Happy Halloween!

Halloween has always been a fun time of the year at our house. Carefully selecting the perfect pumpkin to be carved always brought great joy, for our family. It’s about togetherness. Always the night before Halloween or the day of Halloween we would carve our masterpieces. The most amount of time that I spent carving my pumpkin was 6 to 7 hours from scooping to lighting the candle. After all that hard work it seemed sad to me that it only lasted a few days before it had mold appearing in it and then the rotting started. 

This blog I wanted to share tips and warnings on how you can preserve your masterpiece? Also, how can you remove the mold stain from  furniture if you forgot to put a plate or something under the pumpkin?

How Can You Preserve Your Pumpkin After Being Carved

Method One:

Each night submerge it in a bucket of cold water – take it out in the morning.

Method Two:

 My favorite method is, a  spray-on pumpkin preservative called “Pumpkin Fresh,” which you can easily spray onto the carved areas of your pumpkin, then let it dry to create a protective barrier. This liquid anti-fungal solution fights mold, rot and decay from overcoming your pumpkin. The Pumpkin Fresh website atwww.PumpkinFresh.com shows you in full illustrated detail, how it works. Pumpkin Fresh is very clean and easy to use, with no residue, and absolutely no cleanup involved. 

Ingredients for Pumpkin Fresh: Water, Sodium tetraborate decahydrate (borax), and sodium benzoate (a preservative and fungicide). The label describes it as a “fungicidal solution.”

One other trick to preserving your pumpkin is to use artificial light, such as a flashlight, or fake candle instead of a  real candle when illuminating it. The flame of a candle burns extremely hot; therefore the pumpkin has a probability factor of drying out, and aging much faster, especially if the top of the pumpkin is left covered, restricting the flow of heat from the candle to disperse. Using an artificial source of light is a much safer way to have fun, as well, while still being able to enjoy a lighted Jack O’ Lantern.

How To Remove A Pumpkin Stain From A Wooden Table Top

If  a pumpkin is left too long to sit on a wooden surface without something under it. The pumpkin will start decomposing that will leave a moldy residue marking the wooden surface. Below is the steps to removing the mark.

1. Dampen a cotton cleaning cloth with warm water.
2. Squirt a small amount of toothpaste onto the cleaning cloth.
3. Rub into a circular motion until the stain begins to lift, checking the progress regularly.
4. Polish the surface with your regular furniture polish or you can make your own non-toxic furniture polish.