Smash a Pumpkin for the Love of a Highland Steer

Halloween is over, the candy bowl is empty, and the jack-o’-lanterns on your porch are starting to slump. Don’t toss them. At Miles Smith Farm in Loudon, November brings a different kind of pumpkin season, the one where castoff pumpkins become cattle cuisine.

Every year after Halloween, people drive to my farm with trunks of pumpkins to feed my cattle. Red, our 15-year-old steer, greets every delivery in anticipation.

 “I love this time of year when we get to recycle pumpkins and feed the cows,” Ginnie said when delivering pumpkins with her son, grandson and two great-grandchildren. “It’s so much fun.” The cattle agree, though they’d say it with more slobber.

The cattle don’t care whether a jack-o’-lantern wears a goofy grin or a ghoulish scowl. They care about one thing: Can I bite it? A whole pumpkin is about as edible as a bowling ball, especially when you have no top front teeth, and cattle don’t. Hence the need for pumpkin smashers: part demolition crew, part stress-relief support group.

When a car pulls in, the runs to the fence for the show. The visitor sets a pumpkin on the smashing stump, hoists the sledgehammer high, and brings it down. Whack! Sometimes the pumpkin bounces sideways, but sooner or later it surrenders, splitting into chunks just right for munching.

For the littlest smashers (those not yet licensed for heavy weaponry), there’s the throw-it-at-a-rock method. Sometimes it works, but I’ve seen more than one parent step in for a dramatic overhead slam.

Carved pumpkins arrive with handy “mouth holes” for easy snacking, but jack-o’-lanterns have one flaw: no seeds. Those gooey pumpkin guts are the cattle’s favorite part. Many farmers swear pumpkin seeds help keep worms in check in cattle, goats, and sheep, so an uncarved pumpkin is doing the herd a health favor, too.

Do you secretly (or not so secretly) want to smash things? Turn those destructive urges into bovine bliss. There’s no wrong way to smash. The cattle don’t judge form, flair, or finesse. They want bite-sized bits.

So bring your pumpkins and squash to Miles Smith Farm, 55 Whitehouse Road in Loudon, any time of day.

Then you can brag, “I polished my halo today with a sledgehammer.”

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm. She can be reached at carole@soulecoaching.com. Drop off your pumpkins anytime and watch the cattle come running to the fence.