Ah, Halloween: a holiday full of costumes, candy, and pumpkins. But now that it is November, those pumpkins will not last much longer. Everyone is starting to dispose of them, and stores are trying to get rid of their entire stock of pumpkins to make room for more things before their rots. Maybe you are in the same boat. What can you do with your pumpkins? Well, there’s lots you can do to dispose of your pumpkins in a non-wasteful way!
- Compost them
If you have a compost pile, pumpkins can be tossed right in! They can decompose and create soil along with everything else in the compost. After a while, you will have amazing dirt to use for planting. Whether you have a compost pile yourself or have a friend who has one, it is an easy place to dispose of a pumpkin.
- Give them to a farmer
If you have a local farm or a farmer friend, you can give your pumpkins to them to feed their livestock. Personally, I always go and grab free pumpkins from businesses or friends to give to my chickens. Its free food for them and an easy and guilt-free way of disposing of the pumpkins for you!
- Give them to a local zoo
Some zoos will take leftover pumpkins to feed to their animals! This provides enrichment for the animals, and free food for the zoos. You can find information on most zoo websites about this, and if not, you can always give them a call and see if they’ll take your pumpkins off of your hands!
- Eat them!
If the pumpkin is fresh or has not been cut open yet, you can make foods out of them! Some things you can make out of pumpkins include pumpkin pies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, and more! Just look up a recipe of what you are craving and tada! Another way to use up a pumpkin.
- Plant them!
If you kept the seeds and have the space, planting the seeds will be a fun way to ensure you have pumpkins for next year! Just save the seeds and plant them. Depending on where you are, you can plant them any time after the danger of frost overnight has passed. In general, you can plant them anytime in the summer. Fair warning, they get large quick! I had planted about ten last year, and they took over a quarter of the garden.