Yesterday we started decorating our home for fall which meant a trip to the farmers market for pumpkins! We’re still a few weeks away from Halloween so to preserve and extend the life of our pumpkins we whipped up a simple yet effective solution for long lasting pumpkins.
Step 1: Give Your Pumpkins a Bath
Pumpkins pick up mold and dirt from the patches where they are grown which quickly leads to rotting, slimy, moldy or mushy pumpkins. In a large container filled with water, I let the kids go wild bathing the pumpkins with dish soap. They had an absolute blast happily removing all of the excess dirt and gunk.
Step 2: Soak Your Pumpkins in a Bleach Solution
Bleach is an antimicrobial agent that kills most of the surface bacteria and mold spores. And the water hydrates the pumpkin flesh to prevent it from drying out too quickly. The solution is simple — mix in 1 teaspoon of bleach for every gallon of water in your bucket or tub. Soak your pumpkins for 10 minutes in the solution. You can actually soak your pumpkin for a few hours, but avoid over soaking as too much moisture will make your pumpkin more prone to rot.
Let your pumpkins air dry!
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Nicole Mouchka
Tuesday 1st of October 2019
This is great information! We live in the south with temperatures still in the 90's, so it's hard to keep a pumpkin in good shape for very long, so I am definitely going to try this. Thanks for sharing!