It’s Halloween and that mean it’s time for our X&Y Fertility pumpkins to be carved into scary eggs and sperm. Check out our Instagram post here.
This year, as part of our sustainability strategy, we grew our pumpkin from a seed in the X&Y Fertility Garden. And we’re delighted with our final result!
You can check out a reel of how they grew here.
Pumpkins and fertility
1) Pumpkins are a fertility superfood.
2) They are classed as a fruit, so that are full of fibre yet without the calories.
3) The orange colour comes from the antioxidant, beta-carotene. This converts to vitamin A and is great for sperm health. Beta-carotene also helps protect against cancer and ageing. And pumpkins contain other flavonoids such as cryptoxanthin, lutein and xanthin.
4) Pumpkins have lots of the Vitamin B family, such as folate, niacin, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), thiamin and pantothenic acid.
5) Pumpkins have Vitamins A, C and vitamin E – all antioxidants that are great for sperm and eggs.
6) They contain minerals such as copper, calcium, potassium and phosphorus.
7) Zinc – the super mineral in pumpkin seeds helps production of health fertility hormones and helps sperm to be motile.
Pumpkin Smash
If you are carving your spooky pumpkin, once Halloween is over, rather than send it to landfill, please consider composting!
If you are local to Leicester, we’ll be smashing pumpkins at the annual “Pumpkin Smash” on the morning of 4th November. You are welcome to bring your old pumpkins to the Smash at the Stokes Wood Allotment, 2b Stokes Drive, Leicester.
The fun starts at 10.30am. There’ll be refreshments on-site, including pumpkin soup!
And don’t forget, if you have the remainder of the pumpkin plants, then the leaves and stems can be composted too, so please bring them along!
Pumpkin Smash collection at X&Y Fertility
If you can’t make it to the Pumpkin Smash, please drop off your carved pumpkin to the pumpkin bin at the front of the X&Y Fertility. This will be available from Wednesday 1st November to Friday 3rd November. We’ll then take them along to the Smash for you!
Pumpkin recipes
There are plenty of pumpkin recipes online, including ones for gorgeous pumpkin soup. And we also recommend finding ways to add pumpkin seeds to your diet, such as a muesli ingredient or as pumpkin seed oil to add to mashed potato.
Our favourite recipe is for our X&Y Fertility Pumpkin Smoothie. You’ll need to steam your pumpkin first alongside some lightly cooked cauliflower. Once cooled, add these to your smoothie mix with milk, cinnamon and nutmeg.
It’s that simple!