CARVING scary faces into pumpkins for Halloween is fun, but what happens to the flesh that gets scooped out? This year, The Co-operative is urging people not to throw away the flesh from their Halloween pumpkins, but use it up to make delicious and simple recipes for the family.

A medium pumpkin produces approximately two kilos of flesh. Growers estimate that around four million are sold every Halloween in the UK - so shoppers could be discarding 8,000 tonnes of perfectly edible pumpkin flesh.

The pumpkin message serves as a timely reminder about the Government-funded 'Love Food Hate Waste' campaign which aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce food waste, as well as providing practical tips and solutions to help consumers waste less food. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), UK households throw away a staggering 6.7 million tonnes of food every year - 70 per cent of which could have been eaten - at a cost of £617 per household.

So waste not, want not when you get your pumpkin from Greenbanks at Kendal this week. For a starting price of only £1 - you can have your pumpkin and eat it ... in a soup, a risotto, or perhaps roasted and mashed and served with a slice of roast rolled leg of rare breed pork from Lowick, now on sale at Plumgarths, Kendal (£4.24 per 500g).

There's pork too from Hutchinsons at Coniston, one of my favourite cuts, a pork shoulder joint (£2 / 500g). The other night I sauteed some puy lentils in an ovenproof casserole, added some shredded green cabbage, and a little home-made chicken stock, sat the pork on top, seasoned everything and drizzled over some divine Arran honey mustard, and bunged it all in the oven for a couple of hours on a medium heat. I served the pork sliced, with the lentil and cabbage mixture, and a hearty dollop of mushy peas.

There was some pork left over for sandwiches too!

More meal ideas this week from Cartmel Village Shop which has the new seasonal winter soup range from the Yorkshire Provender Company - parsnip with honey and mace (£2.33 per 500g pot), which you could serve with some of Grange Bakery's new multi seed loaf with pumpkin, sunflower, and poppy seeds (£1.84 per 800g loaf); individual chicken and bacon parcels from Steadmans at Sedbergh (boned and stuffed chicken thigh, oven cook, £1.49 each); and stewing venison from Richardsons butchers at Bowness (£4.40 / 500g), delicious served with some own-crop broccoli from Growing with Grace at Clapham (£1.61 / 500g), which also has mixed salad leaves on at £1.80 per 100g.

And finally, for those of you who have already got your Christmas thinking caps on - if you are making your own Christmas pud, Bowland Bridge Stores has Suma's 500g fruit mix (£2.36); or if you prefer the easy option, new in to Artisan in Kendal are the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Company's Christmas puds at £5.45 or £1.75 for the individual version.