Good Food Oxford is not, as its name might suggest, a trendy instagram-oriented blog focused on recommending restuarants - they're talking about good in an eco-friendly sort of way: food that's good for the world. A key part of their campaign is tackling food waste. This isn't even about food we've allowed to go mouldy in the back of the fridge. It's food that's perfectly edible, but gets thrown away. Wasting food also wastes the CO2 produced by growing, transporting and storing it, and of course a household's money. The average household blows £470 per year on wasted edible food; the average household with kids, nearer £700.

So what's the answer to this depressing issue? If you want to tackle it, where do you start? With a festival of course! And thus the Pumpkin Festival was born. We buy and carve a lot of pumpkins in the UK, and most of the flesh goes to waste - roughly 18,000 tonnes in fact. But it needn't, as a host of events and recipes make clear. By celebrating this humble yet vivid veg, you can make a serious point enjoyable.

The events are nice and varied! The Festival is championing the various Farmer's Markets around Oxford where you can buy pumpkins that actually taste nice (a good start!) but there are special events laid on too. Sandy Lane Farm are hosting a weekend of pumpkin celebration - just drop in. Donnington Doorstep are holding an autumnal fun day on 30th, including pumpkin carving and facepainting. Disco Soup is a big city centre event the weekend after Halloween when all the pumpkin remains definitely need eating - come and join in the music and vegetable feast in Bonn Square. And one of the highlight events is a tour of the anaerobic digestion plant at Cassington, where Oxfordshire food waste is turned into energy and fertiliser. Come and see recycling in action!

The White Hart at Fyfield are also taking part, with pumpkin-filled menus using home-grown produce, if you want to gather some ideas and celebrate via someone else's cooking!