A Beginners Journey To Carving Fruit

Hey guys, so this week I decided to tackle a weird little experiment—carving different fruits to make “fruit o’lanterns”! So I am going to take a trip to ole’ wally world and buy some fruits. Then, I’m going to take them home and attempt to carve them like people carve pumpkins to make Jack O’lanterns. The hope is that I’ll find some cool alternatives to pumpkins, but I’m fully expecting some mishaps and hilarious mess ups along the way.

So I got this idea (are you ready kids?) from Spongebob! Remember that episode where he’s writing his essay and his pineapple catches fire and comes to life to chastise him for putting it off? Yeah, well it made me think of a jack o’lantern, and since the first day of fall was this week, I figured why not make a pumpkin carving post? Except, I couldn’t just leave it at pumpkins, could I? Nope, we’re throwing in the who bowl of fruit! So follow along while I carve faces into different fruits and compare it to carving a pumpkin.

First thing first: What fruits should I choose to be my guinea pigs? So in making my decisions, I took a few things into account. How hard would it be to carve? Taking into consideration the size and hardness. Is the “skin” or outer layer thick enough to sustain a hollow inside? Am I going to try and put a candle or light inside like a classic jack ‘o’lantern? What kind of faces am I going to try to carve? How funny would it be if I carved it? All these questions were floating around in my head when I drove to Walmart.

Well I got there and I walked to the produce section. I knew I wanted a pumpkin so that I had something to compare the fruits to, so I grabbed a small one and placed it in the cart. I knew I wanted a watermelon because I thought it was just so similar to a pumpkin (Plus I was craving watermelon, but that’s a secret!). So then came the hard part. I wasn’t sure what else to get. I ended up getting a mango, an apple, a pear, and a pineapple (of course, you remember what started this whole adventure, don’t you?). Now, putting them in the cart, I knew most of these wouldn’t work out simply because they go bad pretty quickly. But I thought it would be fun to try!

Okay so now we had the fruit ready to go. I decided to go ahead and grab a pumpkin carving kit (10 bucks for the stainless steel set!) so that I had the tools for the job, right? After all, we’re professionals her. In case anyone is curious, the kit included a scraper scoop, a poker, a v-cutter, a multipurpose saw, a carving saw, and some patterns (though I chose not to use the patterns this time). Here is a picture of the back of the kit, it shows the tools included. Or you can go to this link and get this super cool kit with a handbag to carry them in https://amzn.to/2VHPXlB. ( “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”)

Be honest, this is a pretty cool carving kit

So here is what I recommend when setting up to carve your fruit, or if you just want to carve some pumpkins these tips come in handy too! First you have to clear a work space. You don’t want to start carving and realize you don’t have enough room to work your magic. So, make sure you have adequate room for you, your pumpkin or fruit, and your tools. As for your tools, I think it depends on what you want to use. I used a spoon, the carving kit, and a paring knife—and that seemed to work out pretty well for me. In addition, I had a whole roll of paper towels on standby as well as some bowls and bags to put all the innards in. Here is how I laid out my work station.

I chose to work on the floor because it offered up more space for me. I then laid down a trash bag and some cutting boards (these were just in case I needed them). Next I got out my fruit and lined them up in the back so I could easily reach them without having to get up (yeah, I’m lazy, don’t judge me). Since I had everything within arms reach, I tossed a show onto Netflix and got started. I chose to do the watermelon first because I thought a green jack o’lantern would be cool and I was excited to get started (though I’m sure the fact that I could eat the insides helped the decision a bit).

I thought carving a watermelon would be easy, don’t get me wrong. But I didn’t expect it to be as easy as it was. It was like slicing melted butter with a hot knife, no joke. It was honestly kind of satisfying. Something to keep aware of is all the juice though. I suggest periodically dumping the juice into that bowl I mentioned earlier. I really liked how this little guy turned out, he reminds me of goofy cartoon baby.

Next up was our friend the mango. I use that word very liberally because OH MY GOSH it was so hard to carve! Did you know mangoes had a core? Well, I didn’t until this experiment. Not only was the core a problem, the whole mango was a nightmare. I tried guys, I really did….but Mr. Mango didn’t make it.

Word from the wise, don’t try carving a mango, it only leads to disappointment and sticky hands. Although, I think he sort of resembles a bat. Or is that just wishful thinking?

