The coming of misty mornings and dark evenings always makes me sad, for it is the season when a mountain of tat hits the shops for Halloween. How many parents carefully eschew single-use plastic bags and bottles and yet, every year, buy their children costumes made of unrecyclable synthetic fabric, masks, and other plastic paraphernalia that are used for a matter of hours and then go into landfill? It was no surprise to me that they think of pumpkins as disposable decoration rather than food (Terrifying level of pumpkin waste at Halloween, 25 October).
Philippa Merrill
Downton, Wiltshire
• I’m all for avoiding waste, but please stop advising readers to cook with pumpkin leftovers. The fibrous innards are inedible, drying the seeds is very fiddly and takes hours of costly oven time for dubious results, and chunks left over from carving are too small to bother with. I also read that the pumpkins sold for carving are not the same as the smaller, sweeter ones used for roasting or pulping. Furthermore, if people misconstrue your advice and serve up jack-o’-lanterns that have been out on their windowsills for days, they could make themselves ill. Composting is a saner solution, but I also like the idea of turning the hollowed-out pumpkin into a jolly bird feeder.
Sue Joiner
London
• One £2 pumpkin plus potatoes, stock and milk made 16 pints of soup. So quick and easy. Economical, nutritious and delicious.
Elizabeth Palmer
Malvern, Worcestershire
• Thirty years ago I was enjoying soup with my three-year-old son and admiring the source – a ghastly, grinning, glowing, orange lantern. As he finished he smiled back at his new friend, saying: “Thank you, pumpkin.”
Rachel Twiselton
Poole, Dorset
• Would-be pumpkin chefs should not waste good ingredients on these watery Halloween globes. They are tasteless and stringy. Get some Uchiki Kuri squash and have a really good meal instead.
Murray Marshall
Salisbury
• 52% of pumpkin buyers would welcome recipes to help them make more of their Halloween leftovers? Have none of them heard of the internet?
John Shirley
Camden Town, London
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