Pumpkin Smash 2025: CCE Cattaraugus Partners with Local Schools and Farms to Turn Halloween Waste into Compost

Oct 8

ELLICOTTVILLE - Not sure what to do with that Halloween Jack-O-Lantern after your ghost or ghoul has had their fill of trick-or-treating? Tired of seeing (and smelling) a rotting pumpkin sitting on your front porch or lawn? Don’t trash it! Smash it!

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cattaraugus County, located in Ellicottville, NY, will be working with two school districts as well as local farmers to hold this year’s Pumpkin Smash. What is a Pumpkin Smash you ask? Families can bring their Halloween jack-o-lantern to one of the locations and smash their pumpkin with an assortment of pumpkin smashing tools. The smashed pumpkins are then added to compost piles that the schools or location will use in next year’s gardens. This eliminates your pumpkin from going to a landfill where each year 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins create methane gas.

Volunteers from the Master Gardener Program and the new Climate Stewards Program will be helping to coordinate and provide information about composting at registered Pumpkin Smash events. Interns from St. Bonaventure will be on-hand at some of the events as well. The school districts involved are Salamanca City School and Olean City School.

Two local farms will be involved this year. The first is Canticle Farm in Allegany, NY. They will be partnering with Olean City School District to host Olean’s first Pumpkin Smash. The second farm is Pumpkinville in Great Valley, NY. They will be donating pumpkins to all locations.

So, bring your family and bring your jack-o-lanterns to one of the following locations between 10:00am and noon for some fun, some information, and some community:

Olean: Nov. 1st at Canticle Farm (North Farm), 3809 Old State Road Allegany, NY
Salamanca: Nov. 1st at the corner of Fern Ave. and Front Ave., Salamanca, NY

Please make sure your jack-o-lantern has been hollowed out (no seeds that can turn into pumpkin plants in the compost) and make sure all candles/lights and any plastic decorations have been removed. No painted pumpkins please. If you would like to host a Pumpkin Smash, click this link for more information and to register: https://reg.cce.cornell.edu/PumpkinSmash_258.