Nutrition

Beta-carotene gives pumpkins their orange colour, similar to carrots. This helps is an antioxidant that our body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A after eating. This is essential for healthy skin and eyes and supports and strengthens our immune system.

Shopping Guide

Why not try your hand as a farmer and harvest your choice of pumpkin directly from a pumpkin patch. This makes for a fun day out with the family too. While you can eat carving pumpkins, you might find you get better, sweeter flavour from a smaller eating one (sometimes called “sugar” or “pie” pumpkins). But they are both edible!

Storage

Pumpkins can last for 3-4 months if properly stored: keep them whole, store them upside-down (stalk-side down) in a cool place, and ideally on a piece of cardboard rather than directly on the floor. Once cut, store pumpkin wrapped or sealed tightly in the fridge for a few days.

Preparation

All parts of our beloved pumpkins are actually edible, this means you can eat the seeds, leaves, skin and flowers. You can just chop into large chunks, drizzle with oil and salt and roast with the skin on, then scoop out the flesh, or you could scoop out as much as you can and bake, steam or fry the flesh until soft. Cans of pureed pumpkin can be excellent pantry staples for soup, smoothies, pumpkin pie, sauces, stews or adding to baked goods. Grated pumpkin is also wonderful in sauces, stews and sweet breads or carrot cake!

Kids in the Kitchen

For a younger child, why not get them to scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin before you cook it, or to rub a little oil on chunks of it and sprinkle with salt before roasting?

For an older child, it could be a great opportunity to teach them some essential knife skills. Show them how to chop using the bridge and claw grips with large chunks of pumpkin to make smaller ones. Keep a close eye on them and help when needed as pumpkins can be tough to cut, so this is best for kids who already know how to chop to avoid frustration.

Find more ideas for involving kids in the kitchen here.

Sensory

Pumpkins are great fun to explore through sight and touch. What does it look like? What colours do you see? What does it remind you of? How could you describe it? What does it feel like? Is it rough, smooth, soft, hard, bumpy? You could also explore cubes of cooked pumpkin and/or pumpkin puree to see how the texture and colours change.

Find more sensory ideas, tips and videos here. If you get stuck and need a little help with describing words, we have a selection for you here, too!

Serving

Next time you cook a meal with pumpkin and want to give your child an extra opportunity to get involved and engaged before eating, why not ask them to create an orange coloured centrepiece for the table? Can they find all orange items that make for an attractive display to match the pumpkin?

Find the best ways of involving your own child and their skills and interests on our Roles for Kids page.

Activities

Why not try the classic – carving fun or scary faces into pumpkins as you would at Halloween? Alternatively, try drawing or painting pumpkins – perhaps you could even find some different size, shape and coloured ones to vary the drawings! It also means they are less likely to rot and go to waste – make sure to eat them within a few days.

Kids more interested in science? Try dropping one of the seeds from the pumpkin into a glass of fizzy water, and watch it rise up and sink down again and again until the bubbles run out – the carbon dioxide bubbles bring the seed up to the top! You can find more at-home science fun with veg with our videos from Stefan Gates’ here.

Find loads more free veg-themed crafts here and games here.