If the world ends in autumn, New England is a beautiful place to watch it go. It is also a region where fall is not a vacation season but a deadline. Everything you do between September and November decides how you get through a winter that can bring weeks below freezing. Here is how to survive, and even enjoy, an apocalyptic fall in New England.
What you can forage
- Apples. Abandoned orchards and wild apple trees are everywhere, along old stone walls and field edges. Wild apples are often small and sour but cook down well, and apples store for months somewhere cold and dark.
- Cranberries. Massachusetts is one of the biggest cranberry producers in the country, and wild cranberries grow in bogs across the region. They ripen in fall and keep well.
- Nuts. Black walnuts, hickory nuts and beechnuts are calorie-dense and drop in early fall. Acorns are edible too, but they are full of bitter tannins that have to be leached out by soaking in several changes of water first.
- Pumpkins and squash. Winter squash stores for months at cool room temperature if the skin is unbroken, and the seeds roast into a good snack.
The mushroom rule
Fall is peak mushroom season, and New England woods are full of edible species. They are also full of deadly ones, including destroying angels, which are among the most poisonous mushrooms in the world and look pale and innocent. The rule is simple: never eat a wild mushroom unless someone with real expertise has identified it in person. There is no shortcut, no smell test and no reliable rule of thumb.
Firewood: you’re already late
Freshly cut wood is full of water and burns smoky, cool and badly. Firewood needs roughly six months to a year of drying to season properly, so wood you cut in October is for next winter. If you’re scavenging, look for wood that’s already dry: fallen branches off the ground, old lumber, and stacked wood people left behind. Split it, stack it off the ground, and cover the top.
Leaves are insulation
Dry fallen leaves trap air, which makes them a surprisingly good insulator. Stuffed into the walls of a shelter or into a sack as a mattress, they keep cold ground from stealing your body heat. A debris hut, a small frame of branches piled thickly with leaves, is a classic emergency shelter for exactly this reason.
Dress for the swing
Fall days in New England can run from frost at dawn to warm afternoons. Layers beat one heavy coat: wool or synthetic next to the skin, an insulating layer, and a wind- and rain-proof shell. Avoid cotton when it’s cold and wet, because damp cotton pulls heat from your body. Waterproof boots matter, since fall means mud.
Respect hunting season
Fall is also deer season. Even at the end of the world, other people will be in the woods with rifles. Wear blaze orange when you walk through the woods in fall, and put some on the dog too.
Then, enjoy it
The foliage will still be spectacular, cider will still be easy to make with a press or a clean cloth, and a harvest dinner with whoever you’ve gathered will still feel like a celebration. Fall is hard work in New England, but it is also the best season there is to be alive in it.
New Englanders, what’s your fall survival tip? Tell us in the comments.