How to Clean Halloween Pumpkins

"Hi, this is Shana Bethune on behalf of Expert Village and I'm here to talk to you about cleaning the strings and seeds out of your pumpkin. So once you cut off the top, it's time to clean out the inside of your pumpkin. Start with a large spoon and separate the strings from the side and basically just try to scoop out everything that you can. Put it into the bowl and keep scooping, you're mostly going to get seeds out first. Scrape along the edges to loosen some of the seeds and strings and just let them fall down to the bottom and once you have a collection down there, you can scoop it out and put it into your bowl. If you find that a spoon really isn't doing the job, you just roll up your sleeves and use your hands. For some of the parts that are a little more difficult to remove, you can use a metal spoon. It has sharper edges, so it will slice through the strings a little bit more easily. You're probably going to make a big mess, but it's really important that you clean the inside thoroughly, because anything that's left in there is going to burn once you put a candle into your pumpkin. When you have everything in a bowl, set the bowl aside because you're going to need that later."