Pumpkin Preservation

Do you need to preserve your pumpkin? Here are a few simple techniques will have your pumpkin lasting like Walt Disney. You already have many of the best preservation products lying around the house.

I've read a few websites that said you should coat the cut surface with Vaseline or you can use something called "Pumpkin Preserver" that you buy at the halloween store.

I doubt it will surprise you if I told you I don't do either of those things.

For one thing, I hope to get through my entire life without covering anything with Vaseline. Second, I am not making a special trip to a store for something called Pumpkin Preserver. I don't have time for that crap.

In 2008, I cut 14 pumpkins exactly the same way and used a different preservative on each one. Why? In the name of science! Actually, I did so because people want to know what works well and honestly, I couldn't find out without my little experiment.

The Answer? Chlorox Clean-Up Cleaner with Bleach. You could probably use any cleaner with bleach in it, but I used Chlorox Clean-Up in the experiment and it worked really well.

So, I suggest you go into the cleaner cabinet as soon as you are done carving and spray away. I spray all of the cut surfaces as well as the entire insides. Don't forget to do the underside of your pumpkin's cap, it doesn't get a free pass.

This one application seemed to increase the shelf-life of your pumpkin by 100%, all for just one spraying. I suppose you could do even better if you sprayed it every few days, but I didn't. After all, it's time on earth is fleeting.

If you want to read the entire results of the study, as if I would falsify the final conclusion, read the next page. It has all of the hard data that the truly nerdy really crave.