Smash those pumpkins

Pumpkins ready to be smashed

Halloween is over, and so is the pumpkin season. What did you do with your Halloween pumpkins? Have you ever considered reusing them to have a smashing good time?

The City of Edmonton’s Compost ‘S Cool organized a free pumpkin smashing event on the afternoon of Saturday, November 2. People were invited to bring their Halloween pumpkins to smash and prepare for composting. Everyone had a great time and the event gets bigger every year. This year, 479 people smashed 518 pumpkins!

Composting is a natural process that breaks down organic kitchen and yard materials. Composting turns organic materials into a dark, earthy material called compost. Finished compost improves soil and helps make your plants, garden and lawn healthier. The pumpkins brought in by participants are put through the composting process and, after a few months, will be available as food for plants. During the event, volunteers helped  people make compost tea bags. The tea bags, made from coffee filters filled with a small amount of last year’s pumpkin compost and tied closed, can later be soaked in water and used to water plants.

Pumpkin compost being made into compost tea bags

The event was fun-filled, particularly for the young ones. To smash the pumpkins, participants could drop it from a set height, stomp on it to break it down into pieces, or  crush it with a long hammer. The most popular option for children, though - resulting in a long queue of eager participants - was attaching a pumpkin to a rope plant holder and swinging it into a tree or pillar. No matter the choice, every pumpkin smashing station was manned by Master Composter Recyclers to assist with the smashing and to ensure the safety of all.

Different and fun ways pumpkins were smashed

Volunteers then collected the smashed and broken pumpkin pieces into large heaps, mixed with leaves and straw, in preparation for composting.

Smashed pumpkins become compost

After all of this hard work, people warmed up with free hot chocolate provided by Compost S’ Cool.

If you are new to composting, you can learn more about the process and get useful tips and resources from Compost S’ Cool. They organize regular workshops and information sessions for members of the public. You can learn more here.

If you missed this year’s pumpkin smashing event, plan ahead for next year. If you have a soggy pumpkin or other food scraps to discard, find out if there is a Sharewaste compost site in your neighbourhood. Follow Compost ‘S Cool on Facebook to stay up to date with all of their upcoming events and workshops!

Photos and Submission by Sunanda (Volunteer)