By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
ALLEGANY — Kids and adults had a smashing good time Saturday turning their jack-o-lanterns into compost at Canticle Farm’s Old State Road site in Allegany.
The scene was repeated with a twist in Salamanca, where pumpkins were dropped from the bucket of a National Grid truck about 30 feet above the ground near the high school.
Sheldon Kenyon, Farm to School educator with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cattaraugus County, helped set up the two official National Pumpkin Smashing Sites in Cattaraugus County through the Illinois Extension Service.
Smashing the dickens out of pumpkins with aluminum bats and hammers makes for a lot of compost for Canticle Farm, said Kenyon, who is on the Canticle Farm Board and leads its Education Committee.
Not only is breaking up the pumpkins for compost better than having them rot away in a landfill, but its good exercise for school kids and their parents, Kenyon said.
Heather Kinnard of Olean watched as her sons Winston and Solomon Berube smasked one pumpkin or gourd after another without tiring.
About 40 people showed up at Canticle Farm on Saturday, where they were smashing pumpkins from 10 a.m. until noon.
Taylor Euston, a volunteer at Canticle Farm, brought her father, Alex Euston of Olean, along with pumpkins to smash. Jared Slavin and Tiffany Harris also queued up with bats to transform the pumpkins into small pieces that will break down more easily in the compost pile.
“I thought it would be fun to do it,” said Taylor, after demolishing a big pumpkin.
Kenyon said the pumpkins and compostable material will come in handy for spring planting, both at Canticle Farm and at Salamanca High School where the school will have a garden.
Part of Kenyon’s job is to teach kids where their food comes from. The pumpkin smashing event was not only a good way to let off steam, it was also educational.
The heavy lifting came when it was time to lift tarps full of smashed pumpkin into compost piles.
Sponsors advised people to remove candles and decorations from the pumpkins prior to smashing.
It’s estimated that 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins are landfilled each year. Instead of letting the pumpkins rot on the front porch and then go to a landfill to create methane gas, participants helped create compost for school and community gardens.
