Smashing pumpkins for a cause

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The Glen Ridge Environmental Committee staged its third annual Pumpkin Smash on Saturday morning, Nov. 2.

The event, held at the Benson Street Garden, gave parents and kids goggles, mallets and the opportunity to wack to smithereens the Halloween pumpkins and gourds that a few days before were their honored guests. But it was for a good cause.

According to Amanda McCabe, the committee chairwoman, the event encouraged composting and it did. When it was over, seven, 64 gallon toters or bins were filled with pumpkin and diverted from the waste stream.

“A lot of people just put their pumpkins in the garbage,” McCabe said. “The problem is that the garbage goes to Newark and is incinerated which produces more pollution.”

The borough, she said, would like its residents to practice sustainability, another example being to mulch leaves into lawns. Composting them is OK, too.

The Pumpkin Smash attracted little kids and parents. They quickly learned a ripe pumpkin is a tough pumpkin. Mallet blows bounced off them. Gourds were almost impossible to crack. But with a child’s pummeling, the cucurbita maxima (pumpkin) gave way while the cucurbita pepo (gourd) flattened. Adult smashers generally hurled the pumpkins to the ground. When successful, they came away with the satisfied look as if they had rung the bell of the state fair’s high striker.

McCabe also said the committee has created a native seed library at the public library.

“They’re free and beautifully packaged,” she said. “Winter is the time to sow native perennial seeds because they require winter stratification of cold and wet to germinate in the spring.”

And with spring in mind, she said the annual Arts and Eco Fair is scheduled for May 17.

  Glen Ridge, Pumping Smashing