How to prolong the life of a carved pumpkin

We are pumpkin freaks (if you haven’t noticed). We have been carving pumpkins for three days straight, and we are completely sleep deprived. If you are new around here, you may not know that as a family we have a pumpkin carving family tradition, and we carve INSANE amounts of pumpkins for Halloween. We display the carvings across our driveway, and we have hundreds of people come to see them all lit up. It is really fun for our family. The kids especially like it.

Have you ever carved a pumpkin and the next day it was a wilted mess and you couldn’t hardly tell what you had carved in it anymore? Well, all your pumpkin needs is a cool bath. We blow up the kiddie pool to soak our pumpkins twice a day for an hour or two at a time. When you take them out to dry, you need to put them upside down so that the water completely runs out. Otherwise the water will pool in the bottom of the pumpkin and create a perfect habitat for mildew. Mildew=disgusting, smelly, slimy pumpkins. There’s nothing worse than that in my opinion.

We add a little bleach (or chlorine in our case) to the water to prevent mildew and let them soak up the water for a few hours. When you get them out they will be as good as new again.

Soaking the pumpkins isn’t a permanent fix and the pumpkins only last a maximum 3-5 days depending on the outside temperature, but it prolongs the life of your pumpkin tremendously.

Stay tuned for more photos of the 2011 pumpkin extravaganza. If you live in St. George, Utah, send me an e-mail, and I will give you my address so you can some check out the display. If you missed the 2010 pumpkin extravaganza, you better go check it out.