Pumpkin Community Lunch

As part of our Pumpkin rescue events all are welcome to the Stokes Wood  Community Sharing Pumpkin Lunch and pumpkin carving demonstration at Stokes Wood allotments, 2B Stokes Drive, Leicester LE3 9BR

This event held as part of the Leicester and Leicestershire Pumpkin Rescue will help to inspire everyone to carve fantastic pumpkins and use the flesh for making delicious food.  There will be a range of pumpkin recipes to try as well as pumpkin dishes brought by those attending to share. It is hoped that most of those coming to the event will bring a pumpkin dish that will serve up to 4 people. For ideas see the recipe links below.

Tickets £5 Concessions £3 Numbers are limited so please book at 07976592061

Pumpkin Carving Demonstration

 Whether you are an experienced pumpkin carver or this is going to be the first time you have carved a Halloween pumpkin you may benefit from pumpkin the  carving tips offered at this demonstration which should help you create a  pumpkin lantern  to celebrate  Halloween.

 The demonstration is one of the  Halloween activities  being offered following  the Community lunch and Best carved pumpkin competition at Stokes Wood allotments 2B Stokes Drive Leicester LE3 9BR on Saturday 26th October, The Demonstration will start immediately after the lunch.

To book a place please ring 07976592061

I am currently updating and enlarging the www.carryoncomposting.com page on hot composting. Over the next week or so more  diagrams showing diffent methods and mixes for layer the heap will be added. This will mean that in addition to the conventional alternating Greens and Browns  we will be including layering choices that include soil, manure and lime. 

It is also planned including an 1970s  layering system that does not require turning.

With Halloween appraoching it is a good time to look at the different methods of composting pumpkin and indeed to think about  pumpkin recipes  to download details go to   http://www.carryoncomposting.com/

We have now published more details of the pumpkin waste sent to landfill and information as to how schools, the hospitality industry and home cooks can help reduce this waste.
Go to http://www.carryoncomposting.com/441149742 for information and  downloaded flyers.

A further addition is a downloadable  power-point presentation.. This may be modified and used to increase awareness in community groups, garden clubs, allotments and school.

Links to websites containg a wide range of pumpkin recipes are also provided

Check out and support  Hubbub the charity behind the Pumpkin rescue  https://www.hubbub.org.uk/pumpkin-rescue

Halloween is now Britain’s third biggest commercial holiday, after Christmas and Easter, and the
country’s second biggest party night after New Year’s Eve. A spooky side of Halloween is the
shocking number of edible pumpkins that go to waste each year
Over a quarter of all Halloween pumpkins end up in landfill, that is approximately 18,000 tonnes
of food waste with the flesh of many pumpkins going straight to the food waste bin or composting without being eaten - Hubbub and the local Pumpkin Rescue team are urging pumpkin carvers across the county and city to join this year’s Pumpkin Rescue to help reduce the waste sent to landfill. This year should see the biggest ever Pumpkin Rescue event and it is hoped that Leicestershire will play a significant part by organising and participating in a range of fun-filled cooking, carving and composting events festivals for all the family.

 Horsetail or mare’s tail is an invasive, deep-rooted (2m or 7ft) perennial weed that will spreads usually by rhizomes from adjacent gardens/plots and by  stem fragments in composts or manures.  The deep roots make it difficult to remove by digging. Although  Plants growing near the surface can be dug out, but occasional weeding will not be effective as it will regrow from any small pieces left in the soil. Continually removing the shoots as soon as they appear may  reduce infestation after several years.

I have recommended soaking these shoots to drown the plants in earlier blogs and now update the blog with more photos. For the set  follow the link Plant Liquid Feeds

To recap the plants, need to be fully submerged under the water so  are best put in a sack or an old vegetable net  pinned down with a large stone or to suspend the bag it in a submerged weighted bag .  Regular stirring is recommended. The fermentation process can range from  10 days to 3 weeks, depending on the ambient temperature but our photos show a longer period as I soak for months rather than weeks. During fermentation the mixture will produce gas which will  bubble on the surface. Once the bubbling has stopped the  it has finished bubbling the liquid can be strained and used.