grating is dangerous

i have many skills, but cooking isn't one of them. More specifically, grating pumpkin is not one of them. After complaining that all pumpkin recipes required an oven, my mother sent me a pumpkin salad recipe that calls for 3 cups of grated pumpkin. 3 CUPS OF GRATED PUMPKIN - do you have any idea how long its taking me to grate 3 cups of pumpkin?! I even rang my mom in NZ to ask her if i was doing something wrong. i started this endeavour at 1.15pm. its now 2.21pm, and I only have half of my required grated pumpkin, and i have to be at work at 3pm.