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| Every year we bring our kids to a local nursery for their Halloween party. You buy a pumpkin from them, carve it on site with the materials they provide and enter it into the competition for prizes. Out kids love it. When you finish carving the helpers sweep in and take all the pumpkin guts off the table and replace fresh newspaper for the next kids.
The only cost is the pumpkins! I'm thinking I'll see about grabbing a few of these bags of "garbage" to compost. What other ideas for free pumpkin parts do you have? Note: We live in Minnesota, north-west suburbs of Minneapolis. The place is called Lawn King in Corcoran. Bring your kids if you're close. We'll be there Sunday.
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Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn King
Follow-Up Postings:
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| It's people like you who have ruined my favorite holiday---November First! How old are your kids? Unless they're under five, they shouldn't be at some organized event! They should be out stealing pumpkins off porches, and smashing them in the street. Preferably my street. Sheesh! Nobody raises vandals anymore. |
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| I can relate to what annpat says. Kids today are so sheltered, they never get to have fun. Karen |
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| It does seem to bring up a possible quandry..... when you scoop up all that fruit (or vegetable) where does that leave the seeds that you are giving a warm bath to. |
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| So, I got a quadruple-ply grocery bag full of pure pumpkin guts. I also got 2 large garbage bags of guts and newspaper including a whole pumpkin. Put the pure guts on the main pile with combo manure/leaves/grass. Put the paper and guts on the mostly leaf pile. I didn't bother to chop up the whole pumpkin, it's too hard, I'll let it rot a but then chop it. |
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- Posted by prairiemoon2 zone 6a/MA (My Page) on Tue, Nov 2, 10 at 10:35
| Thanks to you mctoon, I called my local nursery and asked if they would give me pumpkins for the compost pile. They said come and take all you want. I just left there with the back of my van full of pumpkins and they were trying to get me to take more. [g] I'm thinking of going back for a second trip. |
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- Posted by prairiemoon2 zone 6a/MA (My Page) on Tue, Nov 2, 10 at 10:36
| Oh, I was thinking, I'm probably just going to drop them to smash them and then add them in layers with chopped leaves to my big bin. I might also smash one and leave it where I want to grow one for next year. |
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- Posted by merrygardens z5 MI (My Page) on Wed, Nov 3, 10 at 16:25
| Pumpkins are food. You might consider eating them. |
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- Posted by eaglesgarden 6b - se PA (My Page) on Wed, Nov 3, 10 at 18:04
| I agree with merrygardens! Getting pumpkins for the compost is nice, but consider that you can open them up, cook the "meat" make soups, breads, cakes, cookies, pies, etc. The cooked meat is freezable, so if you have extra space in a freezer it is a great thing. Secondly, roasted pumpkin seeds are better than popcorn! The stringy stuff that holds the seeds in the center is only good for the compost pile. Please folks, before we think of filling the compost pile, we should think of filling out stomachs! Pumpkins are for MORE than just decoration! I might add that I went out to my pumpkin display for Halloween this evening and made some pumpkin soup with the pumpkin, a little milk, some chicken broth, a few spices and a little time. It is an autumnal tradition in my home (and I live in the heart of suburbia - it's not just a farm thing!) |
Here is a link that might be useful: Website that helps you learn how to cook pumpkins the old fashion way!!!
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| For years I tried cooking my Halloween pumpkin into some of my favorite pumpkin recipes only to find that the roasted pumpkin tasted bland. Not that wonderful super-squashy flavor that I grew up with. I tried roasting, steaming, and baking. I tried a variety of seasoning methods. It always ended up tasting bland. Then I came to find out that the pumpkins that give pies, breads, soups, and the like their great flavor are a different type of pumpkin than the ones sold at pumpkin yards for jack-o-lanterns. They are sold as sugar pumpkins. Sadly, Jack pumpkins, although large and beautifully formed have virtually no flavor. So I don't feel as bad about composting them. Don |
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- Posted by eaglesgarden 6b - se PA (My Page) on Thu, Nov 4, 10 at 9:14
| I buy both the small pie pumpkins and the larger jack-o-lantern pumpkins for display and eating. You are correct that the larger ones don't have the same pumpkin "punch" flavor as the smaller ones, since most of them are cultivated for SIZE not flavor, and are therefore much more watery. An easy way to get around that is to OVERCOOK the pumpkin. Once the pumpkin is roasted, baked, steamed, etc. Put the pumpkin into a crock pot (with the lid off, to allow evaporation) and make a more concentrated puree - if you keep going, eventually this will be the base for a pumpkin butter (but without the added ingredients). My only point in posting this, is that many of the pumpkins that are heading straight to the compost bin, could be used as food. I'm in favor of composting, but generally, composting is about turning something that is "worthless" into something valuable. Uncarved pumpkins are not truly worthless. They are quite valuable as a food source and we should be a little less casual about tossing them. Also, the seeds of the jack-o-lantern sized pumpkins are just as delicious as the smaller ones, and they generally give you a higher yield! So, if you just don't want the hassle of cooking up the entire pumpkin, at least harvest the seeds for a nice autumn treat! (Think about how much people pay for roasted sunflower seeds!) |
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| I don't like the taste of pumpkin but I did roast the seed from the one my girls carved. I really liked them but everybody else didn't. I do remember the days as a kid when we would roll peoples trees with toilet paper. We usually did it to friends but times are different now. Never threw eggs but I remember one night when someones mailbox was filled with a 5 gallon bucket of dog poo. It was a big mailbox and we had a big dog. jim_6b |
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- Posted by prairiemoon2 zone 6a/MA (My Page) on Fri, Nov 5, 10 at 16:25
| Oh, I did get some of the 'pie' pumpkins too and I do plan on making something with them. The seeds are great for roasting too and are very nutritious. |
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