What do you do with your pumpkins?

[sweeneytoddsrazor]

As above , how does everyone dispose of their pumpkins? I can cut them up and put in the food waste bin but I see a lot of people saying leave for the wildlife. So what wildlife eats them? We regularly have a fox visitor and it hasn't made any attempts to eat them as yet so I guess not foxes.

They are highly poisonous for hedgehogs apparently, our local wildlife group has posted asking people not to chuck them out in woods etc.

Cut them up and put them in the general waste bin or compost. Our council actively asks us not to leave them out for wildlife.

Food waste bin

I certainly don't want to be poisoning anything. That said I can't remember the last time I saw a hedgehog either alive or run over. Are they in decline?

Buy ones that you can eat and eat them. Do not leave them out for wildlife.

A friend will put ours on their compost heap

This. Or grow them yourself. They are very easy.

In the bin for us

I usually scrape out the insides when carving them and make soup. Cut up the shells and put them in food waste bags. Don't leave them out for wildlife, it can make them really ill.

Compost them. They're not much use to wildlife (I do let my chickens have a bit).

We did hollow them out before carving and eat so it is mainly the shell with a few bits of flesh left. They will be going in the food waste.

I cut and scraped as much as I could from the inside (I have a good tool for this).

Then I chopped the big chunks into cubes and spread the chunks and scrapings onto 4 big baking sheets with cumin seedand garlic, and roast it in the oven. The chunks have gone into a vegan curry and the scrapings have been puréed and frozen (it’s quite good for thickening soups and curries).

And the rest of the pumpkin went into the food waste bin!

Local pig rescue sanctuary.
I realise this is quite niche!

We take ours to the local fire station for a pumpkin smash. You make a donation to charity and the firefighters drop them from the top of massive crane. A lot of local farms and animal rescue centre's also take them to feed to the animals.

We've put ours in the garden waste bin.

Oh we do have a city farm nearby with pigs. I could give them a ring tomorrow first.

I'm in the US and leave them out for squirrels. Seeds are nice for the birds too.

Anything left by the time the town starts picking up fallen leaves from the roadside gets thrown into the leaf piles and eventually composted.

Local farmer who has turkeys takes them all, the birds love it.

I had put them out for the squirrels but will do some more research and put them in the food waste bin perhaps

OP I also thought “the foxes” might have them but my wildlife savvy dh tells
me foxes are total carnivores so are very unlikely to be interested

(we made a cake with all the flesh tho)

It's winter... they're hibernating

I hate waste but nobody else in the house gives a shit so I toast the seeds, make cake with the guts and put the rest into soup, risotto and bread then spend the next few days angry at all of the extra work it’s given me and the fact that I’m sick of eating pumpkin for my lunch and tea while everybody else refuses to eat it. It’s a great way to just start getting some of that perimeno rage out.

I also think those social media posts about leaving them out for wildlife are well meaning but possibly from the US as I don’t think any animals native to the UK would eat them - except maybe rats!

If you leave them out for wildlife, they must be high up - not on the ground.
Birds and squirrels love them. They are terrible for deer and hedgehogs.

Another nuche one, but ours went to a neighbour, who is taking them for her friend's goats!!

We compost th

So you mean the peelings? Pop that into the compost bin.

My sole pumpkin, not a very big one, was turned into Thai style pumpkin soup the day after. Onion, garlic, red chilli and ginger pastes, chicken stock cubes, coconut milk, a quick blitz with the stick blender in the pan. 😋