Sonoma County farms want your pumpkins

Nick Papadopoulos, CEO and co-founder of the community exchange platform CropMobster that gives food waste new value, is asking people to end their Halloween in the most Sonoma County way possible: Donate their used pumpkins to farms to be used as feed and compost.

The idea for Don't Chuck Your Pumpkin was hatched last year, when Papadopoulos and Jennifer Branham, who co-owns Sebastopol's Laguna Farm CSA, started discussing how many perfectly good Halloween pumpkins, though maybe a little wilted, go to waste every year when people throw them in the trash. Marc Felton, of Sebastopol's Green Star Farm, saw a post about it on Facebook last year, and was all in.

Felton set up a trailer on his property where people could drop off used pumpkins, Branham put a note about it in her CSA boxes and Papadopoulos posted about it on CropMobster. Don't Chuck Your Pumpkin was born.

“We didn't know if the farmers wanted to do this again, and then Green Star emailed us,” Papadopoulos said. “So we responded by building a mapping tool where farms could add pumpkin drop-off points.”

This year, the effort has expanded beyond the trailer at Green Star Farm to include 10 drop points in the North Bay and three more in the East Bay.

“We like loops that close in Sonoma County,” Branham said. “So you can carve your Laguna Farm pumpkin, enjoy the pumpkin and then have that pumpkin going to another place. It's a nice closed loop.”

It's also helpful for livestock farmers, as it gives their animals a fresh alternative to feed. There's even a calculation: 7 pounds of pumpkins replaces 1 pound of pig feed, according to Green Star Farms.

“It could really add up if it turned into a movement,” Felton said. “It's definitely a better end use for the pumpkins. They're so easy to break up and are quite edible and not too fatty for the pigs. It could be a big win for us if we could get the volume.”

Felton's animals don't want your totally rotten pumpkins. Toss those in the compost pile.

“If they can give pumpkins to us in a slightly fresher state, we'll recycle it into bacon,” he said, laughing.

No painted pumpkins, either, he said. Those aren't even compostable. Felton also asked that any leftover candles or foreign objects be removed prior to donation.

“The idea is, it's a fun way to highlight ways to reduce waste,” Papadopoulos said. “Feed farms and soil, not the landfill. And each time someone brings a pumpkin out to Green Star Farm, they get to see the pigs and the goats, see the farm.”

Drop points in Sonoma County can be found by heading to sfbay.cropmobster.com/dont-chuck-pumpkin.

In the North Bay, there are three drop spots in Petaluma, three in Santa Rosa, two in Sebastopol, one in Rohnert Park and one in Novato.

Evan Wiig, executive director and founder of the Farmer's Guild, said sustainable acts like this show how Sonoma County is a uniquely good environment for movements like Don't Chuck the Pumpkin.

“The whole idea of Don't Chuck the Pumpkin is that it's carbon, and it could be turned into soil through composting, it could be turned into proteins through animal feed,” he said. “It's all about keeping that closed loop system, keeping things local. Reusing, recycling all the nutrients that we have and not taking them for granted.

“I think even here in Sonoma County, we have a long way to go, but at least here people want it. They have a vision. They can see it in the distance, and they're taking steps toward it.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.