So far this year, I’ve hand peeled 1.2 tonnes of pumpkin. Yes, you read that correctly.
1.2 tonnes. By hand and there are still more pumpkins to come.
After peeling that many, I can tell you something with absolute certainty: the ugliest pumpkin can still taste absolutely delicious.
Some of the pumpkins that come through our doors at Woodlane Pantry aren’t going to win any beauty contests. They might have marks, scratches, scarring or an odd shape. They may simply not meet the specifications expected by the conventional market, but cut them open and, more often than not, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the food inside, and that’s the part that frustrates me.
We don't eat pumpkins with our eyes
A grower has prepared the soil, planted the crop, watered it, watched the weather, managed pests, harvested the pumpkin and invested time and money getting it to that point. Then something as simple as a mark on the skin can reduce its value or make it difficult to sell.
The skin! The part that, in most cases, we're going to peel off anyway. When I look at one of those pumpkins, I don't see waste, I see soup, risotto, curry, pasta sauce, scones, cakes, muffins, bread, gnocchi, fritters and roasted pumpkin. I see pumpkin purée that can be frozen for another day. I see pumpkin dried and powdered so its life can be extended for months. There are so many things we can do with a pumpkin that doesn't look perfect.
Finding the job an ingredient is good at
This has become one of the biggest lessons I've learned through Woodlane Pantry. Saving food isn't just about taking something that might otherwise go to waste.
It's about finding the job that ingredient is good at.
A marked pumpkin doesn't need to sit beautifully on a supermarket shelf to have value.
Maybe its job is to become a warming pumpkin soup, a risotto or become powder that can add flavour and nutrition to another product. Maybe it ends up in someone's pumpkin cake on a Sunday afternoon. The possibilities are almost endless.
Once that pumpkin is peeled, chopped and cooked, nobody knows whether it was perfectly round, slightly wonky or had a mark across its skin. They just know it tastes good.
Food waste isn't just about food
This is the part of the conversation I think we sometimes miss. When food doesn't find a market, we haven't only wasted the food, there is a farmer behind it. That's why my mission has never been simply about collecting unwanted produce for free.
I want to create value from surplus produce so growers can be paid for what they've grown. If we can find another use and another market for produce that doesn't meet traditional specifications, we're not only keeping food out of waste streams. We're creating another opportunity for the farmer who grew it and that's a very different way of thinking about food rescue.
From an ugly pumpkin to someone's dinner
At Woodlane Pantry, we take these pumpkins, peel them, process them and give them another life. Some of that beautiful pumpkin ends up in our Pumpkin Soup and Pumpkin Risotto. Instead of being judged by what it looked like in the paddock, it's being judged by something much more important:
How it tastes and that is exactly how it should be. So the next time you see a pumpkin with a scar, a funny shape or a few marks on its skin, don't write it off take it home, make soup, curry, risotto, roast it, ash it, bake it into a cake, turn it into scones, freeze it, or dry it. Experiment with it and have fun.
Give that pumpkin a job.
Because after hand peeling 1.2 tonnes of them this year, I've learned one thing: Ugly pumpkins can make absolutely beautiful food and every pumpkin we find a home for is another small step towards a food system where good food is valued for what it can become — and the farmers who grow it are valued too.
Real food. Rescued with care.