Pumpkins....what do you do with them?

United States
October 12, 2007 9:24pm CST
I sure do see a lot of pumpkins in the stores and on the sidewalks of the stores this time of year. I wonder what happens to ALL of them. I know many of us carve them up for halloween or use them in a fall display with hay and scarecrows, etc. When I was a teenager, once I helped my new stepmom make a homemade pumpkin pie from scratch, from a real pumpkin (for a city raised kid, this was a real trip for me!). So now I'm wonderin', what do most of us really do with the pumpkins? Someone is buying them up. Tell me what you do with them, do you have carving secrets or preferences? Do you put a lit candle in them everynight? Do you just throw them away after halloween is over, what becomes of your pumpkin? I can't wait to hear your stories, share some pics if you have any. Happy Halloween my mylot friends :)
5 people like this
19 responses
• United States
16 Oct 07
if it's still good,i usually do make pie of it(if it's not carved). sometimes i'll put glow sticks inside it instead of candles-a lot safer with cats around. one year i had a gigantic one,and for some reason,the cat decided to get in it before we threw it away. spent awhile picking pumpkin guts off his fur(it had to be the fluffy cat!)
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
15 Oct 07
We don't celebrate Halloween, at least not traditionally so. Many of the stores encourage Halloween to get sdales. Even so, we don't bother bother with the pumpkin part. I buy pumpkin to eat most weekls. I make soup, roast pumpkin, & put it in casseroles & mince recipes.
1 person likes this
@pendragon (3350)
• United States
13 Oct 07
We usually will get one pretty large pumpkin per year at halloween time, we hollow it out and make a jack-o-lantern, and roast the seeds in a cinnamon glaze.
1 person likes this
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
13 Oct 07
We take the seeds out of the pumpkins and we bake the seeds to eat. Then we carve the pumpkins with different designs and we set them outside with candles in them at night. Last year we did a really neat black cat one and one with an alien on it.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Oct 07
I don't like carving pumpkins so a few years ago I started painting pictures on them. Last year I just sat 3 I had grown myself on the porch and didn't do anything to them. Best thing to do with pumpkins or at least the seeds is throw them on a pile of dirt and wait from them to grow next year :)
1 person likes this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
13 Oct 07
I really make pumpkin pie out of mine. I buy a small one early in October and keep it uncarved as an outdoor decoration until Thanksgiving and then I bring it in, wash it well, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds to dry and eat after Christmas, and put the rest skin and all in the pressure cooker. When it is soft, I remove the skin and stir a little of the cooking water back in until it looks like the stuff they sell in a can for pumpkin pie filling. Store-bought pumpkin pies are tasty and inexpensive, but they put way too much sugar in them and I don't wish to eat artificially sweetened "diet" foods, so I make this our autumn tradition. If you decide to try it, though, beware, as a pumpkin that looks little can still make an awful lot of pie filling. One store where we used to live gave away huge pumpkins every year on the day after Halloween, and then I used to cook enough for 5 or 6 pies and freeze it in batches.
1 person likes this
@usmcsgtwife (4997)
• United States
18 Oct 07
we always take the seeds out and roast them, and then carve the pumpkin, after halloween is over thou I usally end up throwing the pumpkin away I am not much of a baker
• United States
16 Oct 07
We buy one and my husband carves it. We put it on our porch and put a candle in it to light up each night. Then when Halloween is over then we just throw it away.
• United States
13 Oct 07
I usually carve the pumpkins and put tealights inside. I bake the seeds that I get from them. It's a great snack. I would like to try pumpkin stew, baked right in the pumpkin shell. There was a recipe for it in a Taste of Home magazine, but I've misplaced the magazine. I hope my mom or sister still has it!
