Knowing is Half the Battle: Hey There Pumpkin Ya Looking Good!

A humble squash can carry a season, and we prove it with a tour that starts in the kitchen and ends at the zoo gate. We talk through the edible side first—why pumpkin belongs in both pie and risotto, how roasted seeds punch above their weight in flavor and nutrition, and when a silky puree can replace cream to make pastas and bakes feel richer without the heaviness. We share easy ideas for turning a single pumpkin into multiple meals, from cozy soups and chili to a stuffed shell that doubles as a showpiece on the table.

Then we look at what happens after the carving party. Instead of tossing the remains, we walk through smarter paths: feed scraps to chickens, pigs, or goats when appropriate, or chop and compost to loop nutrients back into the soil. We swap stories about zoos turning pumpkins into enrichment—otters poking and elephants joyfully stomping—and step into the jaw-dropping world of giant pumpkin records that stretch past two thousand pounds. It’s a reminder that food, fun, and community can sit on the same vine.

Of course, we couldn’t skip the folklore and creativity wrapped around jack-o’-lanterns. Whether you carve a friendly grin or a jagged scowl, the porch becomes a tiny gallery and the neighborhood a nightly stroll through warm light and imagination. We even nod to pumpkin’s cameo in horror lore and the enduring appeal of dried gourds as long-lasting décor. If you’re hungry for fall recipes, curious about sustainable habits, or just love the craft of making something simple feel special, you’ll find fresh ideas here.

If this conversation sparks a new recipe or a better way to use up your leftovers, share it with a friend, subscribe for more curious deep dives, and leave a quick review to help others discover the show.

Chapters

• 0:48 Hello And Topic Tease
• 1:00 Culinary Uses Sweet And Savory
• 2:11 Repurpose Pumpkins And Compost
• 3:01 Zoo Enrichment And Giant Gourds
• 4:32 Horror Lore And Jack-O’-Lantern Art
• 5:18 Gourds, Origins, And Fall Sendoff

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Uh hoy hoy. Oh hello my friend. Uh I thought I'd take this time today to tell you about our friend here at ITEL Stories, the pumpkin. Alright, man. Is that cool with you, bro? Indeed. Alright. The pumpkin has many uses. The uses of the pumpkin is what this is about, Owen, just to uh you know, let you know. So it has many uses. Uh you can bake sweet and savory dishes, make roasted seeds, or create puree Asian stocks. Uh they can also be repurposed by feeding them to animals, composting them, or even using them in the fall themed decorations uh or crafts of the season. You know. That's pretty interesting right there. Uh obviously some of the favorite uses is pumpkin pie. I mean, everybody likes pumpkin pie. You like pumpkin pie, Owen? I'm pretty sure you do, right? Okay, alright. Just double checking. Uh, as far as savory dishes that are listed, uh pumpkin soups, which I've never had. Have you ever had a pumpkin soup? I cannot say that I have. Okay. Uh risotto?

SPEAKER_01: 0:55

Um I've had risotto, but not pumpkin risotto. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00

I'm I'm slacking on my fall cuisine here, apparently. Well, it's very American. I mean, pumpkins are from here, guys. So uh stews, chili, or stuff it uh inside the shelf of a baked dish as well. That's another thing you can do. I often wonder what you use when you do that. Is it like the guts minus the seed that you st use? I don't know. That's a question I should have had answered before uh I did this pumpkin thing. Now, as well, you can use it for a puree. Blend cooked pumpkin to make puree for baking smoothies or creamy pasta sauces, which, you know, that makes sense to me. As well, you know, you can use it to feed animals. Uh you can feed cooked or raw pumpkin to livestock, like chickens, pigs, and goats. And you know, here I in the PDX, I uh well, sort of, I'm here in the PDX, but nonetheless, I watched the news. Was it the airport? Well, no, that's they that's just like the I know, yeah. No, a PDX airport is the thing. But no, it's uh see, see, you just don't know. No, no, no. No, I well that's the I understand. I'm sorry. No, that's what they call like the area kind of like the poorly surrounding areas PDX. So Yeah, I'm I'm behind the behind the times. Apparently so. Yeah, nonetheless. So and back to pumpkins. Okay. Uh, you know, it can uh oh, they feed the animals at the zoo pumpkins this time of year. Uh there's a couple contests that go on in Oregon, and uh the winning pumpkins and remaining pumpkins go to the animals at the zoo. The otters really love them. That's kind of crazy. And the elephants, the rhino, you they they put them out there so they can crush them. The elephants seem to really like to squish them. That's a thing. So uh pumpkins, and another fun use. Uh elephants uh love to squish them. Okay, they're good squishers.

SPEAKER_01: 2:41

Well, they'd love this one. Do you know the largest pumpkin ever recorded in terms of weight? I have no idea, my friend.

SPEAKER_00: 2:49

I I couldn't even guess.

SPEAKER_01: 2:50

I don't know the pumpkin's name, but apparently twins Ian and Stuart Patton in England. So they do grow elsewhere. Uh 2,819 pound pumpkin. It's still very small compared to an elephant, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:07

That's more squishing. That's way, way bigger than I thought. I was gonna go like 800 pounds or something, was my guess.

SPEAKER_01: 3:15

That even seems quite large.

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

I know, I thought it was head. Yeah. Right. I thought I was up there, pumpkin head. Yeah. Wasn't that like a horror movie?

SPEAKER_01: 3:27

I think that was uh I've never seen it, but I think that was uh Jennifer. Or no, that was Wepricon, right? It was Jennifer Anderson's first movie. There's some like famous person, I think, that was in Pumpkin Head, but I could be wrong. I don't know. Oh yes, it was a horror movie I have not seen, so very informative.

SPEAKER_00: 3:44

Yet another use for the pumpkin, the almighty pumpkin horror movies, you know, scare tactics. That that takes me to decorations, you know, as well. The uses. Uh you can use it to make a jack-o' lantern, you know, and that and that's really that's very artistic owing. You know, it's up to you what you put on that pumpkin. You know, you can have a smiley, happy jack-lantern, you can have a creepy-looking, toothless, sort of jagged whatnot jack-lantern, right? You can have all sorts of things going on. Yeah, there's there's many, many things owing McMichael. These are Owen the Mick, Mc Michael is uh, you know, he's Scottish and he's you know, he's not from there, but the UK, that's the original source of Halloween, although they did not have pumpkins. So moving on.

SPEAKER_01: 4:27

So they do now.

SPEAKER_00: 4:29

Yeah, they do, yeah, obviously, right? Yeah, that's a thing. So I don't know. Those are uh those are the uses for the pumpkin people. If you want to, ooh, oh yeah, also you can decorate them, uh you can like a gourd of sorts, you can dry them like a gourd and do things of that nature, like small pumpkins. Owen's a big fan of gourds. People don't know this about my phone. Huge fan, huge fan, big fan, pro gourd. He's an advocate for gourds, he doesn't understand why they're so cheap. Gourds for all, apparently. They should be, yeah. Nonetheless, nothing, no relation to goiders, people. Okay, don't want that creepy out. Yeah, all right. Well, hey guys, uh, now that you know about pumpkins, I hope you have a great fall season.