As I walk around our neighborhood, I see all of these beautiful pumpkins on front porches. They look so cheery. The day after Halloween, however, many will end up in the garbage. I can't help but think these are food! I know I'm in the minority with this thought, but they can be cooked for people food, or cut up and fed to wildlife or pets. It just makes me sad to think this food won't be eaten.
To use as food
The flavor of carving pumpkins is not the same as pie pumpkins. Carving pumpkins tend to be bland. They also tend to be stringy. But I've found that running the cooked flesh through the food processor takes care of stringiness. As for flavor, I use the pureed pumpkin spiced in many applications, such as quick bread, cookies, smoothies, pie and cakes. Carving pumpkins tend to have less natural sugar than pie pumpkins, which actually makes the former more suitable for broths or neutral soup bases for vegetable soups, or for pasta sauce along with the addition of sage and Italian sausage, or in pumpkin curries.
Feeding wildlife
As for feeding carving pumpkins to wildlife, so long as it isn't contaminated with something like paint or candle wax, fresh pumpkin is safe for animals to eat. Birds and squirrels love the seeds. Squirrels will happily nibble on small chunks of raw pumpkin. Dispose of any remaining pumpkin pieces after a few days, as rotting or fermenting pumpkin could be harmful. The major issue with feeding wildlife pumpkin for a prolonged period is it could encourage the presence of undesirable rodents.
For your pets
Cut into small chunks and steamed until soft, some dogs enjoy cooked pumpkin, according to petmd. But consult with your veterinarian before messing with your pet's diet. Backyard chickens enjoy pecking at pieces of pumpkin, not as a substitute for their regular food, but as an addition.
A last thought
If you just can't bring yourself to eat a Jack o' lantern pumpkin and you don't want to feed it to critters, wild or domesticated, pumpkin can also be used to "feed" your compost pile. Depending on what else is in your pile, chunks of fresh pumpkin could speed up the decomposition with the addition of moisture and nitrogen in the fresh pumpkin.
Although I grow some pumpkins in my little patch, I also buy a couple of carving pumpkins each October. At 38 cents per pound, carving pumpkins are a super cheap vegetable. In fact, this year, I bought 2 pumpkins earlier this month, and then today I went back to WinCo and bought 1 more. I won't carve them. Instead, in the first week of November I'll begin cooking, pureeing, and freezing these pumpkins to use throughout the next year. I know, I'm in the minority here when it comes to buying Jack o' lanterns for people food.
Your are the epitome of "Waste not, want not". I have a plastic/foam Jack-o-Lantern I got years ago, that I set out for my carved pumpkin. It still looks good. As for the real pumpkins, I usually get a couple of pumpkins for decoration and try to keep them through Thanksgiving. After that, sometimes I process them for seeds and flesh and sometimes I leave them out for the animals. When we lived along the Gulf Coast, it was often too warm to have a pumpkin outside. Some years, they would practically melt on the steps.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI have a couple of the foam pumpkins, too. They've lasted several years, so far. One is peeling a little. I may touch up the paint on that one. I like these faux pumpkins, as I can put them out around the first of October and not worry the squirrels will get to them.
Growing up in So. Cal., we never put our Jack o' Lantern out before Halloween evening. It can be very warm in October there. For example, in one town near where I grew up, today's high temp is forecasted to be 96 F.
Me, again ^^ I keep forgetting to sign in.
DeleteAlso, where I live your aren't allowed to put food stuffs in your compost because it will attract rodents.
ReplyDeleteWow, places can be so different! In the county next to ours, you can be fined if you put compostable food stuffs into your garbage bin. That stuff is supposed to be composted, either at home or in the curbside compost pick-up bins. Do you live near large-scale grain farms or storage?
DeleteWe saw a couple of mice near our garden last year. This year, we saw a happy little garden snake near our garden (same area of garden) and no mice. At least this time, nature had a way of taking care of a problem for us.
No big grain farms around here. I think the rule is more for the urban ares, but applies to the whole county. I am not sure if they enforce it, though.
DeleteWell, that could make a lot more sense, then. Your urban areas may be more population dense than mine, too. No one wants rodents, that's for sure. And they'd be more problematic in dense areas, I would think.
DeleteMy sister in law wrks for a farmer's market and they give leftover pumpkins to their cows. It is kind of funny to watch them.
ReplyDeleteHi Amy,
DeleteOur big zoo nearby takes pumpkins from grocery stores and farmer's markets/stands for various animals. They're used as a part of animal enrichment and encouraging natural behavior.
I bet it's fun to watch the cows with the pumpkins.
I tried a carving pumpkin to eat one time and truly it was not a tasty treat at all. I no longer buy pumpkins to eat or for show. I'm not a lover of Halloween so pumpkins are not my thing. But I will take a big butternut squash anytime since they are so good!
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteThen you can have lots of butternut squashes to decorate your house for fall! I put both our home-grown pumpkins and winter squashes on display in the dining room this fall. They looked pretty and autumnal. We've eaten almost all of the squashes and most of the smaller pumpkins. If I get to the produce stand on Saturday, I'll pick up more winter squash. I love the look of the squashes as decorations leading up to Thanksgiving.
I generally pick up at least one, and up to 3, jack-o-lantern pumpkins. If we carve them, we roast the seeds. I don't really like pumpkin seeds very well. My husband roasts squash seeds and they seem to roast up to be more crisp. I try to leave the pumpkins out on my porch until Thanksgiving, if possible. I'm not a fan of Halloween decorations, but I do love autumnal decorating. Fall is my favorite!
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteI love decorating for fall. I start getting things out in September -- I just can't wait. I don't decorate for Halloween specifically. It's not my thing. But I do love having pumpkins and squashes as decor around the house for a couple of months.
Hmmm, I haven't compared roasting squash seeds vs pumpkin. I'll try a comparison and see how it works for me. Thanks for the comment about that.