A very hard shelled pumpkin

Yesterday I tackled the job of cooking my five small pie pumpkins that I had bought a while back. Once a year I usually buy a bunch - cook, puree and freeze in ziploc bags in the required amount for a recipe. Well, the very first pumpkin (sticker on it said "pie pumpkin") I tried to cut in half was so hard that I just couldn't do it. Usually I have no trouble. I was glad it was a Saturday and my husband was home to lend a hand. Boy, did he have trouble, too...but he persisted ...he's a big strong man and was very determined to not let this pumpkin get the best of him...and he did manage to get it cut in half eventually!! What we really needed was a jack hammer. There was no way that this poor little pumpkin was ever going to be a jack-o-lantern! This was the first hard shelled pumpkin that I have ever come across in all my many years of cooking pumpkins. I then proceeded to cut and clean the rest and I was baking all afternoon. The hard shelled one was very stubborn in the cooking department as well. Couldn't even pierce it with a fork after 60 minutes in the oven. It took at least twice as long to cook as compared to the rest. The pumpkin flesh actually fell out of the shell when it was done. The shell that was left and stem (couldn't get that to come off either) is so hard that I was able to wash it as if it were a dish or bowl and now I have a covered pumpkin dish! I Want to keep it as I think it is very unusual. My 12 year old insists it's going to rot. I wonder if there is anything I can coat it with to preserve it? I'll have to investigate about that. I think it would make a nice candy dish or a nut (nuts with the shell that is) bowl. Very very interesting, so I thought I would share the story with you all. I know it's not a knitting post :)
Here's the picture of the inside of the shell opened up:
Here's the picture of it covered, actually it is a rather nice color considering it was baked for over an hour: