How can I reuse or recycle … pumpkins?

Wed 31 Oct 2007

A bit of an obvious one considering the date.

So presumably people scooped out the seeds for eating/planting, and made soups or pies or other yummy things from the flesh before carving the skin into a lantern — but what can be done with the outer casing afterwards?

Obviously it’s a firm contender for the compost heap but I wondered if there was anything else it could be used for instead.

A container for growing plants in the greenhouse over winter that can then be planted out in the ground in the spring? Can it be dried into anything fun?

(Photo by cybersnot)

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Feed it to your chickens, nothing will be left but garden fertilizer.

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The pumpkins sold for cutting into lanterns often don’t make particularly good eating. If it hasn’t started to rot already, maybe you could dry it in a warm oven (after cooking something), and then use it as a plant container, but composting is probably the best option.

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Hi. If you have children, or perhaps are involved with a school or community group, you can save the seeds you’ve scooped out and plant them together as a learning exercise that’s great fun as kids love to see them grow. Also you could try using the seeds in a creative project like making a necklace or glueing them onto a box as decoration, etc. As for the skin of it I think compost is the best answer - or otherwise cut it into bits and see if wild birds will eat it, or pigs also like it if you know any!

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