It’s October! The temperature is getting cooler, colourful leaves are falling off the trees, and the smell of pumpkin spice lattes is in the air.
The autumn season brings fall harvest, Thanksgiving, and Halloween celebrations, which inspires us to bake something delicious for family and friends, cook a roast dinner and prepare our pumpkins for the trick-or-treaters to come by on Halloween night.
Over 80,000 metric tonnes of pumpkins are grown yearly in Canada; over 60% of those end up in landfills, leading to harmful greenhouse gasses polluting our air.
This Halloween, we encourage you to reduce the amount of pumpkin waste and learn about sustainable alternatives.
Cook with your pumpkins
Are you stuck for ideas on what you can do with your pumpkins? Here are a few delicious dishes to cook:
Roasted pumpkin seeds – Scoop out all those pumpkin seeds and create an easy snack in the oven.
Pumpkin puree – Blend your pumpkin into a finger-licking pumpkin puree; it tastes great on many dishes.
Baked pumpkin pie – Nothing says fall like a good old-fashioned pie. Enough said.
Pumpkin chili – Try a hearty and nutritious chili dish, guaranteed to fill you up.
Pumpkin bread – Easy to bake, this pumpkin bread is deliciously moist.
Pumpkin spice latte – Spruce up your coffee and add in the taste of autumn.
Pumpkin bolognese – Carbo load with this classic dish with a pumpkin twist.
Baked parmesan pumpkin fries – A complimentary side to your main dish, these pumpkin fries will leave you wanting more.
Reduce your pumpkin waste
Avoid tossing your pumpkins into the garbage, and think of ways to reuse them. Here are a couple of options to consider:
You can donate it to a local farm so they can feed it to their animals; you will need to research places that accept them.
Create tasty dog treats for your best furry companion.
Last but not least, if you throw out your pumpkins, throw them into the compost bin and keep them from ending up in the landfill.
Together, we can make Halloween a more sustainable future! Learn more about donating food to Quest here: https://www.questoutreach.org/donate-food-to-quest-food-exchange/
Resources:
https://earthday.ca/2021/10/19/fighting-waste-one-pumpkin-at-a-time/
https://foodmesh.ca/pumpkin-worth-talking-about-🎃
