The Picking Patch has recently opened a new site in Warlingham this Halloween. It is a joint venture between a local farm and a national events company, and is the closest home grown pick-your-own site to central London.
The Picking Patch has around 16 acres of land to explore, full of real living pumpkins for visitors to harvest for carving, eating and decorating. There are over 20 varieties to choose from and everyone is welcome to come and fill their wheelbarrow to the brim! Some of the more unusual pumpkins include the polar bear, the goosebump and even the cute munchkin (yes, that’s really what they’re called!).
Each year, the Picking Patch organisation grows around 150 000 pumpkins and the new addition of Halloween ‘Spooky Maize Mazes’ has been a great success with hundreds of families and groups of friends enjoying the spaces and making memories.
However, with around 40% of people in the UK buying pumpkins for Halloween, what is truly spooky is the amount that we throw away. More than 18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkin end up in landfill sites in Britain every year.
When asked what the organisation is doing to avoid unnecessary pumpkin waste, Picking Patch director - Niall Smith, stated that, “Leftover pumpkins are donated to food banks or sometimes left in the field for wildlife to break down”. He continued, “We recommend that people try and make use of their pumpkins by repurposing them after Halloween. Popular methods include cooking, composting or leaving them for animals and other creatures”.
The majority of people don’t actually want to waste their pumpkins, they simply don’t know what to do with them. Yet, from the flesh to the seeds, almost all of a pumpkin is edible and there are plenty of recipes online that you can try out. For example, you could make pumpkin bread, soup or pie, and even roast your leftover pumpkin seeds to create a healthy snack.
As an added bonus, pumpkins are full of valuable nutrients including vitamins A, C and E along with lots of fibre. This means that eating them has great health benefits too. So, why not try recycling your pumpkin this Halloween and helping to tackle Britain's food waste problem.
