Remember last month when you happily sat down to carve a jack-o-lantern? You scooped out all of the guts, probably hunted through pinterest for the perfect pumpkin seed recipe and didn’t think twice about spending the time to roast them.
If you can carve a jack-o-lantern for Halloween, you can make your own pumpkin puree for Thanksgiving!
I promise it’s easy and delicious!
You’re probably asking yourself why you should go to the trouble.
- Canned goods are typically lined with BPA. If it’s not BPA then it is probably some other form of plastic that I would prefer to avoid.
- It’s cheaper. From a couple of junk mail coupon books I found in the mail, it looks like the average can of pumpkin puree costs $1.89. I bought my pumpkin for $2 and it made at least 4 cups.
- Support your local economy. I’d say Farmers Markets are near the top of the list of things that make me happy. We stopped by the last market of the year (5 inches of fresh snow will not stop me!) and bought all of our Thanksgiving vegetables from a local farmer.
Fun Fact: Libby’s supplies 85% of the worlds canned pumpkin. Climate change might threaten that supply. - You can compost the scraps. We haven’t figured out how to compost in Kalamazoo yet, but if I could I would and life would be great! Sure, you can recycle a can. But the extra energy to down cycle it is just unnecessary.
- Bragging rights. There aren’t many people out there that make pumpkin pies from scratch… Here is my go to crust recipe from Joy the Baker, my online baking bible.
Paint This City Green 