Tips to have a more planet-friendly festive Halloween

🎃😱 Did you know that millions of pumpkins are tossed in the trash after Halloween, clogging up landfills and adding to food waste? Nobody is perfect and you don’t have to be either. Let’s start with little changes to have a more planet-friendly festive Halloween.

👵💚 Grandma Sita’s tips:
*Decorating pumpkins, instead of carving them, is a way to keep them fresh until cooking.
*Instead of throwing your pumpkin scraps in the bin, keep them as leftovers to make a plant-based meal (soup, cake) or pop them in the freezer.
*Nothing will go to waste if you save the seeds for roasting! One of the best ways to include pumpkin in your meals is by eating the seeds because are rich in unsaturated fats and nutrients like magnesium, iron, and fiber.
*After Halloween, smash your pumpkin into small pieces and add them to your garden compost bin.

💪 Rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, pumpkin is incredibly healthy. Pumpkin is also an excellent source of vitamin A due to its bright orange color.

👩‍🍳 There are plenty of ways to cook with pumpkin, and this versatile ingredient is used both in sweet and savory dishes like salads, curries, soups, desserts, and baked treats. Grandma Sita loves a bowl of plant-based pumpkin soup on a chilly autumn day. Recipe here 👉easy-pumpkin-soup

📗The practice of carving pumpkins for Halloween originated from an Irish myth about a man named “Stingy Jack”. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin. That’s why Jack-o’-lantern is known for the carved pumpkin lantern associated with Halloween.

🌎 Nearly half of all fruits and veggies produced globally are wasted yearly. Remember when we waste food, we are also wasting all the resources that have been used to produce that food, such as land, water, soil, energy, and all the other inputs invested. All of us can act at home to reduce our waste and every single one counts. Make soup, not waste!