On Cooking Pumpkins

Some of the best pumpkins for cooking are actually squash.

For anyone trying to cook a pumpkin--whether for our favorite Vegetarian Carbonada Criolla or just simply to ditch the dreary canned stuff--we present this primer on selecting delectable pumpkins from Jonathan Schultheis, Extension Horticulture Specialist at North Carolina State University:

"Generally 'pie' pumpkins are 3 to 6 pounds. Some of the best belong to the species Cucurbita moschata. A cultivar of choice is Dickinson, which can weigh up to 40 pounds! Another pumpkin-like squash is Long Island Cheese, again a C. moschata type. 'Cinderella' is a cultivar similar to Long Island Cheese, but with a deeper orange color.

Some of the typical jack o'lantern pumpkin cultivars sold as "pie" pumpkins that supposedly have better texture, flavor, and/or are smaller in size are Baby Pam, Small Sugar, Spookie, Spooktacular, New England Pie, and Pik-a-Pie."

Bottom line: Do not use the pumpkins sold for decoration at the local garden shop, which can be stringy, dry and bitter. Some of the best pumpkins used for cooking are actually squash types: for example, tasty alternatives are buttercup squash (looks like a dark green pumpkin) or calabaza squash (sometimes called a West Indian pumpkin because it's grown in the tropics.)

For more on cooking pumpkins, see this story at Mother Earth News.

We realize this last note may seem a bit excessive, but somehow all of this talk of Autumnal Feasts gets us thinking about growing our own food (not that we could grow pumpkins on the terrace in Manhattan!) But for those brave souls who do want to cultivate "pie" pumpkins for next year's harvest, here are some topnotch seed suppliers that carry many of the varieties mentioned above:

Dickinson - Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds; Long Island Cheese - Johnny's Selected Seeds; 'Cinderella' - Willhite Seeds; Baby Pam, Small Sugar and Spooktacular - New England Seed; Spookie - Redwood City Seed Company; and Pik-a-Pie - Rupp Seeds.