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I should probably add that the one in the middle is a Kardashian pumpkin. He is entirely artificial.

Frank is currently auditioning for a starring role in The Walking Dead.

We have an artificial one, plus a tombstone we set up in a whithered flowerbed…looks pretty cool :+)

They make stencils now. You just, you know, stencil, the design and the cut on the lines.

Seems like a waste of a good pumpkin to me. You can make pies outa those things.

I like Butternut squash better, myself.

This was the first year I didn’t carve a pumpkin since I took over for dad in the late 80’s. Nobody cared.

Have you ever made pies out of one of these big Halowe’en pumpkins? I did one year. Tasted like shit.

I’ve since been informed the ‘pumpkin pie filler’ in a can of Libby’s is actually butternut squash. Cannot confirm.

Just went yesterday to a local orchard/farm market to a) buy used bales of straw cheap from their displays now that they are tearing them down [for mulching garden and flower beds], and b) to get pumpkins, both for pies and for roasting the seeds. Ended up getting a huge Blue Hubbard Squash, because in our discussions the farmer mentioned that all commercial “pumpkin” is actually Blue Hubbard Squash because you cannot tell the difference in the flesh and the size is both larger and more consistent for processing. Since he has been farming them for longer than I have been alive [!!??!!]

Sweasel, although you can’t make a decent pie from a standard garden variety Hallowe’en pumpkin, their roasted seeds are quite tasty. It is a little tedious to separate the seeds from the rest of the gunk, but it’s not too bad. Roast the seeds in a shallow pan with a little butter and salt until they turn a nice dark golden brown. I haven’t tried it but I’ve heard a popcorn popper does the job well.

There are special pie pumpkins, the big ones are just for carving up. The pie ones are small but you have to make sure it’s a pie one. Oh and I might add they really do make a fabulous pie!

Uncle Al,

My daughter has a variation. Before you roast the seeds brine them in water with salt and brown sugar for a few hours. Drain and let them dry before roasting. It enhances the flavor.

Having (in the not-so-recent past, but still…) grown both varieties while still living in sorta-rural MI, I can testify to the dual facts that 1) traditional-carving punkins and pie-punkins are distinctly NOT the same critters – although some of what we commonly called “sugar” or “pie” pumpkins may-at maturity-resemble the carving-types in some ways, “pie” gourds are not really suitable for lantern-carving and mostly vice-the-versa; and 2)”pie” or “sugar” pumpkins are generally smaller, thinner-hulled and faster-maturing than the jack-‘o-lantern types, and – as the (alternate) name implies – are notably higher in sugar content and substantially more flavorful to the human palate, even when in the raw state.

Traditional carving-type pumpkins make pretty good animal feed (generally, pigs and goats love ’em; cows, sheep and chickens are o.k. with ’em, though not notably over-impressed), but while they may be considered nutritionally-o.k., they’re not generally grown for human-food, ’cause: Cooked or raw, flavor is not too “useful”. As Uncle Al, et.al state, though, the roasted seeds are very nice.

And yes, a very large part of the contents of that Libby’s can consists of steam-cooked butternut squash, along with “pumpkin pie” spices, sugar, etc. – all the better to fill up that pie-shell, m’dear…Other brands may well use other variants from the edible-gourd family, can’t really say, meself…