南瓜季到了：整颗南瓜能放两三个月，雕好的南瓜灯只有三五天
十月是南瓜季，美国各地农场和超市的南瓜集中上市。按美国多所大学农业推广部门给出的保存常识，完整未切开的南瓜和雕刻好的南瓜灯，保存时间差别很大：整颗南瓜放在阴凉干燥处（约华氏50至55度、摄氏10至13度），一般能存放两到三个月；室温下也能放数周。而一旦雕刻开口，南瓜灯在户外通常只能维持三到五天，天气偏暖时还会更短，南加州十月白天动辄华氏80度上下，想让南瓜灯撑到10月31日万圣节当晚，太早雕刻是主要原因。
挑选时先看外观：瓜皮应坚硬光滑、没有软斑、裂口和霉点；瓜蒂保留两到三英寸长的更好，蒂短的或没蒂的南瓜，水分更容易从蒂口散失、也更容易从伤口腐烂。颜色以均匀深橙为成熟标志，表皮用指甲轻掐不动，说明瓜皮已充分硬化。食用和雕刻是两种南瓜：做派、煮汤的「派南瓜」（糖南瓜）个头小、肉厚、味甜、水分少；市面上个头大、皮薄的品种是为雕刻培育的，瓜肉偏水、纤维粗，端上餐桌口感要差一截，买之前先按用途分清。
雕好的南瓜灯延寿有几个实测有效的办法：尽量临近万圣节再下刀；白天把南瓜灯挪到阴凉处，避免阳光直晒加速失水；切口边缘失水会先卷边发蔫，把整颗南瓜灯在冷水里浸泡一两个小时，能让它短暂「回水」挺括。需要提醒的是，雕刻过的南瓜在户外放过夜之后就不再适合食用，最后的去处以堆肥为宜。
南瓜本身的营养数据不差：美国农业部（USDA）的食品数据库显示，南瓜富含维生素A（以β-胡萝卜素形式）和膳食纤维，熟南瓜每100克热量约20千卡出头。南瓜籽也可以利用：剖瓜时把籽掏出、洗净晾干，拌少量盐和油，烤箱华氏300度（约摄氏150度）烤15到20分钟即成脆口的零食。换句话说，一颗在十月初买回的整瓜，只要不动刀、放对地方，完全可以从摆设、食材一路用到感恩节前后。
Pumpkin Season: A Whole Pumpkin Keeps for Two to Three Months, a Carved One Only Days
October is pumpkin season, and pumpkins are flooding farm stands and supermarkets across the United States. According to storage guidance from university agricultural extension services, an intact pumpkin and a carved jack-o'-lantern keep for very different lengths of time. A whole, uncut pumpkin stored somewhere cool and dry — about 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit — generally keeps for two to three months, and several weeks even at room temperature. Once carved, though, a jack-o'-lantern outdoors typically lasts only three to five days, and less in warm weather. With Southern California afternoons still reaching the 80s in October, carving too early is the main reason pumpkins collapse before Halloween night on October 31.
When picking, start with the rind: it should be hard and smooth, with no soft spots, cracks or mold. A stem two to three inches long is better — pumpkins with short or missing stems lose moisture faster and rot sooner through the stem scar. Uniform deep-orange color signals ripeness, and a rind that resists a fingernail press has fully hardened. Cooking and carving pumpkins are different products: pie or sugar pumpkins are small, thick-fleshed, sweet and relatively dry, made for pies and soups; the big, thin-walled varieties are bred for carving, with watery, stringy flesh that disappoints at the table. Decide the job first, then buy.
A few measures genuinely stretch a carved pumpkin's life: carve as close to Halloween as practical; move the lantern into shade during the day, since direct sun speeds water loss; and when the cut edges start to curl and wilt, soaking the whole lantern in cold water for an hour or two can briefly rehydrate it. One caution: once a carved pumpkin has spent nights outdoors it is no longer food — compost is the right ending.
Pumpkin itself is nutritious. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food data show it is rich in vitamin A (as beta-carotene) and dietary fiber, with cooked pumpkin at only about 20 calories per 100 grams. The seeds are usable too: scoop them out when the pumpkin is opened, rinse and dry them, toss with a little salt and oil, and roast at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes until crisp. In other words, a whole pumpkin bought in early October, left uncarved and stored properly, can serve as decoration, then as an ingredient, well past Halloween and toward Thanksgiving.
图片来源：图片：Corey Coyle 拍摄，CC BY 3.0（Wikimedia Commons）
