Mashed Root Vegetables and Apples

We have hundreds of pumpkin varieties to choose from with new hybrids in development all the time. While many of them are big and orange and make the perfect jack-o’-lantern, specialty pumpkins steal the show. These are the beautiful boutique varieties that literally stand out in the field. Boutique pumpkins are easy to grow, eye-poppingly gorgeous and surprisingly useful in the kitchen.

The Pumpkin Family

Pumpkins are members of the Cucurbita family, along with squash, cucumbers and melons. The official line between pumpkins and squash is a fine one, and there’s a lot of crossover and regionality in the usage of these common terms. Most experts consider pumpkins part of the winter squash category, along with Hubbard squash, Acorn squash and Butternut squash, all of which have hard skins and store well.

Pumpkins and other squash types fit into four primary species:

Cucurbita moschata

This species consists of many crookneck varieties, including Butternut squash and Cushaw squash. Members of this species are generally more resistant to pests and diseases, including squash bugs and vine borers. Cooking pumpkins tend to be in this group, as well, and it includes the most common varieties for canning.

Cucurbita pepo

This species includes most jack-o’-lantern pumpkin varieties; the miniature varieties; and most soft-skinned summer squash, including Scallopini squash, Patty Pan squash, zucchini and others. Gourds are also in this category.

Cucurbita maxima

This species consists of the biggest members of the family including Hubbard squash, Turban squash, Buttercup squash, and other large-fruited squash and pumpkins.

Cucurbita mixta

Members of this species are not as sweet and flavorful as the other groups and are often cooked with sweeteners. Many types are used as a source of edible seeds. They have good resistance to vine borers and drought. The most common C. mixta variety is the Cushaw squash, which you’ll see with white skin (the Johnathan pumpkin), green striped, and orange or yellow striped.

Regardless of their official familial lines, boutique pumpkins have a one-up on jack-o’-lanterns, especially at farmers’ markets. They’re downright interesting, and for a customer who wants to stand out from the crowd, a display of these unique fruits will get them all the attention they can handle.

“These types of pumpkins draw crowds and give people something unique to take home,” says Danny Neel, marketing specialist with the USDA and an advisor to the Virginia Pumpkin Growers’ Association. “It’s hard to know the demographics of pumpkin buyers, but we know it’s a diverse group.”

And, for now, these diverse customers can’t buy specialty pumpkins at the big box store—they have to either grow them or rely on a small farmer who’s willing to step out of the box.

Boutique Pumpkin Varieties

Many specialty pumpkins were bred decades ago for their use in the kitchen, and they continue to be so, though North America hasn’t caught onto it quite yet. The history of many of the heirloom pumpkin varieties is long, and the breeding efforts to develop new boutique choices continue. Here are some exceptional varieties:

Black Futsu

Jere Gettle, owner of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Missouri, a retailer of specialty pumpkin and squash seeds, says, “The New York Times listed [Black Futsu] as their favorite pumpkin a few years back.” And deservedly so. The flattened, round fruit has heavy ribbing and a bumpy rind. They have dark green-black skin with golden, nutty flavored flesh. Gettle adds that this is a good variety for gardeners with limited space because the vine is more compact than other varieties. He also finds that it has moderate resistance to insects and diseases.

Galeux d’Eysines

A French heirloom with salmon-peach skin covered in tan peanut-looking warts, this variety is a complete show-stopper. The longer these fruits mature, the wartier they become. This corking results from expanded fractures in the skin that occur because of the fruit’s high sugar content and thin skin. The flesh is very creamy and smooth and is a favorite for pies and soups. Its name means “embroidered with warts from Eysines”—the small city in France from which it hails.

Marina Di Chioggia

Sometimes called the sea pumpkin, this variety is surely one of the prettiest pumpkins you’ll ever grow. The 4- to 10-pound, round and flat fruits are a deep blue-green, and the skin is covered with innumerable smooth bumps. The flesh is bright orange and delicious.

Jarrahdale

Hailing from Australia, this variety produces 6- to 10-pound, slate-blue fruits shaped much like a flattened drum. They’re round with deep ribs and beautiful, smooth skin. The flesh is dry and smooth with a nice fragrance. The rind is very dense. Gettle says you may need an axe to cut it in half—but that thick skin pays off: Jarrahdale stores for up to two years!

Musque de Provence

Often called “the fairytale pumpkin,” these flat pumpkins are shaped much like a wheel of cheese and can weigh up to 20 pounds each. Their heavy lobes and deep ribs start out dark green and mature to a deep mahogany color. The variety hails from southern France, boasts decent pest resistance and keeps for up to one year in proper storage.

One Too Many

A recent introduction from the Rupp Seed Company, this pumpkin is a pale cream color with orange-mottled netting all over. The fruits can be either round or elongated and weigh 15 to 20 pounds each on average. It is said to have good tolerance to mildew.

Triamble

A tri-lobed heirloom pumpkin from Australia, Triamble ranges in color from a pale slate-blue to a deep green. It’s a novelty pumpkin with an excellent flavor. The skin is very hard, making it a long-lasting storage pumpkin, too.

Valenciano

These pure-white, flattened fruits are surprisingly elegant. The 12-inch-diameter fruit stands a mere 6 to 8 inches tall and has light ribbing.

Rouge Vif d’Etampes

Translated as “red life of the times,” this French heirloom is sometimes called the Cinderella pumpkin, as it looks much like the carriage-making pumpkin in the fairytale (shown on page 50). Large fruits ripen to a deep orange-red color. They are flattened, deeply lobed fruits that are reported to have been the variety served by the pilgrims at the second Thanksgiving. Gettle suggests harvesting them when they are 9 to 10 inches across, long before the skin hardens. “Pick them young, and fry them whole. They have an excellent flavor,” he says.

