okay well I don't know about you but pumpkin-carving is a pretty big deal in my neighborhood we set aside the Saturday before Halloween and gather together and carve our pumpkins but guess what they never last more than a day or two and it kind of makes me mad so I did some research to find out what is the best way to preserve your pumpkin and here is what I learned I found the top three ways according to many different sites to see which one really works the best I carved them all at the same time and I have had them so far for six days and here's what I learned let's begin with number three this idea right here came from the website it suggested you carve your pumpkin and then spray it with hairspray does it work well let's take a look no it did not work and it was very popular idea look at this it's it's mouldy it's mushy it's disgusting and I even sprayed it a couple of times during the week just to you know see if I could maybe continue the preservation right after I sprayed it and nope nope didn't work so and that one's a bad idea okay let's go to number two this idea came from the website as well well lots of different sites really just raved about this saying okay you put in about a teaspoon of bleach to a gallon of water okay you let it soak I did this for about 10 minutes you let it drain and then you spray it with a mixture of lemon juice and vinegar okay so what happened nothing it it's already shriveling yeah look at this there's mold growing on the inside the whole idea behind the bleach is to prevent the mold from happening and that is certainly not the case it's shriveled up it's already getting soft and mushy and busted that one did not work either okay let's go on to the number one way to preserve your pumpkin here's what you do use 2/3 cup of bleach to one gallon of water if your pumpkin won't fit into that amount of water then just double the recipe and what happened are you ready drumroll oh we have a tremor do a drumroll drummer ready drumroll and voila look at this you guys perfectly preserved and you know what I just did I just shined it up just a little minute ago with with some vegetable oil you guys look at it's sturdy it's tough it's clean there is nothing wrong with it I've had it for six days and it's a beautifully preserved pumpkin the only thing that happened is that the lid shrunk and I can't cover it but who cares I can set it off to the side it looks ah may zing okay so just so you know let me just show you this final pumpkin this is the control pumpkin which I did absolutely nothing to and look once again its shriveled up its disgusting it's soft its mushy it's moldy its disgusting so there you have it the number one way to preserve your pumpkin and here's what you want to do you carve it first then you soak it clean it out carve it soak it in the bucket for 24 hours take it out let it drain like this okay for I don't know I let it drain for maybe 20 minutes or so and that was it that's all I've done to this pumpkin and I think it's amazing and so you're gonna spend all the time carving it and you know what maybe up to ten bucks on a pumpkin why not have it last for you know more than a day or two so there you go I put all well there there aren't any instructions but the recipe did the solution Susan I put it on our website Sonoran living.com and share if you have a better recipe you've tested out forget the petroleum jelly all that stuff doesn't work share your ideas on my facebook page slash Theriot SL