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 a pumpkin are edible: seeds, leaves, skin and flowers! Chop into chunks, drizzle with oil and salt, and roast with the skin on, or scoop out the flesh to bake, steam, or fry until soft. Canned pumpkin is a handy pantry staple for soups, smoothies, pies, sauces, stews, or baked goods, and grated pumpkin works well in sauces, stews, and sweet breads like 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

Try the classic carving fun or scary faces into pumpkins at Halloween, or draw and paint pumpkins of different sizes, shapes, and colours. This helps them last longer and reduces waste, just eat within a few days.

Kids into science? Drop a pumpkin seed into fizzy water and watch it rise and sink as the carbon dioxide bubbles carry it 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.