Halloween season just isn’t complete at our house without carving a pumpkin… or 2! This year we decided to carve 2, and put a popular hack to the test! In 2019 the #1 way to preserve your jack-o-lantern (according to the internet – so it must be true, lol) is to soak the pumpkin in bleach after it’s carved, then spritz it with a lemon juice & vinegar solution. We gathered what we needed and got to work.
The kids were excited that since we were carving two, they could each choose a design. Clark (7) decided to freehand his, while P (4) picked out one from the book.
Clark was serious about his. He was all in 100% by himself… trust me I had absolutely nothing to do with how his turned out. Penelope flipped past all the bats, cats and traditional jack-o-lantern faces and settled on this fabulous skull on fire. She was so proud… my precious, blonde princess called her flaming skull “brilliant”! I can’t make this stuff up!
for more leverage
Once they were carved, we were ready for the experiment! We chose to soak Clark’s pumpkin in the bleach water solution and leave P’s alone.
This is 3 tsp bleach & 3 G water
Let it soak for 2 minutes.
After the pumpkin is totally dry (we let ours sit overnight) spray it with a solution of vinegar, water & lemon juice. Let that air dry and it’s done!
Both pumpkins will be kept on the front porch until Halloween night. That is less than 10 days away (10 days is a normal life-span of a Jack-o-lantern) and we’ll compare them then!
In the meantime, have fun carving! Comment below if you and your family do something different to preserve your Jack-o-lantern.
Cleanup tip… wash your tools, table and anything else that has pumpkin guts asap after carving. Once it dries, it hardens and is almost impossible to get off!
-Bloom Creative Co.
Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo