I used to contemplated sending a box of crunchy leaves to a friend who’s always lived in Florida. She used to lament that the dry leaves around her didn’t crunch the way “autumn leaves” are supposed to (and it’s true. A lot of plants in Florida have waxy or fuzzy leaves, neither of which is as satisfying to stomp on as a crispy, dry, red maple leaf.)

The idea sounded better before I thought about how when you’re camping, it’s best to source firewood from the nearby area - bringing wood from far away could inadvertently spread diseases and pests into new locations. If that’s true of firewood from a few counties over, it’s probably true for leaves from northern states going to south Florida. Sigh.