Don’t be spooked by recycling this Halloween
Herefordshire Council is urging county residents not to be spooked by recycling and give their well-carved pumpkins a second chance this Halloween.
Nearly every one of the pumpkins sold each year in Herefordshire
is used to create spooky jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween
celebrations.
Scarier than all those lanterns, however, is the fact that once
October 31 is over most of the pumpkins are thrown in the bin and
sent to landfill.
Laura Preece, Herefordshire Council's recycling officer, is urging
people to think twice before putting their pumpkins in with their
household rubbish.
She said: "Residents are urged to reuse their unwanted pumpkins to
make delicious soup and can even serve the soup in the shells.
Carved lanterns should be put in a home compost bin. This is great
for vegetable peelings which can then be recycled into compost and
used as a resource for the garden.
"If residents haven't got room for a compost bin, then they should
consider having a kitchen waste disposer instead," she added.
Herefordshire Council working in partnership with Worcestershire
County Council offers an £80 cashback offer on kitchen sink waste
disposers as part of the Sink Your Waste scheme.
To find out more or make a claim log onto the website at
http://www.sinkyourwaste.com/
or call 01905 766883.
Recipe for pumpkin soup
Ingredients:
One 1kg pumpkin or squash
500ml skimmed milk
100ml low-fat cream
Half an orange
Two pinches of freshly grated nutmeg
A few cloves
One bay leaf
A handful of chives
Salt and pepper
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Remove the flesh from the
pumpkin (you will want the shell to carve into a lantern. Remove
the seeds and dice.
Put the diced flesh into a saucepan with 100ml water, season and
cook for 20 minutes over a medium heat.
Grate the zest off the orange and slice thinly. Pour milk into
another saucepan, add the orange zest, nutmeg, cloves and bay leaf.
Bring to the boil, take off heat, cover and leave for 10 minutes.
Strain through a fine sieve.
Mash the flesh from the pumpkin and put it back into the pan. Add
the strained milk, bring to the boil, stirring constantly.
Before serving, add the cream and pepper and decorate with chopped
chives. Serve piping hot with crusty bread.
