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

Ccabal, I think I figured out exactly what it is.. thanks to your comment. I researched c maxima plants and read a list of different things within that species.. one of the types of pumpkins that is considered to be c maxima is "jarrahdale blue pumpkins." We planted jarrahdale, sugar baby, Cinderella and pink porcelain doll pumpkin seeds this year.. apparently the former is part of that category. Didn't realize it'd be so large when I bought the seeds on etsy, but now it makes sense why this plant is bigger and taller than all the others. I was wondering why this one was more than 6x the size of the others.. I thought maybe I'd put extra compost of fert in the area it's in. Thank you again.. I'm hoping to have many blur pumpkins this year!!

I like to toss out gobs of slow-releasing, long-lasting fertilizer. I do this outside the reaches of the vines as they radiate outwards, and work it into the top couple inches of soil. Where the vines go the roots will follow. I use a mixture of soybean meal and feather meal. Breaks down slowly over an long time so I don't have to mess with it very often. If you have some good compost that would be a good bet.

The texture might be compromised but I wouldn't toss them without at least cooking one and testing it. I'd hate to throw them all away if they can be salvaged so I'd probably halve one of the squash, put it in the oven or microwave and see how it comes out. If it's OK, then I'd roast them all and freeze the puree, that's what I usually do with the squash when it's been in storage for a couple of months and they begin to deteriorate. Annie