A Conversation for Ask h2g2
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Ya'know- that one guy! Started conversation Oct 18, 2002
This story was told to me at the post office yesterday, by somebody who originally came from New York.
There is a pumpkin festival every year in upstate New York. One year, the winning pumpkin exceeded 1000 lbs. in weight. (Sorry I don't know what the British equivalent would be.) The pumpkin was purchased by a museum in Europe (Switzerland, maybe. He wasn't sure) for the sum of US$25,000.
The question I have then, is how do you transport, and preserve, a 1000 pound pumpkin? It must be possible, or that was a terrible waste of money! Any ideas?
Cheerio!
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Emily 'Twa Bui' Ultramarine Posted Oct 18, 2002
You make an awful lot of jars of pumpkin jam.
Is there such a thing as pumpkin jam? 
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Gnomon - time to move on Posted Oct 18, 2002
I don't think pumpkin is good as jam, but it makes a very good base for vegetable soups.
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
IctoanAWEWawi Posted Oct 18, 2002
Presumably it was transported by it's owner via the traditional witches brromstick method.
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Henry Posted Oct 18, 2002
Have it chryogenically stored. Expensive, yes, but if you're willing to pay 1,000 pounds for a pumpkin in the first place...
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Orcus Posted Oct 18, 2002
OK, british equivalent...it's 71 st 6lb or 454 kg!
Wow, it must be about the size of a small car!
To preserve it I would bury it in thick silt and leave it to sit under sedimentary rock for around 5 million years! 
Or you could inject lots of glycerol into it - that's what they do with flowers 
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Vicki Virago - Proud Mother Posted Oct 18, 2002
With B****y great difficulty!!!!
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Wampus Posted Oct 18, 2002
1000 pounds? I'd wager that a forklift was involved somewhere.
As for preserving...I see 1000 one lb. cans of pumpkin sitting on someone's basement shelf somewhere. Or 1000 lbs. of orange fertilizer. Or 2000 pumpkin pies.
...mmm...pumpkin pie...
Wampus
How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
Ya'know- that one guy! Posted Oct 19, 2002
It was my impression that they wanted to store it whole for display, not in the form of many pies, etc. In the form of pies, I'm not really sure it would be worth the US$25,000 they paid for it. (Although that would certainly depend on the recipe, and whether it was for a charitable event.)
But assuming they wanted it whole...
And by the way, he did give approximate dimensions- the small-car suggestion was close. I think maybe the size of a Geo Metro, or a Volkswagon.
Cheerio!
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How do you preserve a 1000 pound pumpkin?
- 1: Ya'know- that one guy! (Oct 18, 2002)
- 2: Emily 'Twa Bui' Ultramarine (Oct 18, 2002)
- 3: Gnomon - time to move on (Oct 18, 2002)
- 4: IctoanAWEWawi (Oct 18, 2002)
- 5: Henry (Oct 18, 2002)
- 6: Orcus (Oct 18, 2002)
- 7: Vicki Virago - Proud Mother (Oct 18, 2002)
- 8: Wampus (Oct 18, 2002)
- 9: Ya'know- that one guy! (Oct 19, 2002)
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