Alternatives offered to ‘smashing’ pumpkins
Bruce Waugh takes part in a pumpkin carving contest at the Willowbrook Shopping Centre on Saturday. People are being asked to consider environmental disposal methods when Halloween is over.
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Updated: October 27, 2009 1:34 PM
If only a quarter of the households in Metro Vancouver have a pumpkin to carve this weekend, it will amount to approximately 200,000 pumpkins.
And Metro Vancouver doesn’t want these colourful, highly-nutritious gourd-like squash dumped in the trash after Saturday’s Halloween celebrations.
Metro Vancouver spokesman Glenn Bohn said that with an average weight of five kilograms, 200,000 pumpkins become 1,000 metric tonnes of organic material on Nov. 1 when they are bagged, tossed and carted off to a landfill.
“That’s about the same weight as 300 elephants,” he said.
How can we keep jack o’lanterns out of the trash? Here are some green options for where Jack can go after Halloween:
Put Jack in the Box: Chop Jack into thumb-sized pieces and put the pieces into a backyard composter. Or put pieces of pumpkin in a vermicompost bin, which is a kitchen-based worm bin. The result is nutrient-rich compost that you can use to grow next year’s pumpkin.
Return Jack to his Roots: Dig a shallow trench in your vegetable or flower garden and place chopped pieces of Jack throughout. Fill in the trench and let him rot in peace.
Give Jack Curb Appeal: About 800 Walnut Grove households taking part in a Metro Vancouver pilot project can add pumpkin scraps to their kitchen waste which can be put out with their garden clippings.
Eat Jack: Just in time to ward off flu season, it’s comforting to know that pumpkins are good for you. They are loaded with fibre, antioxidants and nutrients.
A cup of pumpkin flesh provides 37 mg of calcium, 564 mg of potassium, 2,650 IU of vitamin A, 12 mg of vitamin C, 22 mg of magnesium, as well as iron, niacin, selenium, zinc, and folate. And only 49 calories.
Their orange colour makes pumpkins rich in carotenoids which are known to boost the immune system, and beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound.
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