Tips on what to do with your decorated or carved pumpkin

Making the most of your pumpkins, even after the Halloween celebrations are over, can be good for both the planet and your pocket by helping to reduce food waste.

For uncarved pumpkins the options are endless but if you carved your pumpkin or left it outside, it’s not advisable to eat it. There are still options to make the most of what’s left though…

Get your cook on

With any uncarved and whole pumpkins, why not try a new recipe and cook or bake with them.

Common pumpkins that we use for carving have been bred for size and colour rather than for taste. If you have one of these larger uncarved pumpkins, these are better for baking as the addition of fat and sugar enhances the pumpkin flavour. Smaller pumpkins can be used for a savoury dish or something for those with a sweeter tooth.

You can find a variety of pumpkin recipes on the Love Food Hate Waste website including brownies, soup, risotto, muffins and even a lasagne.

Add it to your compost heap

If your pumpkin has been on display for a while and isn’t looking it’s best, chop it into small pieces and add it to the compost heap. This will provide your compost with a healthy dose of nitrogen as it decomposes – although this should be balanced out with something like leaves, newspaper or wood ash.

If you don’t have your own compost heap, you could ask a neighbour, friend or a local allotment if they’d like your old pumpkins.

Make sure to remove any seeds first as they can germinate and start to grow within a compost pile.

Make a bird feeder

Either cut off the top half of the carved pumpkin and turn it into a festive bird feeder by filling it with birdseed and hanging it from a tree in your garden (you may want to line with newspaper first).

Or, if your pumpkin is still looking good, cut it into small pieces for foraging animals like squirrels but please don’t leave pumpkins on the ground as pumpkins can give our spiky friends (hedgehogs) poorly tummy’s. Pumpkins should also not be left in parks and greenspaces. 

If you still need to get rid of your pumpkin, pop it into the general waste bin for it to be collected along with your usual household waste.