Long Pie Pumpkin

Awesome pumpkins! I put the seeds out where we feed the cows in the winter and did nothing else. No weeding, no fertilizing and no watering. . . just and occasional meandering thru to see how they were doing. I just brought in my harvest. . . our quad bed filled to the brim as well as the passenger seat and floorboard!!! Some are almost completely orange, but most are just starting to turn as they were planted late and we are going to turn the cows back in. I choose this variety because they store well and their size is easier to handle. These will be turned into not only pies but pumpkin pound cake as well!

I am in Sacramento CA which is very close to Citrus Heights in a previous review. I let these grow to full orange color as I did not have to pull them at the first hint of orange because of a short growing season. The fruits are fine and not dried out and rotting like in the other review. These did well for me in California's central valley heat. These are very stout and fast growing vines. They have grown up and over my 7 foot tall tunnel trellis and mingled with the cucumbers on the other side. There are some ripe ones in early august with direct sowing in early to mid May. Unripe melons planted at the same time on the same trellis are only softball size for a comparison. I steamed these in the microwave and they came out great with just butter. I did not make pie, but I assume they would do fine for that if they are good steamed. I will definitely grow again, but give them more of the trellis space as it overtook Rampicante squash planted next to it.

Successful germination but slow to vine out. A decent amount of pumpkins produced, but once the pumpkins turned orange, most of them were dried out and rotting. Same thing happened to my Connecticut Field pumpkins, but the Galeus D'Eysines pumpkins did great! Not sure what happened. Maybe I'll try these again sometime in the future as they were pretty prolific, though I think this coming season I'll try another variety like the Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck for pie making. Though the Galeus D'Eysines made for great pies!!

This is my favorite pumpkin to grow. There are few seeds and lots of flesh. The pumpkin itself starts out green and looks more like a zucchini, but then will start to develop an orange spot, you can harvest it as soon as it starts to turn orange, and let it finish ripening on a porch or in a cool room. Which is great if you are trying to beat the frost. Our Long Pie Pumpkins kept last winter kept until March, and we baked it up the very last one for Easter Pumpkin pie. If you want pumpkins for cooking, try these.