ACTUALITÉS

A SF Grocer Is Selling ‘Organic Fall Leaves’ for $15 a Bunch

It’s mid-October, which means it’s officially time to wrap ourselves in 17 miles of flannel scarves and fill our shopping carts with so much artificially pumpkin-flavored shit that even the Trader Joe’s cashiers don’t know what to say about it. It’s also leaf-peeping season, which are the four or five weeks a year when we all feel obligated to spend several hours in a car just so we can take four pictures of a maple tree and use the word “chlorophyll” in a conversation with a stranger.  In California, some of the best spots for fall colors are in the Eastern Sierra, in Inyo, Mono, and Plumas counties. Parts of Inyo National Forest have been reopened after fire-related closures earlier this year, and according to the California Fall Color website, the at-peak display in Bishop Creek Canyon has been “the best ever.” But for Northern Californians who don’t feel like making the drive or figuring out what exactly “near peak” means, you can get an eyeful of fall colors in the produce section of a San Francisco supermarket.  Two Bi-Rite locations in the city are selling brown-paper-wrapped bundles of fall leaves, and for $14.95, you can have around two handfuls’ worth of seasonally appropriate plant refuse. Spending $15 on what’s essentially compost material would seem ridiculous if there weren’t SO MANY THINGS that you could use those leaves for: You can throw them in the air and briefly experience what it’s like to be in a Hallmark movie. You can arrange them on the counter to give the kitchen a vibe that says either “quirky craft project” or “disused picnic shelter.” Or you can carefully press them in a scrapbook, so you’ll have a visual aid when your future children ask what ‘depression’ means.  According to McGinnis Ranch, the leaves…