ONE SUMMER when I lived in Pennsylvania, I would pass a large field every day as I drove to work. It wasn’t until the leaves died away in September that I could see the big, round, bumpy, red-orange skins of winter squashes. It seemed funny, because I’d never seen that kind in the markets around there and wondered what they were used for. I got my answer a few days later. They were being loaded onto a truck painted with a large sign that read, “Mrs. Smith’s Pies.” Mrs. Smith’s pie factory was located in nearby Pottstown, so it didn’t surprise me that local farmers were growing crops for her pies—but what kind of pie would she make from big old red squash? I stopped and asked the foreman about it. “These here are Golden Hubbards,” he said. “We make pumpkin pies out of them.”
“Yeah?” I said. “Why don’t you use pumpkins?”
“Pumpkins don’t make very good pies. These are much better,” he said. I told him I’d like to try that, and cadged a small Hubbard from him. Hacked in two on my kitchen counter, it showed good color—not quite as rich as butternut but an inviting yellow orange. After baking, the flesh was sweet, though a bit coarser and stringier than butternut. Then I got out my mom’s old pumpkin pie recipe, and made me a pie. It was luscious—certainly better than any I’d made from the kind of pumpkins they sell for jack-o’-lanterns at Halloween. But it got me thinking. If Mrs. Smith made good pumpkin pies from Hubbards, why couldn’t I make brilliantly wonderful pumpkin pies from Waltham butternuts? That Halloween I tried it, and we’ve been making our pumpkin pies with the Waltham variety of butternut squash ever since (see “Pumpkin” Pie recipe).
Read more about Winter Squash
Check out some of our tasty recipes for winter squash from ecomii's recipes section.
Winter Squash Soup with Pumpkin SeedsCrab and Squash SoupSpaghetti Squash with Tomato and Basil
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