Pumpkin diving. Well, not really. “N” of GAIN and I saved pumpkins from the dumpster. In years past, I’ve helped decorate our church. When we clear out everything from Thanksgiving, the compostable stuff went home to my compost pile. But not this year. Over the summer, an Eagle Scout made a compost bin for the giving garden, so we were able to close the loop really well! The school is unique in that it has a kitchen and cooks many things from scratch, and staff took the opportunity to dispose of their scraps in the new compost bins this year. “N” and I split the pumpkins on the boot scrapers then placed them among the uneaten fruit and cooking bits:
The pie pumpkins went home with us. I roasted them two at a time and froze the puree in two cup portions.
The flesh is very creamy compared to the stringy carving pumpkins. One favorite use of mine is Panera-like Pumpkin Squash Soup.
A couple weeks later I saw this display at the store and felt pretty victorious.