Our next contestant was much easier to carve, I could even go as far to say that it was too easy. Not in the nice watermelon kind of way, but in the “oh no, I smooshed it!” kind of way. Yup, you guessed it. It was the pear’s time to shine. Of course it was easy to cut into, but the hard part came when I was trying to hollow it out. I had to be extra careful not to go too far or to push too hard. My favorite part about carving the pear was that I just ate the inside as I went. I don’t know about you guys, but yummy food is a very big motivator for me.

I think the little guy turned out alright, but I expect that he’ll be all gross in a few hours time.

Now comes the apple. I had mixed feelings about this one going in. I thought it’d be cool to have a mini, red jack o’lantern, but I thought it’d be hard to carve due to the core and thin skin. I hope I didn’t hurt its feelings!…get it? Okay, never mind. Moving on…The core was easy to deal with, but scooping out the rest of the apple proved difficult. I didn’t want to go too far and break it (RIP Mr. Mango, I learned my lesson), but I wanted it hollow. All in all, I don’t think it turned out too bad, but its definitely not my favorite. Plus, it was already turning brown (as apples tend to do) while I was working on it.

Now, what kind of apple isn’t an apple? You got it! A pineapple! I think this is my favorite of the bunch. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as easy to carve as the watermelon, but it was a lot of fun and I think it looks adorable. (Plus it’s delicious!)

The most difficult part of this one was the pesky core ( or is it considered a rind?). Though after I got a hang of using the carving saw, it wasn’t a problem very long. By the way, I’ll be sure to update the post with regards to how long these dudes hold up, I’m sure you’re just dying to know (can you sense the sarcasm?).

Edit: I’d like to issue an official apology to the pear for my lack of faith. After a full night, he’s still going as strong as he was at the beginning of his fruit o’lantern journey! And so is his apple buddy!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I also carved up a pumpkin. I guess it’s been a long time since I’ve done it, because it was a lot harder than I remember. The inside was a pain to scoop out and it was difficult to carve the face into it without messing up since I had to push hard to get it to go through.

I much preferred the pineapple and the watermelon. They were just easier to carve up and less of a pain to scoop out. Oh, a nice tip I got from a friend was to cut the hole into the bottom of the pumpkin, that way it doesn’t cave in on itself as it gets older. So with each carving I did tonight, I started at the bottom…. and now we’re here.

After everything was done, I was left with five smiling faces and a, uh, bat shaped disaster…thing. But I accomplished what I set out to do, and that was to carve different fruits to see what kind of fruit’o’lantern they’d make (or not make, I guess). Throughout this post I talked about my experience carving the different fruits and the pumpkin, trying to let you imagine what it was like. If I could go back, I probably would’ve gotten a bigger pumpkin. The little one was just so hard to get my hand into to shovel out all the gunk! I would’ve also approached the mango differently, maybe he would have survived the night had I known about the core or even used a different tool. So thank you, Mr. Mango for teaching me to do my research ahead of time. He’s gone but never forgotten.

A question that kept running through my mind throughout all of this, was “Why don’t people carve watermelons like they do pumpkins”? I think it may just be the fact that watermelons are messier and pumpkins have become a symbol of fall. But I dare you all to be different and carve up a watermelon instead. Fight the man! Okay, but seriously… try the watermelon out, you might be surprised.

I definitely had a lot of fun tonight, even though I failed miserably at parts of it (lookin at you Mango). Keep in mind, there was a bit of a sticky mess on the floor, and my hands were incredibly sticky. So be ready for a bit of cleanup! You can be rest assured I used at least half the roll of paper towels during this journey. Now, I can safely say that if you decide to give fruit o’lanterns a try, you’ll have a blast and create a funny story to tell people. It gives the traditional “carve a pumpkin” a bit of a twist if you want to shake things up!

If I scared you off of carving fruit, you’re just looking for some more fall activities, or pumpkin/ fruit carving isn’t your thing (though I don’t know why you’d still be reading if it wasn’t) check out a blog post one of my co-creators posted recently. Taylor shares a lot of cool activities for this time of year, so maybe she can help ya out with some ideas. You can find the video here: https://thegreatoutdoors.food.blog/2019/09/23/fun-autumn-activities-near-ball-state/

I urge you guys to be creative this year, and try some new things. Even if they sound as ridiculous as my fruit o’lanterns! The point is to have fun and make some memories along the way.