Upcoming event: Pumpkins in the Park Festival
I once read a recipe that suggested using your leftover jack-o-lantern to make pumpkin soup. Well…maybe if you hadn’t already put a lit candle in it for hours on end! I don’t personally think that the wax and soot build-up would be particularly tasty or healthy*, so I toss our old jack-o-lanterns onto the compost pile to decompose. It can be quite amusing to watch them cheerfully moulder away over the next few months (their high water content also helps balance the dry leaves already on the pile). But wouldn’t it be nice for them to have one more blaze of post-Halloween glory before heading off to that great pumpkin patch in the sky?
On Saturday 1 November, bring your old jack-o-lanterns to the Peace Flame in Rotary Park to help create a beautiful pumpkin-lit trail for everyone to enjoy (tealights will be provided). The pumpkins will be hauled away for composting afterward, keeping them out of both the landfill and your guilty conscience–so they definitely won’t come back to haunt you. Nothing scary about that!
The First Annual Pumpkins in the Park Festival
When: Saturday 1 November 2008, 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Rotary Park, Saskatoon, SK (Google Maps)
For more information: call Reta Derksen at 653-2783
Sponsored by the Nutana Community Association
* If you do want to cook a jack-o-lantern after Halloween, you should really draw on the pumpkin rather than actually cutting right into it. Check out these tips on how to cook them and how to put the ‘green’ into Halloween.
