Richard Kaloust Preservation

Preservation is about deciding what’s important, figuring out how to protect it, and passing along an appreciation for what was saved to the next generation. Preservation is hands on.

National Park Service archeologists, architects, curators, historians, and other cultural resource professionals work in America’s nearly 400 national parks to preserve, protect, and share the history of this land and its people. This includes:

• 27,000 significant structures in national parks
• 66,000 archeological sites in national parks
• 115 million objects in park museum collections

Beyond the parks, the National Park Service is part of a national preservation partnership working withAmerican Indian tribes, states, local governments, nonprofit organizations, historic property owners, and others who believe in the importance of our shared heritage – and its preservation. This includes:

• $1.2 billion in preservation grants
• 80,000 listings in the National Register of Historic Places
• 2,400 National Historic Landmarks
• $30 billion in historic rehabilitation tax credit projects
• 27 National Heritage Areas

Do you need to preserve your pumpkin? Here are a few simple techniques will have your pumpkin lasting like Walt Disney. You already have many of the best preservation products lying around the house.

I’ve read a few websites that said you should coat the cut surface with Vaseline or you can use something called “Pumpkin Preserver” that you buy at the halloween store.

I doubt it will surprise you if I told you I don’t do either of those things.

For one thing, I hope to get through my entire life without covering anything with Vaseline. Second, I am not making a special trip to a store for something called Pumpkin Preserver. I don’t have time for that crap.

In 2008, I cut 14 pumpkins exactly the same way and used a different preservative on each one. Why? In the name of science! Actually, I did so because people want to know what works well and honestly, I couldn’t find out without my little experiment.

The Answer? Chlorox Clean-Up Cleaner with Bleach. You could probably use any cleaner with bleach in it, but I used Chlorox Clean-Up in the experiment and it worked really well.

So, I suggest you go into the cleaner cabinet as soon as you are done carving and spray away. I spray all of the cut surfaces as well as the entire insides. Don’t forget to do the underside of your pumpkin’s cap, it doesn’t get a free pass.

This one application seemed to increase the shelf-life of your pumpkin by 100%, all for just one spraying. I suppose you could do even better if you sprayed it every few days, but I didn’t. After all, it’s time on earth is fleeting.

If you want to read the entire results of the study, as if I would falsify the final conclusion, read the next page. It has all of the hard data that the truly nerdy really crave.