Where do all the pumpkins go, post Halloween's big costume show?

Are they left to rot and molder, as the weather trends ever colder?

Or is there some more organized scheme, to dispose of leftovers that aren't the crop's cream?

Wherefore do they, might they go? Inquiring minds want to know!

What we learned is not as chilling as, say, scraping a pumpkin's filling.

But we'll be happy to relate, the ultimate end, the pumpkin's fate.

Pumpkin patches, church fund-raisers, all have extras but few savers. So what to do with this orange nosh, which is defined as fruit, gourd or squash?

In Shadyside, the Third Presbyterian Church, not wanting to be in the lurch, sends many that it cannot keep to a blessed compost heap.

"They work great," the Rev. Vance Torbert said, even better than leaves that are dead.

The church was clearly swamped this year, by nearly 2,000 orange spheres, for its "Pumpkinpalooza," an annual bash that's meant to raise some good-works cash.

"That's a lot of pumpkins!" said the Rev. Michelle Wahila, sparing us the whole megillah.

They came from a farm in New Mexico, to Fifth and Negley near Millionaire's Row, through Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers, a charitable group that markets pumpkins for more than soup.

Pies and compost, bisques and vases, a pumpkin's use just quite amazes. But even with such applications, there might be extras for generations.

So the church contacted Pittsburgh's zoo, to see if its denizens might want to chew on orange flesh and pulp and seeds -- isn't that what an animal needs? But the zoo had plenty, it appears. Ms. Wahila reported: "They're kind of up to their ears."

At Bedner Farm Market in Upper St. Clair, whatever pumpkins are still there are sent back on up to the farm, having lost their seasonal charm. There they're fed before it snows to beef cattle herds and bucks and does.

At Simmons Farm Market, which during the season, sells enough pumpkins to defy all reason -- maybe 20,000, co-owner Scott Simmons guessed, after we most gently pressed -- the extras are chopped up and returned to the land, to enrich the soil for the Peters farmstand.

Our final stop is Westmoreland County, where tons of pumpkins are the bounty at Schramm Farms & Orchards in Penn Township, which sells the gourds at a rapid clip.

Come today when Schramm's fields abound with surfeit pumpkins sprouting from the ground, do-it-yourselfers with spoons and containers will show up alone or with retainers.

They'll stake out their piece of pumpkin heaven so good, said Schramm employee Leslie Hood, with their taste buds focused on a single need, the holy grail on which they'll feed. They'll "scoop them out and pay for the seeds."

Some might think folks who are down and out could feast on pumpkins in great amounts. But no soup kitchen is willing to take hordes of pumpkins just to bake a host of pies, though they'd taste divine, when a can of Libby's will do just fine.

"You ever try to cook a pumpkin in an oven?" asked the East End Cooperative Ministry's Suzan Krauland.

Without missing a beat, explaining with grace, she said, "They take up a lot of space."