Make more of your pumpkins this Halloween

An old Scots proverb is likely to be true over the next week – ‘Wilful waste makes woeful want’, as we could throw out around 1.1 million pumpkins at Halloween.

Research shows that out of the 1.8 million pumpkins carved in Scotland a year, a frightening 1.1 million are thrown away.

That’s why Zero Waste Scotland, with support from The Real Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh’s social history visitor experience, is urging Scots to save their pumpkins by turning devilish decorations into sumptuous scran this Halloween.

As Halloween draws near, Scots are heading out to buy their pumpkins, but the scary fact is that enough will be wasted to stretch from Edinburgh to Stornoway.

Polling reveals that over half of respondents say they had never thought of a Halloween pumpkin as food. But fear not, the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, from Zero Waste Scotland, has the recipes to make pumpkin waste a thing of the past.

Ylva Haglund, food waste campaigns manager, Zero Waste Scotland, said: ‘Everybody loves to make the most of Halloween, but this also means an ever-larger mountain of food waste each year. This is especially worrying given those in woeful want of food, so we aim to inspire people to turn their pumpkins into a delicious meal or snack.

‘If pumpkin treats aren’t your style, then simply check with your local recycling service or turn your food waste into compost.

‘We also know that the fight for climate change begins at home, as our Carbon Metric report shows, food waste contributes more to Scotland’s waste carbon impacts than other type of waste. It’s so important to avoid just chucking away perfectly edible food.’

Pumpkin soup is nice and easy to make

Eilidh Macleod, marketing manager, The Real Mary King’s Close, added: ‘Such wilful waste of a perfectly good pumpkin probably would have seemed quite shocking to the inhabitants of the closes and wynds of Edinburgh in the 17th century.

During a time of severe food shortage, pumpkins were far more likely to have been enjoyed as a savoury pumpkin pie or made into pumpkin beer.

‘Indeed, the sage advice offered by the proverb ‘wilful waste makes woeful want’ would have taken on great importance, even for a fairly well-to-do family, like that of one of Edinburgh’s most famous daughters, Mary King.

‘One can only wonder what Mary King and her neighbours would make of carving faces into pumpkins and simply discarding the remains.’

There are so many delicious ways to make the most of your pumpkins once the Halloween party ends. Love Food Hate Waste has some delicious pumpkin recipe suggestions to try, including:

Pumpkin Seed Brownies.

Pumpkin, blue cheese and apple risotto.

Lentil and Pumpkin Lasagne.

Spiced Pumpkin, Feta and Lentil Salad.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup.

Go to the Love Food Hate Waste website and use #PumpkinRescue on social media to find out how to transform your pumpkins and cut down on food waste.

According to Hubbub’s Pumpkin Rescue campaign, 18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkins end up in bins each year in the UK.