© Janet Davis

All those pumpkins, all that waste. Here are a few good tips on reusing or recycling your jack-o-lantern after the big night is over.

Puree it. A pumpkin is just a large winter squash and can be cooked the same way as acorn or butternut squash. Wash it carefully inside and out and remove the seeds if you haven’t already done so. Chop it in sections, then microwave it or oven-roast it until tender. Scrape the cooked pumpkin from the shell, then mash it or puree it in a food processor. You can freeze the puree to use later in baking, or you can add butter and seasonings while it’s still warm. For a savory side dish, I love it mixed with sautéed onion and curry powder or cumin seed.

Turn it into Muffins. From Ontario cranberry maven June Johnston’s The Cranberry Cookbook comes this recipe for pumpkin cranberry muffins:

2-1/4 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking soda

1 tbsp Pumpkin pie spice

½ tsp Salt

2 Slightly beaten eggs

2 cups Sugar

½ cup Vegetable oil

1 cup Pumpkin puree

1 cup Cranberries

· Combine flour, baking soda, spice and salt in large bowl. Mix eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin in another bowl.

· Coarsely chop cranberries in food processor. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and cranberries. Stir just until flour is moistened.

· Spoon batter into well-greased muffin tins.

· Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.

Compost it. Wouldn’t it be nice to think that your jack-o-lantern could one day help replenish the soil in your own garden? Chop it up into pieces and layer it with fallen leaves in the compost bin.

Use it as a fall centerpiece. If you have a small- to medium-sized uncarved pumpkin, slice off the top, scoop out the seeds, then put a jar inside and add seasonal flowers and berried branches such as the orange roses, beautyberry and winterberry shown here. You can even pour the water directly into the pumpkin, provided it has no blemishes that could leak.

Creative Recycling….Hmmmm…

On the other hand, if all those ideas are just a little too “Martha Stewart” for you…….

Turn it into a “Snack-o-Lantern”. Host a halloween cook-out! Leave the candle burning in the pumpkin, get a stick, sharpen it, pop a marshmallow on the end and have a roast.

Pump-er-Nickel. Use it as a piggy bank. Plug up the eye and mouth holes and fill it with spare change. It won’t smell as bad in the long haul if you keep your bank in the freezer, and you’ll have a ready supply of “cold cash”.

Jack-o-Nicklaus. If it’s a tiny sugar pumpkin, it should be the perfect size to use as a combination stress reliever/golf exercise. Turn it upside-down, force it over the head of your driver, tee your ball up as high as you can, go easy on the backswing, and then let ‘er rip. FORE!

Adapted from a column that appeared originally in the Toronto Sun

Back to Bouquets, Crafts & Containers