depends on the type of pumpkin, no? i usually buy sugar pumpkins for decorating and eating. i think that the larger "carving" pumpkins are bred for size rather and flavor and tend to be watery and not very tasty. but i do roast those seeds! yum.

Other: if I've burned a candle in it, then I compost it.

If it hasn't been candled then I gut it and eat it and compost the rind.

the seeds from all of our gourds this year are going into the gourd section of our garden. Fingers crossed it does something!

I always assumed that if you had carved it and left it out on the porch with a candle in it, that it was no longer good for eating.

As far as tossing it goes--we also compost ours.

Question - is it actually safe to eat the pumpkin if you've gutted and carved it and it's been sitting out like that for a week? Mine aren't rotting at this point, but I just assumed that all that air exposure makes it unsuitable for cooking and eating.

roast the seeds and compost the jack o lantern

we carved the pumpkins a week before halloween, and used bleach on it. And I do believe that it's NOT safe to eat it even if it only sat there for a day w/o bleach or candle. Think how many bugs and how much dirt it was exposed to! The other option actually is to feed it to the animals.

Our pumpkin was sailed on the lake as a part of the Pumpkin Sail at the local state park.

We saved the seeds and roasted them.

In humid central Texas, outdoor carved pumpkins turn black, soft, and fuzzy in about 2 days :(

^ It's the same story here in Florida. The swarm of fruit flies around our pumpkin just two days after carving looked like the plague of bugs flying out of John Coffee's mouth in The Green Mile.

Yeah, we tossed it.

Hi everyone- I would hope no one would eat their pumpkin after having it carved and sitting out for days...just to clarify- I meant either just the seeds, the meat of the pumpkin at the time of carving, or after- only if you didn't carve it.

I think once in my life I actually roasted the seeds. Usually I look at the big pile of goo and I have no desire at all to fish the seeds out, clean them and roast them. It all goes into the trash.

We always toast the seeds. I have found giving them a at least a twenty minute boil before I do produces much more light crunchy seeds. I then dry them in a tea towel, stir them up with some butter or a little oil and then spread them on a parchment paper covered baking sheet Next sprinkle on a little more salt and then bake them until they go light (they look dark and wet after being boiled) and a couple test ones taste light and crunchy. YUM!

I'm crazy about pumpkins seeds. Will definitely try Wallaby's boil-before-roasting tip. I toss mine in a little oil, then sprinkle with a cumin, brown sugar, paprika and sea salt mix. It's insanely good.

Is just me or are carving pumpkins seeming more "spaghetti squashy" inside then they used to be? I swear they used to have a firmer texture when I was a kid. Even the picture for this post shows how stringy the flesh is.

I toast the seeds and snack on them amidst handfuls of mini chocolate bars I am supposed to be handing out to trick or treaters...

LOVE the brown sugar, cumin idea!