Wondering what to do with your leftover Halloween pumpkins and gourds? Here are some options to avoid rotten jack-o-lanterns on your porch.
🎃 Smash ‘Em Up!
Celebrate the end of the Halloween season at Kamin Science Center’s Great Pumpkin Smash on Nov. 1. Drop your carved pumpkin from a 16-foot height, watch it splatter, and learn the physics behind the crash. Pumpkin-smashers get $5 off admission. Costumes are encouraged!
Or take your decaying pumpkins back to the patch! Shenot Farm in Wexford will let you wreck, roll, and smash your jack-o-lanterns 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Nov. 1-9.
🐖 🐐 Donate to Pigs & Goats
Feed the herd at Allegheny GoatScape, a team of goats that help control invasive species in the city, by donating your whole, uncut pumpkins. They must be firm, fresh, and mold-free; larger than your palm; and without paint or other decorations.
- Drop off your pumpkin through Nov. 30 at 5222 Shamrock Way in Garfield or 447 Marshall Avenue in Perry South.
Pigs like pumpkins too! Donate your uncarved, unpainted pumpkins to Pigsburgh Squealers, a pig rescue at 130 Lampus Lane in Tarentum, until Thanksgiving.
- Your donation will also benefit your teeth! Polished Dental is running a promotion where you can get discounts if you donate a pumpkin to Pigsburgh Squealers.
🥧 Roast & Eat
Whole, undecorated pumpkins are great in soup or baked goods. They may have been sold as “carving” pumpkins, but they are perfectly edible. (I roast, blend, and freeze mine to use all winter long.) Get ideas with some of our favorite pumpkin treats.
🌱 Compost
If you already compost, cut up your pumpkin and add it to the bin — just be sure to take the seeds out so they don’t sprout.
If you don’t compost at home, the city accepts food waste drop-offs at farmers markets in East Liberty and on the North Side. Pittsburgh Food Policy Council is also running a compost pilot at the Lawrenceville Farmers Market.
- Learn how to compost at workshops with Pennsylvania Resources Council or Grow Pittsburgh.
Note: Do not eat, compost, or donate pumpkins that’ve been preserved with chemicals, hairspray, or vinegar; or if they have paint, glitter, or other decorations.
