In between making the table saw and the method for cutting dowels I snuck in this video where I carve the pumpkin to make a Halloween lantern (or Halloween lantern, as you like). This pumpkin was supposed to be gigantic, around 300kg, but it seems that the plant did not like the cool weather we had in July in Vila de Cruces and the growth was delayed for a month. The pumpkin finally appeared practically in August and did not have time to grow. I still harvested a good pumpkin to make the Halloween lantern.
Luckily I was cautious and convinced a good friend to plant another giant squash plant (Atlantic Giant) on a plot of land of his in Dena, closer to the sea and with a warmer climate. The result you can see in the photos, a giant pumpkin of 350kg worthy of being on Galician television.
To get it up and on top of the pallet we need a chain winch (chain winch?) attached to a beam. It doesn’t look very good in the pictures but in the end it worked without anything falling apart. Next time we will try to be more prepared. Next year, we will surely manage to overcome that weight. If I have a good summer here in the country house, get ready Diego, your pumpkin is going to look tiny (we don’t have the country house anymore, but maybe we will plant and take care of another giant pumpkin in Sanxenxo. Or else I will convince my friend to plant another one in his garden).
Well, what we were getting to, the pumpkin lantern (Halloween lantern, Jack O Lantern). There is not much to say. We spend some time thinking about the design and when we have it decided we start carving. Just be careful not to cut yourself, especially when we are with the skin of the pumpkin that is hard and sometimes breaks when we make force with the knife. As this pumpkin is big and has a lot of space inside and I had some small pumpkins I decided to make a simple diorama inside the big one.
It is not easy to get such big pumpkins, it is necessary to learn over the years, but surely from the first year that you dedicate to this hobby will leave you hooked and you will try to get bigger weights every year. There’s something magical about pumpkins that draws so much attention to them.
More Halloween pumpkins.
