Protect Your Pumpkins!
Here in Florida, our carved pumpkins tend to have a short shelf life. In other words, they rot quickly, so we don’t have much of a window to enjoy our carved, orange masterpieces.
But wait! There may be a way to extend the life of your jack-o-lantern!
We read about this little trick on our iPhone’s WikiHow app.
It’s the silica, silly!
You know those little packets of beads that come with new purses, clothes, shoes? 
Never gave them much thought, except to keep them away from the kids and pets. We only kept them if they came in the box of a new pair of shoes, so you just might score a packet if you check your closet! Well, here’s the deal: open the pouch and empty the silica beads, then press them into the interior of your pumpkin. Concentrate on pressing them around the carved edges, too. Apparently, the silica will act as preservative for your pumpkin.
Having never opened a silica packet, we really have no idea as to how it behaves or what it feels like, but this looks easy enough. WikiHow did warn, however, about keeping the beads away from your pets, but we probably don’t have to remind you of that.
Don’t have any silica packets handy? Well, there’s still something you can try…
That’s right. Smear a generous amount of petroleum jelly on the inside of your pumpkin – all around its carved out parts, of course, too – and it will also supposedly delay rot. It’s pretty sad when you go to put your pumpkin out with the trash and it’s already a pulpy mess, just a few days after Halloween. There’s also that moldy goo to clean off the porch…trust us. We know.
We’re going to try the petroleum jelly trick. If you try one of these, let us know if it works.
Happy Halloween, and be careful with the knives while carving. We don’t want to be taking anyone to the emergency room….
