Throwing out your pumpkins?

If you have unpainted, unpreserved, and uncarved pumpkins that you used for decorations and are getting rid of, I’ll gladly take them.  I’m out that way about once a week, sometimes more, so just let me know if you have any and I’ll happily take them off your hands. 


Do you have pigs now? Here in Sussex County a local pig farmer is collecting unused pumpkins from the fields for his pigs. Or do the chickens like them?


My chickens love them.  I crack them in half and then throw them in their run.  They eat the flesh and the seeds.  

I think goats eat them too since I saw someone local on FB collecting them for her goats.  Of course I remember at the Turtle Back Zoo when a goat tried to eat my sister’s shirt, so them eating something as mundane as a pumpkin shouldn’t surprise me


Yes, goats eat pumpkins!  As do sheep.  Again, you do have to break them in half, since sheep and goats have no top teeth in the front which makes it hard for them to bite into things.


Surprised you’re not making pumpkin soup, scones, breads etc. (The bread often has sunflower seeds in it) Yum. 
Also good for freezing these, once made. 


Over here, the "carving" pumpkins (vs. "pie" pumpkins) are sort of coarse, stringy, watery, though they certainly can be used/eaten if you're feeling ambitious.  The hens (is it "chooks"?) eating them are much more decorative than i would be, though.


Beautiful chickens.  They look happy.


Mjc, we’d even use that ‘poor quality’ for conserves (jams), stews, soups etc and either give the chooks the seed pulp or dry the seeds and give the chooks or worm farms the very final scraps.

Seriously: look up Margaret Fulton or PWMU pumpkin recipes, then compare with Donna Hayes for some more modern interpretations. 


Thanks, joanne, i'm sure you're right, but i wrangled my last (and first) pumpkin sometime in the early 1970s and since then have been content with the very handy canned puree.  The squirrels, raccoons, etc. get the porch pumpkins, ala Mousekin's Golden House.  : )


I love pumpkin pie and I like pumpkin/squash as a simple side dish. But that’s about it.  I actually don’t like pumpkin in baked goods. And as a white middle aged woman I probably shouldn’t be saying this out loud, but I actually can’t stand pumpkin spice being put in everything, coffee included.  

We did have a decorative pumpkin (Jack be little) that was left out two years ago and was pollenated by who knows what varieties.  The resulting franken-pumpkins were slightly larger than the original Jack be littles, and much more round.  I sliced them in half, scooped out the seeds, and then baked them with butter, brown sugar, and a dash of cinnamon.  I took the seeds and put them where the original pumpkin patch came from to see if they plant themselves.  Who knows what next year’s batch will look like.

ETA:  Thinking back I did have a pumpkin Kringle once that was really good.  But that is the exception to my disliking pumpkin in baked goods rule 


With you on the ‘spice’ angle. It’s really not something we do here, unless very very sparingly - we’ve started to enjoy a little Mid Eastern/African seasoning blends on pumpkin/gourds, but usually it’s just loads of mashed-potato style seasoning including caramelised onions somewhere on the plate. Yep, even the pumpkin scones are savoury, with salt-and-pepper seasoning and toppings. 
We bake chunks of seeded pumpkin (that means, without the seeds) together with other root veg like potatoes, sweet potatoes of all colours, parsnips & swedes etc to have for Sunday roasts (for example). Not candied (as in ‘candied yams’), not always smothered in gravy, just done like plain baked potatoes; very popular. We buy our pumpkins per-cut into handy slices that we can either chop down a little more, or cook then divide. 
Our carvers are huge Queensland Blues, Jarrahdale, Kent, Jap and similar varieties that are multi-purpose. 


spontaneous said:

I love pumpkin pie and I like pumpkin/squash as a simple side dish. But that’s about it.  I actually don’t like pumpkin in baked goods. And as a white middle aged woman I probably shouldn’t be saying this out loud, but I actually can’t stand pumpkin spice being put in everything, coffee included.  

Pumpkin spice doesn't actually have pumpkin flavor -- it's the mix of seasonings typically added to pumpkin pie (cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice), and it may be one of these that makes you not like pumpkin baked goods. I don't like pumpkin baked goods when they are heavy on the cloves or ginger flavor. But I do like it when the spice is barely there, or if it's more nutmeg flavored.


sprout said:

spontaneous said:

I love pumpkin pie and I like pumpkin/squash as a simple side dish. But that’s about it.  I actually don’t like pumpkin in baked goods. And as a white middle aged woman I probably shouldn’t be saying this out loud, but I actually can’t stand pumpkin spice being put in everything, coffee included.  

Pumpkin spice doesn't actually have pumpkin flavor -- it's the mix of seasonings typically added to pumpkin pie (cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice), and it may be one of these that makes you not like pumpkin baked goods. I don't like pumpkin baked goods when they are heavy on the cloves or ginger flavor. But I do like it when the spice is barely there, or if it's more nutmeg flavored.

 I understand that pumpkin and pumpkin spice are different, I don’t like either being thrown into everything is what I was trying to say.   


Spontaneous, next time you have some, try a little dukkah with it. Or just plain zaatar. You might be like my family, more savoury inclined. cheese

Some of the Indian spice mixes are yummy too, but tend to stir up my food sensitivities these days. 

ETA: Had a fun conversation this afternoon, with a man who’s recently returned from a couple of decades near San Diego. Among other topics, we discussed pumpkins, and Halloween pumpkins - he cried with laughter, trying to describe ‘The Great Awfulness’ for me. Even confessed to smuggling in some secret stashes of Queensland Blue seeds from his mum’s kitchen - planted these to show his friends what ‘real pumpkins are, even after you’ve carved them’. They were really impressed.



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