This beautiful pumpkin is dedicated to the squirrel who demolished it immediately after this picture was taken.
We have named thee “Jenkins”.

That’s right, it’s the self-gratuitous pumpkin post. Because it’s fall. And we can.

Also, we love all things truly pumpkin. We’re not talking the over-commercialized pumpkin-spiced coffees or canned pumpkin pie filling. We’re talking toasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin soup stock, and homemade pumpkin baked goods.

We have SO MUCH to say about pumpkins, but we’re going to start at the beginning: with the insides.

Before you can do anything — whether carving or cooking a pumpkin — you have to clean out those inner guts. Unfortunately, the normal protocol is to just throw that yuckiness into the trash.

We’re here to tell you to STOP and SAVE IT ALL.

Everything inside the pumpkin has potential. (As Jason says, “no guts, no glory!”)

We know, we know. Removing all those seeds is a pain in the neck, but Jason’s favorite new trick is to throw all of the guts into a bowl of water and allow the seeds to float to the top. Otherwise, a bit of patience and a good sieve should do the trick. After you have successfully removed the pumpkin seeds from their stringy orange tethers, rinse them in a sieve, and lay them out on a towel or paper towel to let dry. We will roast those suckers later on.

And what about the rest of the guts? simply throw that mess in a pot, cover it with water, and boil for one or two hours. Carved a jack-o-lantern? Great! Keep the cut-out pieces, chop off the skin, and throw the meat in there too.

Congrats! You’ve officially made the base of your next fall vegetable soup! Sieve out the vegetable pieces and either keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it or throw it in the freezer if you’re not really sure when that might be 🙂 [Just be sure that if you use glass jars in the freezer, you leave enough head space at the top so that when it freezes and expands, it doesn’t crack the glass. Thanks, scientist Jason!]

ANOTHER FUN TIP: We actually keep a bag of all of our discarded vegetable pieces (onion ends and skins, carrot ends and peels, celery leaves and inner stalks, herb stalks, etc.) in the freezer so we are always ready to make the next batch of broth. A trick of the Jason trade, if you will…

Happy pumpkin’ing!