Save Your Pumpkin Stems
After Halloween this year, the Jack-O-Lanterns we carved, were put in the compost pile behind our home, but first, Dave cut the stems off the lids for me. I can't imagine what he was thinking when I asked him to do this before tossing the pumpkins.
He just gave me his typical quizzical look but didn't question me. He just did what I asked and brought them in for me.
Using a vegetable peeler to remove as much pumpkin flesh as possible. You can see in the picture, the stem on the left before I cut off the flesh and the stem on the right after it was removed. Then I left them in the kitchen window to dry in the sun.
My plan is to dry them and save them for next fall. The fake pumpkins in the stores look pretty real, but the stem usually looks fake. The stems on the pumpkins, this year were really big, thick and more interesting than it seems in years past. Hopefully, these attached to the top of some fake pumpkins next year will look amazing.
