can hold up to 10 to 12 percent fragrance oil by weight, and that oil behaves nothing like the wax around it. It sits in the fabric like any other grease stain and needs its own treatment, not heat, or it’ll still be there after you’ve successfully removed every trace of the wax.
The Golden Rule
Treat this as three problems in the right order, not one. Cold first, to harden and scrape off what you can. Heat second, to draw the remaining wax out with an iron. Then, only if the stain looks the least bit greasy or the candle was heavily scented, an oil-stain treatment last. Skipping straight to the iron, like I did, or stopping after the iron step because the wax looks gone, are the two most common ways this goes wrong.
Wax Type Variants
Not all candle wax behaves the same way once it’s on fabric:

Paraffin wax is a petroleum-derived wax and the most common type in mass-market candles. It carries the most fragrance oil of any common wax type, so a paraffin spill is the most likely to leave that separate greasy residue behind.
Soy wax has a lower melting point than paraf 

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