Pumpkins go from patch to pig sty
Halloween is over and you may be wondering what to do with those leftover Jack-o-Lanterns.
One place that they can go is to the pig sty at a farm in Calhan.
There they might be enjoyed by Buddy and Cowboy, two pigs at Heritage Belle Farms in Calhan who enjoy their daily pumpkin snack.
Pumpkins that came from Care and Share Food Bank in Colorado Springs. Better known for donating to humans, it’s the swine that are benefiting from this drive.
Heather Yanke of Colorado Springs has made her donation of pumpkin after pumpkin: “12 pumpkins from our neighborhood,” she said.
She didn’t just donate her own pumpkins, she donated her neighbors’ pumpkins too.
“We walked around the neighborhood and got as many pumpkins as we could,” she said.
So why would you want to donate your pumpkin instead of simply throwing it away? It’s because it will be a long time before they totally decompose in a landfill.
“The fruit itself has a very hard, protective rime on the outside,” said Katie Belle Miller of Heritage Farms.
Donating your pumpkin also helps Care and Share. The food bank has an exchange with a number of local farms, including Heritage Belle.
“Forty per cent of what we distribute here at Care and Share is produce and half of that comes from local farms,” the CEO of Care and Share Food Bank Lynne Telford said.
The pigs aren’t the only ones that will benefit from these pumpkins. It turns out that the birds like them too.
But the piles of pumpkins at Heritage Belle will definitely find a good home.
“We’ll be sharing with other pumpkin farmers that we know,” said Miller.
And if the pumpkins are bad, they’ll still be in a better place than the landfill.
“We actually throw them in our compost pile,” said Miller.
That way every person – and every pig – goes away happy.
If you still have that old pumpkin sitting around you have until Sunday night to donate it to the Pumpkins and Pigs drive.
You can donate at the Care and Share Food Bank on Constitution Avenue in Colorado Springs.
