What to do with your pumpkin after Halloween

Carving pumpkins is a fun, hands-on Halloween tradition that anyone can enjoy. Whether you make the trek to a pumpkin patch or simply pick up one from your local grocery store, nothing quite beats cutting open a pumpkin, scooping out its gooey innards, and creating a squash masterpiece that’s all your own.

But what do you do after Halloween, once the fake cobwebs have been cleared away and your children have started to come out of their candy-induced diabetic comas? Here are some ideas of what to do with your old pumpkin after the Halloween honeymoon…..

Compost your old pumpkin

Not only is it environmentally friendly, but who doesn’t enjoy smashing a pumpkin to bits? If you aren’t sure where to start, there are plenty of resources online to help you do the green thing and compost your pumpkin.

Feed your old pumpkin to your pet

When cooked and mashed, pumpkin can be a fantastic natural digestive remedy for dogs and cats alike. A little mashed pumpkin can go a long way to treat diarrhea, weight gain, or infections in your pet, and they’ll probably appreciate the taste as well.

Bury your old pumpkin

Burying your pumpkin in the backyard will allow it to decompose underground and feed your soil lots of nummy nutrients. Although it does mean you’ll have to break out the shovel, just think of it as composting – but without the smell!

Cook your old pumpkin

If your pumpkin has been carved relatively recently and hasn’t started to mold or rot, consider making a delicious treat out of your pumpkin. Whether it’s pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, or pumpkin soup, your culinary masterpiece will taste that much better because you made it from scratch.

This entry was written by Alicia, posted on October 29, 2009 at 11:37 am, filed under Holidays. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

One Comment

  1. Deborah Lee Liberatore
    Posted October 29, 2009 at 5:15 pm | Permalink

    Toasted Pumpkin Seeds: 1 cup pumpkin seeds
    1 tablespoon OLD BAY, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Place pumpkin seeds in a pan and cover them with the olive oil and seasonings. Toss them in the pan over high heat until they a…re toasted and covered with spices. If you would like to add more spice, add 1/2 tablespoon of crushed red pepper to the mixture.