Read our instructions on how to carve your pumpkin safely with your children, how to make pumpkin soup You may not think that Halloween and compost have much in common – but the national Recycle Now campaign is asking everyone to spare a thought for the environment on October 31st.
How to carve a pumpkin
- Select a fresh pumpkin in a shape that pleases you. Some folks prefer
their pumpkins low and round, while others like them tall and oval-shaped - Draw a circle or hexagon on top of the pumpkin in preparation for
making an opening large enough for your hand to reach through - Cut through the stem end of the pumpkin along your outline with
a sharp knife. Use a back-and-forth slicing motion to cut through
the thick, tough skin 4. Remove the stem end, which will act as a
cap, making sure you scrape off any seeds or pulp - Use a large spoon to scoop out the seeds and pulp from inside the
pumpkin. Hold the spoon by its bowl to get extra leverage while scooping.
Use the seeds and pulp for cooking or add to your compost bin - Draw a pattern for the face on the clean pumpkin with a felt-tip
pen, or scribe the lines into the skin using a pencil. Be sure to
make the eyes, nose and mouth large enough – you’ll have a hard time
cutting out tiny features - Follow your pattern as you carefully cut all the way through the
pumpkin with a kitchen knife - Push the cut-out features gently from the inside of the pumpkin
and discard the pieces in your compost bin - Place a night light inside the pumpkin to create an eerie glow
- When Halloween is over, use a knife to cut the pumpkin in to pieces
and add the whole lot to your compost bin. -
Easy pumpkin soup
Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 10 to 30 mins
Ingredients
1 large pumpkin, cut in chunks
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium red chilli, chopped
1 can coconut milk or cream
lots of coriander leaves salt and pepperMethod
1. Cut the pumpkin into quarters so they are a manageable size
to work with. Scoop out the seeds and remove the skin
2. Chop the flesh into small chunks and cook in boiling water
until soft
3. Meanwhile, add the chilli, garlic, half the coriander, salt
and pepper to a blender and whiz until well blended
4. When the pumpkin is soft, drain the cooking water but reserve
it. Put the pumpkin into the blender with the chilli mix and
blend
5. Put the mixture back into a saucepan, add the coconut milk
and simmer. If it is too thick, add some of the reserved cooking
water
6. Serve in large bowls and add the remaining chopped coriander
for garnish
How to grow pumpkins
Pumpkins grow best in warm sunny conditions and well drained soils are
essential.
- Preparing the vegetable patch
In spring make planting holes which are the width and depth of
a garden spade. Fill the holes with well-rotted manure or home compost
and replace the soil to form a mound over each hole. Space the mounds
at least one metre apart. - Sowing the seeds
Sow seeds in mid to late April. Sow one seed each in a 7cm plastic
pot in potting compost. You can make good potting compost from your
home compost by mixing one part home compost to one part sharp sand
and one part top soil or leaf mould. Sow the seeds 2cm deep and in
good light to maintain growth. If you live in an area where you do
not suffer from hard frosts and you do not have a green house, you
can grow your seeds in the garden under a cloche. - Planting
When the saplings are established and frosts are over, water the mounds
and transplant one plant into the top of each mound. Keep well watered
and take care not to wet the leaves in strong sunlight -early morning
is a good time to water. Give organic liquid feed as required when
the fruits start to grow. You can create a liquid feed – known as
compost tea – by putting home compost in to an old pair of tights
or muslin and using this in your watering can or water butt like a
giant tea bag. - Growing the plants
Trailing varieties of pumpkins produce many side shoots. These need
to have their leading shoots snipped off, leaving 60cm from the main
stem. Spread the side shoots evenly around the plant. Pumpkins should
be prevented from resting on the soil as this is to avoid rotting
of the fruit. Straw can be place under each or they can be placed
carefully on pieces of wood. - Harvest
Harvest your pumpkins before the first frost. Small pumpkins – anything
up to the size of a basket ball – need to be harvested once they are
ripe. Larger pumpkins can stay on the plant until late autumn. Cut
with a long piece of the stem or handle to delay rotting – you will
probably need to use a knife. Leave in a dry sunny place such as a
greenhouse for at least 4 days. - Storage
For storing, the skin must be perfect and undamaged. Store in cool and
dry and well-ventilated place. Pumpkins can be placed on racks or hung
in nets as long as they are not touching each other. Storage can be
from 2 to 6 months depending on the variety.
Get the family recycling post Halloween
Over one million pumpkins are sold every year in the UK
and families are already carving up pumpkins in to scary faces to decorate
the house and brighten up the dark autumn evenings. Babies and toddlers
are enchanted by the glowing lights of jack-o-lanterns and older kids
love getting involved in scooping out the seeds and carving scary faces
into a pumpkin, so it’s great fun for all the family. However, once the
1st of November arrives and halloween is over, hundreds of thousands of
ornately carved pumpkins, not to mention all the pulp inside that is scraped
out and goes straight into the bin, may end up on a landfill site.
Like many parents this halloween, TV presenter and mother-of-three
Philippa Forrester is backing the amnesty: “Kids love halloween and carving
up your pumpkins is great fun. What’s not so fun is just chucking all
our waste into the bin once Halloween is over.
“If you’re anything like me, you’ll know how important it
is that we do everything we can to help the environment for our kids’
futures and home composting is so easy. By putting your pumpkin in the
compost bin, you can be sure your halloween celebrations don’t have the
potential to scare past the 31st of October!” The seeds and pulp that
you spoon out of your pumpkin can go straight into the compost bin as
soon as you have scraped them out and then once halloween is over, you
can add the carved shell. So that it breaks down in time to give next
summer’s garden a great boost, don’t forget to break it up into pieces
before adding it to your compost bin.
So if you’ve got a compost bin in your garden, then join
the pumpkin amnesty and make sure you are using it to its full potential
this autumn. Composting is an activity for all the family and a great
way to start teaching your children about the environment and recycling.
Its is so easy to separate your organic household waste – things such
as peelings, paper, cardboard, pet hair, egg shells. Kids can get involved
learning what can and cannot go in to the compost bin. Once you’re in
the habit it couldn’t be easier. As they get older, kids will love helping
gather twigs and leaves from the garden, as well as carrying the kitchen
peelings to the bin. The process does require some patience as it can
take between six and nine months to produce good quality compost. But
in the meantime they can help mix the compost, something which should
be done every month or so in order to encourage oxygen to get into the
compost to help with the decomposition process.
Your kids can then see how their kitchen and garden waste
is magically transformed into a great free-of-charge fertiliser for your
garden. If you’re not a composter yet, there couldn’t be a better time
to get started. Check out the website www.recyclenow.com/compost or phone
0845 600 0323 for more details on how to get a compost bin and start composting.
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