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
13 Oct 07
A Halloween Set-Up scene - photo of a carved pumpkin
Wow that must have been a real chore making pumpkin pie from scratch like that...if ever I make it I just get the good ole reliable canned pumpkin..LOL Actually it's been very frustrating to find big pumpkins in my area..they are usually those tiny small decorative types, which I bought to decorate the apartment with. But years and years ago, when we could get large pumpkins I used to do "studio" shots with them...really elaborate set-ups but I would have to "reverse" the holidays..I would first photograph Thanksgiving scenes with the pumpkins as they weren't carved yet..then after taking a fair number of shots, would then carve them and do Halloween scenes...As for what I did with the pumpkins afterwards? I'd keep the seeds and eat them...LOL Here's one picture of a Halloween scene I did years ago...(now my photos have my copyright watermark on them)
1 person likes this
• United States
13 Oct 07
we buy a couple each year. growing up my parents bought us kids each one, and one they shared to carve. we buy those carving kits, where you can make any pix they have in the book. those are a lot of fun. and make you look all artistic and stuff! my son loves those! if i don't let the pumpkins go for too long, i cut them up, boil the pieces and make things. my mom and i hunt for new pumpkin recipes each year. lots of pumpkin breads, and we did a pumpkin soup, pumpkins are, well, like squash, and very versatile. my mom has made the pies and such. i did some kind of stuffing one time. fun stuff. but the past few years i've let them go too long. then they simply go in the dumpsters. and depending on where you live, and if you leave them out unattended, kids get to them, and they get smashed, ha, no respect i tell ya. but it is amazing how you see so many sitting out at gorcery stores and pumpkin patches, and they all get bought??? that's a lot of pumpkins! ooh and i forgot to add, i LOVE pulling out all the seeds, washing them up and seasoning them and roasting them, YUM!!!! love those!!
1 person likes this
@LadyDulce (830)
• United States
17 Oct 07
I've never really carved pumpkins or bought them for decoration, though I may now that my son's old enough to notice. I've always just eaten them. You can make quite a few things from just a pumpkin, including: roasted and salted seeds, pies, cakes, candies and taffies, muffins, cheesecakes, drinks, casseroles, stuffed pumpkin (just carve out a small one, remove the seeds, and mix the pumpkin meat with rice, cheese, broccoli, and even some beef if you want, put the top on, wrap it all in foil, and bake it in your oven), pumpkin preserves, pumpkin sauce (babies love that one), pumpkin nog, etc. Blessed Be
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Oct 07
When I was a kid, I was a country kid. So we grew our own pumpkins. As an adult, I haven't grown them because they take a lot of room and tend to have picky vines that grow into and over everything else unless you have lots of room and train them daily to go where you want. People up here do make Jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, but now there battery powered lights that you can put into candles. Some even flash different colors. Up here, some people make pumpkin spread, it's like jam, jelly, or apple butter spread, only it's pumpkin butter. I haven't made that yet, but I would love to. I want to grow pumpkins again and make some pumpkin spread. We make pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. But in the fall, right now, pumpkin donuts are wonderful. Havén't made those yet, either, but I've eaten some. That and apple cidar donuts are very good. This was a fun question. Take care
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Oct 07
Oh I forgot, we had venison stew in a pumpkin one time and my sister-n-law said her family put hamburger stuffing in a pumpkin before which I had never heard of. Something else to try. Pumpkin is so wonderful and so versatile. Take care
@maybebaby (1230)
• Canada
13 Oct 07
We always buy a pumpkin to carve on Halloween. We do ligt a candle in it on Halloween but not on any other night. I also roast the seeds. They are so good. Then the pumpkin goes in the garbage. I know some people cook them, but I don't.
@TerryZ (22076)
• United States
13 Oct 07
I can remember making pumpkin pies with my mom when I was a teenager. And they were so good. I always carve the pumpkin and put a candle in it and put it outside. And sometimes I will make pumpkin seeds. Happy Halloween to you too.
• United States
13 Oct 07
I usually buy a few nice size pumkins and just set them beside the front door. This year the family wants to carve one and believe it or not I've never done that. Maybe I will post some pics after we carve one. I also like to decorate with all the ornamental corn and gourds. Oh and of course the tiny little pumpkins that are the size of you hand.
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
13 Oct 07
Hi applsofgld, we don't get the large pumpkins to carve, if we did I would roast the seeds. Whet I get is the smaller ones and I have a recipe that not only do I get roasted seed, but a couple of pumpkin pies and an apple pie, or at least the cooked apples, sometimes I make apples and dumplings with are great for a cold winter morning..:)
@ssf12ster (488)
• India
13 Oct 07
gift it to frinds foes and relatives.also i make curry out of it and eat it durig festival season.no i don throw them away.
• United States
13 Oct 07
hi appls, I usually buy about three or four pumpkins for Halloween. I only carve one and put tealights in it. The others are used in a display with corn stalks. After Halloween, I bake my pumpkins and freeze them in smaller portions to make pies, breads, cookies and soup. And of course the seeds are soaked in a brine overnight and in the morning I toast these for a snack. Happy posting..