Any interest in some pie pumpkin? I use them for carving and pies too. Nice fruit and easy to grow. Email me if interested. ~Michael

You know I love pumpkins and squash. My favorite pumpkin for baking and pumpkin butter is the winter luxury pumpkin. It makes a very mild pumpkin pie similar to old fashioned squash pie. Winter luxury pumpkins don't last long--so you basically grow, process and freeze. These pumpkins can't compare to anything you find in the grocery store. When processed, they are great for low fat cooking. Pumpkin butter from these is out of this world. I use Queensland's Blue for pumpkin pie. They have a little more depth to their flavor. They are an Australian pumpkin that will last a long time in your cellar. I still have some in my basement--which is warmer than a typical cellar would be. Now if you want beauty--plant the musquee de provence. It looks like a cinderella pumpkin and is absolutely beautiful. You can cook with it--but I don't. It just doesn't compare to the pumpkins above. My favorite squash is the Potimarron. It's a French squash that has an unbelievable taste. I often wonder what it would taste like if made into pumpkin pie. We usually just eat it straight from the oven. These last a long time. Tori

Gloria, I've been partially pre-baking the crusts for pumpkin & pecan pies for a long time. That's the only way I can manage to get the bottom crust cooked. Have to shield the crimps to keep them from getting too brown. The odd thing is that I don't remember Mom having these kind of problems. Must have been that O'Keefe & Merritt oven was far superior to anything I've owned? I've gone to an all butter crust (haven't tried lard) because the hydrogenated shortening crusts were giving me a belly ache. That, after all these years of enjoying a pretty much cast iron stomach. And I hear ya on Too Sweet. Neighbor offered me a sliver of store-bakery blackberry pie a couple of days ago. Oh, do I ever love blackberries so I could not refuse. And it was a decent pie exCept that it was too damned sweet.

Something I LOVE, but rarely buy due to it usually being sold in huge sizes for single me, is something called a hubbard squash. It is sort of football shaped, but rounder. Has deep furrows. Sort of looks like a huge acorn squash, but the colors of the rind are a little bit different. Sort of a bluish green, and perhaps I have seen orange ones. Anyway, the flesh is very orange. I have heard a rumor that it is hubbard squash that is used in canned "pumpkin." It is real tasty, but I can't eat it up fast enough to warrant buying it. I have made pumpkin pie from a fairly large, ubiquitous pumpkin. Not sure if it was a prime pie variety but I doubt it, a friend bought it. It was OK, pie tasted good, but yes, a stringier texture than what we are probably used to.