CLEVELAND — With Halloween just days away, porches across Northeast Ohio are filled with pumpkins. From big, small, carved and painted. But once the candy’s gone and the costumes are packed away, what happens to all those gourds?

Experts say don’t let your pumpkins go to waste.

“Your smaller pumpkins are called pie pumpkins. They may also be called sweet pumpkins, and those can be used a lot for making pumpkin puree," Kaitlynn Tonn, an Ohio State University Extension family and consumer science educator in Wayne County, said.

Tonn said smaller pumpkins are ideal for baking, from pies to cookies, because of their sweeter flavor and smoother texture. Larger pumpkins can be used, too, but they’re less sweet and a bit more difficult to work with.

If you make your own pumpkin puree, it can

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