Pumpkin Moon – Fighting Food Waste.

Halloween has always created a food mountain that goes to waste – pumpkins so eagerly carved are suddenly unloved when the mould sets in and, as with any celebratory time of year, where commercialisation steps in negative knock on affects mount but at Pumpkin Moon in Sandling, the food waste that Halloween madness can cause is once again being banished.

With fields of pumpkins and squashes for people to buy (80 different varieties this year) a maize maze for children to circumnavigate, café, charity stalls, pumpkin carving demonstrations, ice cream van, bar and new kitchen food demonstrations for this year, Pumpkin Moon is a very popular place but once Halloween is over, and the demand for pumpkins plummets, the waste at Pumpkin Moon is not waste at all. The pumpkins that go unsold will be harvested by The Gleaning Network to feed the homeless throughout the UK – just as they did last year.

Last year the pumpkins from Pumpkin Moon alone created 315,375 food portions and fed people in 20 different cities throughout Scotland, England and Wales.

The introduction of a pumpkin kitchen this year is also important to help solve pumpkin waste after customers leave Pumpkin Moon. I was lucky enough to sample the spiced pumpkin soup and pumpkin chocolate brownie – both gorgeous and their recipes are available to take home with you or available on Pumpkin Moon’s website.The last way Pumpkin Moon are helping to fight food waste is by showing people what they can create from pumpkins. This year there is a pumpkin carving demonstration tent where all manner of creations occur – as well as turning squashes and pumpkins into Halloween creations other art projects such as creating snakes, jellyfish, fairy houses and even household objects such as bowls are easily achieved with pumpkins.

So with Halloween just around the corner, there is no excuse for those pumpkins to go in the food bin on 1st November! It’ a small thing to do, but by recycling pumpkin shells and eating the contents simply ensures you are not adding to the food mountain wasted every year.

This week I will be making pumpkin recipes and will keep you posted!