Pumpkins aren’t just for carving.
In fact, pumpkins are an all fall berry. So besides carving them (to ward off Stingy Jack) and then watching their faces slowly deflate on your porch, what else can you do with a pumpkin?
Anything you can dream.
But if your dreams are usually pumpkin-free, here are seven things you can do to get the most from your pumpkin this year.
1) Bake a Pie
Be the hit of all parties this year by baking a homemade pumpkin pie. Sure, pumpkin pie isn’t the most original of baked goods, but it’s a staple of the fall table. And you’re reading a list of what to do with pumpkins on the lifestyle blog of a financial company. So an easy pumpkin pie recipe may be right up your alley.
Plus, you’re reading a list of what to do with pumpkins from a financial company. An easy pumpkin pie recipe may be right up your alley.
Try Allrecipes’ homemade fresh pumpkin pie recipe
2) Bake the Seeds
Baking a pie isn’t a piece of cake, so if you’re looking for an easier alternative, create a terrifically tasty treat by simply baking the seeds. Baked pumpkin seeds are the popcorn of pumpkins (popkin?) minus the pop (kin?) — they’re easy, yummy and you’re out of them before you realize you’ve even started.
Try Food.com’s easy roasted pumpkin seeds recipe
3) Grow More Pumpkins
If you’ve got a green thumb (and not from bad circulation), then save the seeds and plant them in your garden. Gardening is good for your health and growing your own pumpkin is great for a confidence boost. Think about it.
“Nice pumpkin, (your name here).”
“Thanks, (impressed friend’s name here). I grew it myself.”
Feels good, doesn’t it?
Here’s All About Pumpkins’ tips and tricks for growing your own pumpkins
4) Feed the Birds
Pumpkins are more than pies and seeds. Put the rest of that berry to work (remember earlier? A berry? Still can’t really get over that) by creating a pumpkin bird feeder. Music helps plants grow, so why not add some bird songs to your budding pumpkin patch’s playlist?
They work just like regular bird feeders — birds get a ¼ of the seeds and squirrels eat the rest.
Martha Stewart has step-by-step instructions to building your own pumpkin bird feeder
5) Use It as a Bowl
Don’t want to contribute to the bird laziness epidemic? “Get your own seeds, you freeloaders. You can fly.” Then make your pumpkin a bowl to help fill your own belly.
Use it to hold soup, to bake a whole meal in or as a tiny, festive cooler. Their berry skin (sorry, never gonna get over this berry revelation) makes a great insulator, and it’s just a cool way to eat (cool, insulator, get it?).
Here’s a Food Network recipe for pumpkin soup in a pumpkin bowl
Try Fav Family Recipes’ guide for cooking a dinner in a pumpkin
Southern Living has what you need if you want to make a pumpkin cooler
6) Make Soap
Pumpkins are dirty work. So if you’re a fan of both DIY and cleanliness, in a few easy steps you can make you own pumpkin soap. Fight the flu and smell like pumpkin spice (the spice of fall). Win-win.
Not only will pumpkin soap bars hide the less savory aromas of your bathrooms (no matches needed), but they make great gifts too. Your friends and family will appreciate their home’s new, berry-scented soap. (Question: Am I hitting the berry thing too hard? Answer: Impossible)
Soap Deli News is going to help you make great pumpkin soap
7) Explode It With Gravity
If you’re like Icabod Crane and hold a grudge aginst our most famous porch-dwelling berries (last time), why not get them as far away from you as possible? Build yourself a pumpkin catapult and wreck havoc on the local pumpkin population.
It’s like the Fourth of July. Except all the fireworks are orange. And they explode on the ground.
There’s even a pumpkin chucking world championship, so you and other pumpkin hurlers around the world can show those orange fools the true meaning of fall — 9.8 m/s2, GRAVITY!
Instructables has a step-by-step guide to creating a portable pumpkin catapult
Written by Patrick Long, Cruiserweight Champion of The Words at Payoff
