Hay is for horse, pumpkins for cows By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review November 10, 2004 Dia de los Muertos and Halloween have come and gone, but one wouldn't think so from looking at the fields of orange pumpkins surrounding peaceful hamlets up and down the coast. On the edges of Half Moon Bay - to the north, south and east - the winds of seasonal change are blowing through fields of these aging pumpkins, some rotting away in their rain-soaked, muddy patches. So what happens to all these uncarved and uneaten pumpkins? Farmers approach this pumpkin-season aftershock in a variety of ways - though, truth be told, their options are limited. John Cozzolino, who's been growing pumpkins for more than two decades, said he feeds them to cows. The cows break the pumpkins with their hooves and eat them, Cozzolino said. John Muller, also known as "Farmer John," recently fed some his leftover pumpkins to a fellow farmer's cows on a plot of land north of Half Moon Bay High School. He took a saw to his giant pumpkins and drove them up to the cows before sunset. "It brings a smile to your face for a small-farm boy," he said. "Those cows will bring a smile to your face when you bring them a pumpkin. They were all so happy," Muller said. Some of his leftover pumpkins are saved for restaurant use, he said, adding that he keeps on peddling the orange squashes until the demand withers. Jack Olsen, executive administrator of the San Mateo County Farm Bureau on Main Street, said there's still a demand for pumpkins through the Thanksgiving holiday. Some farmers sell their harvest through the holiday, although it's generally wholesale purchases, he said. Still, other farmers let the pumpkins rot in the soil and eventually turn them over in the soil for natural mulch, Olsen said. Home