Dietary

Happy Fall! With Halloween right around the corner I gathered some great tips to help your carved pumpkins last longer!

• Don’t cut the top off, cut the back or bottom out. Cutting the steam off of anything will make it die more quickly.
• Once gutted, use a bleach water solution to clean the inside. This will help kill bad bacteria and get rid of any dirt.
• Let your pumpkin completely dry before carving.
• Use olive oil of WD-40 to spray the inside and carved edges to keep them from drying out.
• When your pumpkin starts wilting, give it a cold bath for 1-2 hours. This will help bring moisture back into the pumpkin and stop it from drying out too quickly!
• You can also use peppermint soap and peppermint oil to spray the inside of the pumpkin to fight off mold!
• Inside of carving a pumpkin, you can always use paint, markers, glitters, glue, etc. to decorate for Halloween/Fall.

Hope Johnson

Dietary Supervisor

Edgewood Convalescent Home