It was only half a minute long, and to be honest, it didn't click at first. I read the final words on screen... Decorate it, cook it, eat your pumpkin. HUBBUB.
What's all that about? What is Hubbub?
It turns out that Hubbub is an environmental charity, and this is their campaign to avoid the annual Halloween food waste. Apparently 14.5 million pumpkins go to waste every year. Three in five ** people will buy a pumpkin, and half of those fruits will be carved and then discarded. HUBBUB has a whole website dedicated to encouraging people to keep their pumpkins whole, decorating the outside - then after Halloween, to peel them and use the flesh for tasty meals. Eat them, not waste them.
This Hubbub campaign has apparently been running all through October, but I confess I only came across it on Tuesday.
I wholeheartedly approve of the intentions behind Hubbub's campaign, but I wonder how many people are aware of it?
Do your family carve pumpkins?
And what do you do with the flesh?
[**I'm not sure I actually believe this statistic]
I think I've carved a pumpkin once or twice, about 40 years ago! I'm not crazy about eating pumpkin in any form. I thought I read somewhere the pumpkins grown for Halloween tended to be the less flavoursome varieties than ones grown specifically as food?
ReplyDeleteHow many acres which could have produced FOOD are being sacrificed for the growing of these flsvourless monstrosities? 🎃🥺
Deleteand hundreds left laying in the fields of all the landowners who've jumped on the 'pick your own pumpkin patch' bandwagon.
ReplyDeleteAt least those are ploughed in for the good of the land.
True - but still wasteful
DeleteI put a post on our local Facebook about the damage discarded pumpkins do to hedgehogs who eat them and then die of dehydration through diarrhoea. I got called a killjoy! Catriona
ReplyDeleteI read of this too. Horrid, when hedgehogs are already endangered
DeleteI think the whole thing is ghastly joke not intended. All the plastic awfulness in shops, children trick or treating, cheap nasty costumes, and the pumpkin waste. I sound like a real grinch and don't mean to spoil childrens fun but it really is a money making machine and not originally "celebrated" in the UK until a few years ago when imported from the US. Rant over. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteI have just been into Aldi to buy some eggs, with two grandchildren in tow. It was 3pm, and plenty of kids in the store. There was an older assistant [aged 50+] dressed as an absolutely hideous witch with a horned headdress [like Maleficent ] and white make up. Rosie and Jess both recoiled in horror as she bared her teeth at another customer who was approaching the Self Checkouts. We queued at the regular checkout, and I said the to the girl on the till that I felt that it was far too scary for small children. I am still debating whether to email Aldi and register my disapproval. It was rather OTT.
DeleteThe Irish immigrants brought Halloween to the US, where it became the commerialised horror that it is now imported to wherever someone wants to make money. Lydia
DeleteAnd now the Irish Tourist Board has an ad campaign "come and visit the place where Halloween started"
DeleteI've not ever carved a pumpkin before but I don't know if I've cooked one either. Agree about the wasted space growing them. They take up a lot of room with their vines. Kx
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much Halloween stuff is done in your school, Kezzie...
DeletePersonally, nothing. I have a song/game called Pass The Pumpkin which is a great game/nice song but that's it. My school doesn't do anything Halloweeny per se though the After School club does I think. I hate Halloween and am extremely vocal on the subject.
DeleteIt is much safer to draw a pumpkin face with a marker pen than to mess around with a sharp knife.
ReplyDeleteMy 69p pumpkin is just for soup, with onion, celery, red lentils and tomato purée. The chickens like the seeds and pith.
I agree about the pen being safer than the sword !! And I 'm sure the chickens appreciate the leftovers
DeleteI think I have only carved a pumpkin once when the boys were young. They were quite impressed with their efforts, but even they realised that they then couldn't eat the pumpkin, so I had to go out and buy another one to turn into soup.
ReplyDeleteI am sure it must be hard to carve it in such a way as to retain the flesh for cooking purposes.
DeleteNow we’ve moved to Belper, there is a local pig farm which welcomes donations of pumpkins. Apparently the pigs love them.
ReplyDeleteThey tell me that pigs will eat anything...
DeleteI really dislike pumpkins, in any form. It is hard to see fields of them growing and realising that at least half of them are just so much discarded waste.
ReplyDeleteI agree
DeleteWe inherited the Hallowe'en nonsense when we came to Canada, and when we had our son, there was nothing to do but go along with it in moderation. It wasn't as bad back then over 40 years ago. We carved a pumpkin each year, my favourite was modelled on the Prime Minister one year. We saved the seeds and roasted them, but I didn't save much of the pulp that I could remember. We decorated and children came to the house in costume for treats. Now I buy a few treats just in case, and we eat them! The most interesting use of a pumpkin is the local pumpkin boat race, where a couple of giant pumpkins are hollowed out and are big enough to be floated on a small lake with occupant! I've always wanted to go and see it.
ReplyDeleteIn Austria, pumpkin seed oil is a popular condiment. Here, we make pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup and so on. sometimes buying canned pumpkin pulp. It's a good veggie to have, not meant for decor or boating!
It IS a good veggie, with many uses
DeleteI've carved a few pumpkins when my daughter was younger. I'd save the seeds to toast them, but, the pumpkin got recycled in the yard waste bin, afterwards.
ReplyDeleteMy friend roasts the pumpkin seeds as snacks for her children
DeleteI have only cut a pumpkin once and that was to make two temporary bird feeders. I didn't attempt anything else as I wanted to keep all my fingers intact to avoid another hospital visit :-)
ReplyDeleteThey can be very tough to cut into
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