This is weird, I know, but most years, on All Saints Day, I eat my jack-o-lantern. I usually carve the night before Halloween, then keep the pumpkin in the fridge overnight. In Edmonton, Halloween is typically a chilly evening – sometimes there’s even snow – so setting the pumpkin outside for a few hours, I still feel perfectly comfortable eating it.
I should mention that the pumpkins we carve are from Tipi Creek CSA, so they taste fantastic. Sometimes I carve other types of squash. At left is a butternut squash jack-o-lantern. I can’t attest to the eating-quality of the massive carving pumpkins sold at supermarkets.
So, after the trick-or-treaters have stopped calling, I take my jack-o-lantern off the step, cut it in half, and roast it in the oven. It is then puréed and converted to pumpkin soup or pumpkin pie.
If the idea of roasting your carved pumpkin grosses you out, there are other ways to consume your jack-o-lantern. When hollowing out any manner of squash, you should save the seeds and roast them.