Area pubs are providing tricks and treats this fall season with scarily refreshing pumpkin ales

Perhaps while eating all that pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving dinner with relatives that drive you to want to drink, you might have wished those slices of fall delights had the intoxicating qualities of your favorite libation. Well, friends, that time has come. Several places around town are tapping the wet dreams of both lovers of a finely crafted beer and pumpkin pie. That’s right, pumpkin beer is the divine rage this fall season.

Coffee lovers interested in extending their café expertise beyond the cup should try one of the new barista classes offered at Café Kubal Roasteria in Eastwood Plaza. The first introductory classes, a two-part session titled Espresso 101, began on Sept. 15 and classes are ongoing. Those interested can register at the café, schedule a class time, and the instructor will be available at that time. The $45 fee covers both 90-minute classes.

Saranac has once again come out victorious at a national competition, this time at the Great American Beer Festival, held Sept. 24-26 in Denver. This brings the Utica brewery’s awards in 2009 to 10. Saranac’s award-winning beers were the Irish Red and Black Forest.

This time of year, also known as soup season, it’s nice to devise different side dishes to go with the hearty pots of goodness simmering on your stovetop. The Fillo Factory has just the ticket for you, as long as you don’t go overboard with their tasty, but high-fat, treats. Three of these two-bite taste treats will set you back 190 calories. Or serve these finger foods as appetizers during holiday season.

National initiative encourages gardeners to donate their excess produce to their local food bank

As fall harvest season begins, many gardeners find themselves with bushels of tomatoes, baskets of cucumbers and armfuls of lettuce. So when your garden is overflowing with produce, how do you make the most of your harvest?

Try some tasty nostalgia with a pot pie

It’s the sound of local products being sampled, and grammatically it should be, “Green Hills Is Alive,” but you can still mark your calendars for Friday, Sept. 11, when the Nedrow grocery store Green Hills holds its Hometown Tasting Festival from 4 to 7 p.m. Last year’s inaugural event was such a hit, Green Hills decided to hold it again.

Fall brings with it apples, pumpkins and the grape harvest that produces tasty Finger Lakes wines. At the same time, the nearby wineries and wine trails hold special events to encourage visitors to the beautiful lakeside vineyards that dot the region just southwest of Syracuse. Here is a rundown of some wine-themed events:

Cooler days are fast approaching, when a pot of soup simmering on a Sunday afternoon warms both the home and the tummy. The historical problem with canned varieties has been an overabundance of sodium in the product; consider the standard tomato soup, which can contain 900 milligrams of sodium in one serving, almost one-half of a day’s recommended allowance.

Campbell’s Soup is trying to cut the sodium by reintroducing its classic tomato soup variety with 480 mg of sodium per serving. Adding sea salt to the recipe helped Campbell’s use 32 percent less sodium while retaining the flavor baby boomers know and love.

Just in time for kids looking for the next bite-size treat after a tough day at school, here come Mrs. Fields’ Cookie Dough Snacks. Each 10-ounce zippered bag holds niblets of cookie dough (made without eggs for health-conscious consumers spooked by salmonella threats) which are drizzled with chocolate. The zebra-esque snacks, which come in chocolate chip and brownie chocolate chip varieties, have just invaded grocery stores in the Northeast, including the frozen section at Wegmans or as a QVC item with a six-pack fetching $36.50.