Red Warty Thing

The name pretty much says it all! Round, bowling ball-shaped pumpkins are bright red at maturity. They weigh 10 pounds or more and have hard, bumpy skin.

American Tonda

A beautiful, ribbed pumpkin. The skin is deep orange with green stripes between the ribs. Fruits weigh 4 to 6 pounds.

La Estrella

Grey-, green- and peach-colored skin that looks like it was watercolored onto the fruit. This is a newer variety that is the result of hybridization efforts at the University of Florida. Fruits weigh up to 10 pounds each and have deep-orange flesh.

Lumina

A pure-white, classic-shaped pumpkin measuring 8 to 10 inches across. Flesh is great for cooking.

Long Island Cheese

The smooth tan skin and flat shape of this pumpkin make it look much like a wheel of cheese. Weighing as much as 20 pounds each, Long Island Cheese is an excellent roasting and baking pumpkin with deep-orange, sweet flesh.

Baby Boo

A super-cute mini-pumpkin with stark-white skin, this variety is exclusively for decoration and is a real hit with children.

People may look at these distinctive pumpkin varieties and laugh. The laughter, though, translates into purchases. After all, their individuality is their appeal. It seems that these fruits have got the gutsy eccentricity most of us wish we had. They are special plants, indeed.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2010 issue of Hobby Farms.

Any pumpkin-growing foray should start with the same thing: space—and plenty of it. Choose a location for growing pumpkins with a minimum of six to eight hours of full sun and a lot of room; vines can grow to more than 20 feet long.

Pumpkins prefer well-drained soils high in organic matter with a pH of 6 to 6.5. (Testing your soil in the fall allows you to adjust the pH accordingly before spring planting time arrives.) For all but the northernmost zones, pumpkins can be planted from seed after the danger of frost has passed and the soil temperature has reached 60 degrees F. Northern growers can start pumpkin seeds indoors in peat pots three to four weeks before transplanting them outdoors, again, after the danger of frost has passed.

Small farms can plant pumpkin seeds individually by hand, but for larger acreage, mechanized planting may be desired. Adam Voll, farm manager of Soergels Orchard in Wexford, Pa., uses a special technique for planting larger fields of pumpkins. (The farm grows 23 acres of squash and pumpkins.)

“We’ve been experimenting a little with this,” Voll says. “Typically, we’ve plowed and worked the ground into a fine seed bed. We still do a lot of that, but I’ve started doing more strip tilling. I have a machine that uses a sub-soil tooth, and then with a few disks and a rolling basket, I get a great seed bed in one pass. It saves time and is reducing the erosion and helping the soil. I will typically do this in a rye field or an old hay field so that the organic matter on top then helps with erosion and keeps the weeds down. We’ve also planted some on plastic. We use trickle irrigation under the plastic and have gotten great results.”

All pumpkins grow the same, no matter how much space you have to dedicate to their production. Pumpkins are monoecious, meaning the male flowers are separate from the female flowers on the same plant. Male flowers arrive first, ensuring ample pollen is available when the females open a few days later. You can tell the male flowers from the females simply by looking: Males are born on straight flower stalks, while female flowers have a swollen base that develops into the fruit once pollinated.

The pumpkin flowers are pollinated by insects, including many species of bees, flies and beetles (including the dreaded cucumber beetle), so to maximize pollination, plant plenty of flowering plants in and around the garden. The more flowers you have around, the more pollinators will be present in the garden. Hand pollination is possible, too; although, it’s only necessary if problems with pollination have occurred in the past or you need to control pollination for seed production.

Once the pumpkin seeds have germinated, mulch between the plants very well.

“We use a good bed of straw,” notes Gettle. “Once the vines get growing, it’s hard to weed around them. And the straw keeps the fruits clean and off the ground.”

Mulching also retains soil moisture, and pumpkins use a lot of water. Gettle recommends protecting pumpkin vines with floating row cover until they flower.

“Row cover is probably the No. 1 way to control squash bugs organically,” he says.

The row cover should stay in place while the pumpkin plants are young and vulnerable; it serves as a physical barrier between the plant and the pest. The cover is then lifted when the plants come into flower to allow for pollination. By that time, the pumpkin plants are mature enough to fend off any subsequent attacks, and the fruit are more likely to reach maturity. It helps deter cucumber beetle damage, as well.

With many types of squash and pumpkins, powdery mildew is likely to be an issue, especially during rainy summers. This dusty, white mildew appears on the leaves and is prevented, first and foremost, by choosing resistant varieties; secondly, by spacing plants properly to provide adequate air circulation and allow plants to dry quickly; and thirdly, with regular applications of potassium bicarbonate-based fungicides or compost tea. Although powdery mildew seldom kills plants (it’s primarily an aesthetic issue), when combined with pest issues or other plant stressors, it can result in plant death or decreased production.

“The weather has always been our biggest challenge,” says Voll. “Rainy, wet seasons make it tough with diseases like powdery mildew and also at harvesting time. But hot and dry makes it harder for watering and keeping the size up on the pumpkins.”

As the growing season progresses, the pumpkin fruits will begin to set and mature. You’ll know they’re ripe when the rind hardens and the vine begins to die. When the fruit is fully ripe, the skin should be tough to puncture with a fingernail, and the mature skin color should be fully developed. When harvesting pumpkins of all types, leave the stem on as long as possible. If it breaks off, the fruit will start to rot at the stem base, and the storage capacity is greatly diminished.

All types of winter squash, including pumpkins, are best stored on cardboard sheets in a cool place like a basement or a root cellar. Depending on the variety, expect a shelf life of anywhere between two months and one year.