Pumpkins – not just for Halloween, but for life

Well not for just throwing away and adding into landfill after the 31^st October
Driving home yesterday evening I saw lots of fabulous Halloween displays and people chatting to each other as they escorted their costumed children on a Trick or Treat tour. It reminded me of the positive aspects and community potential of Halloween, which can trace its roots back to the ancient Celtic Festival of Samhain 

You get a lot of negative stories around Halloween and the odd horror film, plus it is one of the many things that has been over-commercialised. So many shops sell a ridiculous amount of what can mostly described as plastic junk – Halloween crackers anyone?

One of the main features of this festival is the carved pumpkin, or Jack-O-Lantern. It is a great fun activity and some of the creations are outstanding.

However, in the UK alone we send around 18,000 tonnes of pumpkins to landfill each year, which is undoubtedly one of the scariest things about Halloween and completely unnecessary, as there are plenty of pumpkin possibilities:

You can eat them

What you don’t want to do is to try and eat a pumpkin that has been sat outdoors for a few days, often in the wet and attracting the interest of the local cats. 

However, there are plenty of recipes for the pulp and seeds you scrape out when you do your carving including roasted pumpkin seeds; pumpkin, pancetta and sage soup; pumpkin tray bake cake and Thai Pumpkin Curry.  

They help to make great compost

As the pumpkin is about 90% water it will break down really well and be a useful addition to your garden compost. For a bit of anger management therapy you can bash them around a bit before putting them in the compost, as this will help the process.

You don’t want to put the seeds in the compost bin or you will end up with lots of little plants, but there are plenty of uses for pumpkin seeds.

Birds like pumpkin seeds

Dry them out first. This will take about ten minutes in the oven at 180C/Gas 4. Obviously don’t add any seasoning; we’re not talking MasterChef here. They can go outside on their own or be mixed in with your other bird food, breaking some of them up for the smaller birds.

Many animals like pumpkins as well
Squirrels love pumpkins and so do lots of other wildlife including hedgehogs, deer and rabbits.

You can just leave it at the bottom of the garden or take it into a woodland area, just not with a lamp or candle still inside, or you will give the local wildlife and walkers a bit of a shock.

If you live near a zoo or wildlife animal rescue centre, it may be worth contacting them to see if they can make use of your old Jack-O-Lantern.

You can bury it

Not in a post-Halloween grand funeral kind of way, but rather as a great way to feed the worms and insects.

Cut your pumpkin into pieces and bury it about 25cm deep. Because of its high water content and the soil it will break down beautifully. 

The wee beasties will eat it, process it and poo it, which is great for the garden!

Just don’t throw it in a bin where it goes to landfill

At least make sure your old pumpkin goes into your green bin to be composted.

This is a lovely seasonal veg which is also very versatile. It is lots of fun to grow yourselves if you can, and there is certainly a bit of a competition every year at my allotments - this year I thought one was about to turn into Cinderalla's coach! 

If you don't have the time, space or inclination to grow your own then look out for local pumpkin picking events or take the opportunity to visit your local farm shop.

Autumn – the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

George Eliot

A delicious time indeed. This is when we have traditionally celebrated the harvest and there is a fantastic range of locally-grown seasonal produce with some great foraging to be done for blackberries, sloes, elderberries and rosehips (although a bit late for blackberries now).

There are some lovely recipes for imaginative ways to enjoy and preserve your foraged goodies including blackberry jam – or jelly for those who don’t like the bits; apple&blackberry crumble, crab apple jelly, sloe gin, elderberry wine and rosehip syrup. All of which are great for your own store cupboard or for putting together wonderful Christmas gift hampers for friends and family.

One thing I won’t be making is elderberry wine. I can still remember the noise and the smell when racks of Dad’s homemade elderberry wine exploded in the cupboard at the top of the stairs creating a dark red waterfall all the way down. As Dad was also away that weekend I think he was barred from making wine (well red wine anyway!).

Up at the allotment I am still enjoying harvesting green beans, brassicas, chard, kale, squash and salad leaves. 

The potatoes are stored away in hessian sacks, the onions netted and garlic hung. My onion crop was very small this year, in terms of the size of the onions, so I will use a lot of them for pickling, much to the delight of a couple of friends who love them.

A major part of my ‘Good Life approach’ is to grow or eat locally sourced food. This also means that I am getting to eat what is in season, which I really enjoy because it means they seem to have much more flavour, the travel miles are minimal and you are supporting local producers.

Many of you may be getting veg boxes delivered which often contain recipes to try. My local farm shop, the Bushel Box in Willingham, always aims to stock as much local and seasonal produce as possible. 

At the moment the tables are laden down with apples grown right there on the farm. 

They grow over 30, yes 30 varieties so you can have a lot of fun trying a range of flavours and texture with some wonderful names including: Howgate Wonder, Bloody Ploughmans (pictured), Ashmead’s Kernel, King of the Pippins, Lord Lambourne, Pinova and Reverend Wilkes.

Below are some of the other foods currently in season in the UK:

Meat	Vegetables	Fruit & Nuts	Fish
Duck, Goose, Guinea Fowl, Grouse, Heather-fed Lamb, Pork Pies, Rabbit, Sausages, Venison	Cavalo Nero, Celeriac, Celery, Colt Cabbage, Kale, Leeks, Parsnips, Potatoes (main crop), Pumpkins, Romanesco, Savoy Cabbage, Shallots, Squash	Apples, Blackberries, Cranberries, Damsons, Elderberries, Figs, Pears, Quince, Sloes, Wet Walnuts	Brill, Crab, Dabs, Dover Sole, Flounders, Haddock, Mackerel, Mussels, Oysters, Skate

www.bushelbox.co.uk, www.goodtoknow.co.uk/food/seasonal-food-calendar-71128/ , www.lovebritishfood.co.uk/british-food-and-drinks/whats-in-season-when

We often seem to jump straight from Summer to Christmas preparations, but Autumn is a lovely time of the year. There have been some beautiful days, so Sasha and I have been out enjoying our walks; the colours are wonderful and food delicious.

Merry Autumn everyone!