To think what a waste of pumpkins

[LeGavrOrf]

Loads of pumpkins for sale in supermarkets.

I don't want to come across as a miserable piece of shit but I think it's an incredible waste. All these pumpkins are grown to make lanterns with, and the flesh is thrown away (not that it would be worth eating as apparently Halloween pumpkins are vile). I bet the vast majority of people would just throw the flesh away anyway, even if it did taste nice.

Just seems mad to have all the resources dedicated to grow and distribute pumpkins in this day and age where people are skint and hungry and have to use food banks. Just to make lanterns for one day.

This is why I make butternut squash lanterns. Festive and delicious

Some of us make use of them better than just lanterns. I always roast the seeds so I can snack on them for about a week after Halloween and the flesh gets given to either the piggies or goats. Sometimes we carve pumpkins for the local zoo animals too for enrichment, the tigers love playing with them. Maybe not as worthy as using the space to grow 'real' food, but in no way completely wasteful.

They are gross. Very watery. Bell peppers are a good alternative, i think swedes are traditional.

But all sorts of things are grown/manufactured/produced that do nothing to help the hungry of the world

It's business/economy innit

They are not being taken out of the food chain in order to make lanterns iyswim so YABUnseasonable

I bet you twenty pence that the vast majority of people will not use the flesh of the pumpkins.

I remember carving a lantern out of a swede. It felt like i was carving rock.

More than happy to be told I am being unreasonable and a misery, just it seems a bit vulgar to me to have all those pumpkins for sale just to make lanterns.

Nobody needs more than two pairs of shoes/trousers either.

I don't use the flesh of my carved out pumpkin LeGav. The look of pumpkin flesh and the vileness of the seeds makes me want to throw up TBH. It goes in the food waste recycling. Bleurgh.

We buy three huge pumpkins every year to carve and all the flesh gets thrown away. I'm not going to feel guilty about a once a year activity on a special occasion when it's something that brings a lot of pleasure.

Why do you think pumpkins being wasted is any worse than people eating or buying more of any other type of food than they actually need? Throwing away pumpkin flesh is no more wasteful than eating an extra roast potato when you've already had a decent meal, or eating a biscuit just for pleasure when you aren't particularly hungry.

If anyone can tell me how to roast the seeds in a way that makes them nice then I'm up for trying that though.

Doesn't anyone get terrified when they open the pumpkin and look inside. It looks like the gates of hell in there.

I know what you mean broken but it just seems that all these pumpkins are deliberately grown to waste.

I love the word egregious,

I am a misery then. Okey dokey

When I was a nanny, my boss bought the children a swede to make a lantern out of because that's what she always had as a child. It took the whole day to carve the middle out. Never again. I try to avoid any pumpkin carving now, to much effort, the kids start all enthusiastic, then we all lose the will to live and we end up with some rubbish looking creation. But each to their own. There is huge amounts of food waste in this country though, not just pumpkins but all food groups.

I bought a pum

We don't waste it. If it's tasty we make soup. If not it goes in the compost to help next year's veg grow in our garden. And if we have fun too then it certainly isn't wasted.

We used to have swedes as well, four kids my mum had. She must have started carving them in August.

We ate a lot of swede that week!

I can still remember the smell of warming swede though, lovely

I bought a pumpkin and thought I would make a lovely soup. Soup is pretty tasteless despite other tasty ingredients and a repeat would be a waste of my time and energy to cook it. If I buy another one in future I would consider it less wasteful in the round to dispose of the flesh.

Do you reckon you could make a Halloween lantern out of a watermelon?

They're not grown to waste though, they are grown to be enjoyed.

The swede carving was so hard, but I adore swede and was quite happy to have that as a by product.

YY LeGav. Terrifying

You're right, broken.

I dry the pumpkin seeds in a warm oven then sprinkle with salt, cumin and chilli powder for savoury nibbles or brown sugar and cinnamon for sweet.

No idea if that's the right way, but they taste nice

sparking. They are sinister vegetables aren't they?

Roast pumpkin seeds, easy and tasty
You can always add a bit of flaked chilli or powdered wasabi to give them a kick.