How To Pick The Best Pumpkin

A day at the pumpkin patch

Select The Perfect Pumpkin

Pumpkin Terms
·         Skin: The outside, colored part of the pumpkin.
·         Flesh: The stuff inside, used for cooking.
·        Easy Carving: Is the pumpkin fairly easy to carve with a knife or pumpkin-carving kit? 
·         Shape: Pumpkins are not just round. They can be squat, tall, long, uneven, etc.
·         Texture: Glide your fingers across the pumpkin's skin. Is it bumpy, slightly rough, or smooth as a baby's bottom? That is the pumpkin's texture.
·         Ribbing: If you were drawing a pumpkin, the ribbing would be those vertical stripes you create to indicate that it is a pumpkin and not some other round object. Deep ribbing is noted.
·         Size: Straightforward—big, small, miniature, medium. Sometimes indicated in weight.
·         Keeps well: Describes a pumpkin's "shelf life" or if it tends to last a few months (uncarved) or quickly wither off the vine.