8 Things To Do With All Those Pumpkins

The amount of pumpkins this time of year always amazes me.

You head to the grocery store and can spot the giant cardboard box of pumpkins from across the parking lot. You head to the fall and pumpkins reside alongside gourds and Indian corn. You visit a local fest, like the at this weekend, and the theme revolves around pumpkins.

See where this is going? This season is all about the pumpkins! If you make the most of the fall season and experience all of the above activities, you might end up collecting double-digit pumpkins. Besides carving a scary or funny face in it more than a month from now, what are you supposed to do with all those pumpkins?

Here are eight ideas to help you out:

• If you do go to the Fall Festival in Palos this weekend, they’ll have a station where you can paint the pumpkins. You could do this at home too, just by purchasing some craft paints and a paintbrush. Painting a face (or whatever you wish) on the pumpkin will allow it to last longer than hollowing it and carving it.
• The home decorating possibilities are endless with pumpkins. Outside, you could flank your front entry with two large pumpkins, create a pile of medium-sized pumpkins, or fill a basket or barrel with small pumpkins and gourds. You could also carve it into a bowl shape, clean it out and fill it with bird seed.
• Inside, you could flank your fireplace with large pumpkins or place small pumpkins on your fireplace mantel, coffee table or desk. Really get creative by hollowing out the pumpkin for the sake of using it as a vase for flowers or for using it as a serving bowl for cooked pumpkin seeds, soup, dip or anything you prefer.
• Give the pumpkin as a gift, either whole or by using one of the methods above. Paint it, dress it up with a hat and scarf and give it to someone that way, or hollow it out and place fall flowers inside of it. This would make the perfect gift for a party host, a teacher, an under-the-weather friend or anyone else you can think of.
• Cook dinners with the pumpkins. You can slice the pumpkins in half, cook them in the oven and create a pumpkin puree, much like canned pumpkin, but way fresher. Use it for soup, casserole dishes or pumpkin ravioli. Really, it could be added to almost any favorite dish.
• Bake with it. Use that same pumpkin puree to bake pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin butter, pumpkin pancakes and so much more. From experience, I know that you will taste the difference. Don’t forge to also bake the seeds!
• Save a few of the seeds to plant in your backyard or in a little indoor pot. You never know. Next year, you might just have to walk outside for a pumpkin!
• Pumpkins last a long time, but once they begin to rot, they will also begin to smell. Rather than plopping them into a trash can whole, why not have some fun with it? Find yourself a baseball bat and partake in traditional “pumpkin smashing.” Just make sure to stay on your own property and clean up your mess afterward.