Don’t Trash Your Halloween Pumpkins! 3 uses including on Wisconsin Farms

By Teri Barr for the MWFR

Halloween is over, but don’t be too quick to send that jack-o’-lantern to the garbage. Your leftover pumpkin could have a second life on the farm — or even in your kitchen!

More than 1 billion pounds of pumpkins end up in U.S. landfills each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Officials with the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme report — when buried in a landfill with little oxygen, organic material is broken down by methane-producing microbes, which has roughly 80 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after its release,

But those Halloween decorations can still serve a purpose, whether turned into food, livestock feed or nutrient-rich compost

1. A farm animal’s Halloween treat

Local farms may welcome donations of clean, untreated pumpkins to feed pigs, chickens, and other livestock. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials suggest checking with a farmer first to find out what is being accepted and how the pumpkins should be prepared.

You’ll also want to be sure pumpkins haven’t been painted, decorated or left outside long enough to develop mold or bacteria. Remove the candles, plastic, and all other decorations.

2. Don’t forget the kitchen!

Pumpkins are more than porch decorations. The flesh, seeds, and stringy innards can all be put to use. And it’s good for you, too!

Roasted pumpkin seeds make a crunchy snack or salad topping and are packed with protein, magnesium, zinc and healthy fats. Pumpkin flesh can be added to soups and stews, pureed for baking or frozen for later use.

3. Give pumpkins back to the soil

Even pumpkins that are past their prime can have a useful future through composting.

Remove decorations and chop pumpkins into smaller pieces to help them break down faster. And because pumpkins contain plenty of moisture, you’ll want to mix them with dry materials such as leaves, straw, cardboard or shredded newspaper. Composting experts recommend roughly three parts brown materials to one part green materials to keep the pile healthy and prevent unpleasant odors.

The result is nutrient-rich compost that can help nourish your gardens and soil.

So before tossing that fading jack-o’-lantern, think about its next destination. It could become a farm animal’s favorite snack, next year’s garden fertilizer or an ingredient in your next batch of pumpkin muffins.

That’s a pretty good afterlife for a Halloween pumpkin!

The post Don’t Trash Your Halloween Pumpkins! 3 uses including on Wisconsin Farms first appeared on The Farm.