Well, as you can probably guess from the cringeworthy wordplay at work here, it鈥檚 a job for 草莓传媒 Garden Editor Mike McGrath. It will not surprise anyone familiar with his work to find out that he has not only a good piece of advice, but an entire list of tips.
Follow this advice and you won鈥檛 end up with this, which I promise is not time-lapsed in any way:
First off, McGrath said, pick a pumpkin that鈥檚 in perfect condition: 鈥淧erfect,鈥� in this context, doesn鈥檛 mean catalog-worthy shape; it means a pumpkin with no cracks, holes or soft spots. Those imperfections are just a doorway to decay. And you want to make sure there鈥檚 a good 鈥渉andle,鈥� or remainder of its original vine, on the top.
You might be thinking, 鈥淲hat does it matter if there鈥檚 a nick in it if I鈥檓 just going to cut holes into it anyway?鈥� And that brings us to step two: Don鈥檛 do that.
Once you start cutting into a pumpkin, McGrath said, 鈥渢he pumpkin collapse clock is ticking.鈥� His solution? Wait until next weekend 鈥� the weekend before Halloween 鈥� to cut into your gourd.
In the meantime, paint a face on your pumpkin rather than carving it in. You鈥檒l preserve your pumpkin and get double the pumpkin-face fun. Being McGrath, he added a really bad joke here, so we鈥檒l move on.
When it really is carving time, McGrath said, cut as much of the top off as you can, to make it easy to get the candles in and out.
And after you put your jack-o-lantern out, don鈥檛 just forget it: If it rains, or if the nighttime temperature is going to drop below the 40s, take it inside.
A few other pumpkin-related tips from McGrath: Surely you know how good pumpkin seeds can be when they鈥檙e baked with a little oil and salt, but removing them from the slimy gunk that envelopes them when they come out of the pumpkin is a lot easier if you put them in some water for about an hour. And if you were careful about picking and carving your pumpkin, you鈥檝e the makings of a pumpkin pie if you cut it up after Halloween and bake the parts at 350.
Have a happy, safe and aesthetically pleasing Halloween, and let Brainkrieg remind you: Let鈥檚 be careful out there.
