A Very Ruvi Halloween

Hey there Ruvi Nation! We Ruvians love getting our daily, whole fruits & veggies, it’s true. We’re also fanatics for health and nutrition. But, despite what you might think, this is not all we are. We splurge a bit here and there. Some of us are even big-time Halloween lovers!

Today, we’ll highlight some seriously cool families here at Ruvi that bring color to every Halloween. These people have a lot of fun in their communities and with their families.

Keep reading to learn about what we Ruvians do during the Halloween season! 

The Swingle Clan and Witch’s Brew

Jenny Swingle’s kids making their traditional “Witch’s Brew” 😉

Ever since Jenny (mom) was a little girl, her mom made what they call “Witch’s Brew”. The family would get together to make it every year for Halloween. What is “Witch’s Brew”? In simple terms, it’s homemade root beer, but what makes this tradition especially fun is the presentation!

The Swingle Clan puts all the ingredients in mason jars and labels  them “crushed eyeballs”, “frog slime”, “troll blood”, “crushed bones”, and more. This adds the right feel of ghastly scary, and fun to the mix!

Jenny has continued this tradition with her kids (the “Swingle Clan” as we like to call them) every year since she started her family.

If you’re wondering what Jenny’s famous Witch’s Brew Recipe is, we’ve got the deets below. Here’s how to make your very own “Witch’s Brew” at home. 

Recipe:

4 quarts cold water

2 cups granulated sugar (“crushed bones”)

3 tablespoons root beer extract (“troll blood”, “frog slime”, etc.)

2 pounds food-grade dry ice, broken into pieces (“dragon’s breath”)

Instructions:

Stir the water, sugar, and root beer extract together until the sugar is dissolved. Carefully add the dry ice (or “dragon’s breath), using insulated gloves or tongs, while  stirring  so that it doesn't stick to the bottom. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve and enjoy!

For a bit of Halloween fun (as the Swindle Clan does), put each quart of water needed for the recipe in a separate mason jar, and add a few drops of food coloring for a pop of color.  Then label each mason jar with masking tape and come up with your spookiest halloween ingredient name! For example, water dyed with red food coloring can be “Troll Blood”.  Do the same thing with the sugar and root beer extract.

 Jenny’s adorable daughter doing her most terrifying witch’s face while mixing up her Witch’s Brew of troll’s blood, smashed bones, and dragon’s breath!

Jason, Lindsay, and the “Budge Nation”

The Budge family enjoying some delicious soup from their traditional Halloween ‘soup cauldrons’. 

Jason Budge, Owner and CEO of Ruvi, is a nutrition fanatic and lover of all things health! He is truly an inspiration to everyone at Ruvi and is the reason that Ruvi is the clean, nutritionally-dense, no-nonsense product that it is today.

While you might expect that his whole family would be on a solid diet of kale, carrots, and pistachios, this is not the case! During the Halloween season, his kids still go out trick-or-treating, and they eat candy too! They also experience fun Halloween traditions together.

Before trick-or-treating, the Budge family sits down to a Lindsay-created Halloween feast, eating all sorts of wonderful fall morsels! Then they take the kids out and go trick-or-treating as a family. The family loves dressing up and getting creative!

But here’s the catch with all the candy they gather.

The morning after trick-or-treating, Lindsay and Jason offer their kids a little $$ incentive for their candy. They make it just large enough to be hard to turn down - usually somewhere around the range of $5.00 per pound of candy.

Though, Jason tells us, with inflation the way it's going their kids may be demanding more this year.

What is the response to this candy-for-money trade-in offer? Usually the Budge kids all take their parents up on the offer! Though a couple of times one or two of their children have chosen to keep the candy.

The Budge family rarely have people knock on their door for trick-or-treating, because they’re a bit secluded from the higher density, more candy-lucrative homes in the area. But, if any kids do knock on the door, the Budges shell out the good stuff...chocolate!  

Jason & Lindsay’s youngest son, Andrew, caught in the act of eating from the dinner serving spoon. We are told that his expression of “Uh-oh…” is a fairly common occurrence at the Budge residence. 😉