There are some exceptions but deep orange skin and a nice round shape with thin external ribbing usually means pepo pumpkins. Which usually means ornamentals. But there are some big orange pepos meant for eating, we had to breed down all of those pretty pumpkins from something.
They’re just not gonna taste like that classic pumpkin we think of. They’ll taste like their relatives acorn and spaghetti squash. So it you like those you’ll probably like those pumpkins. But even among heirlooms there’s a lot of confusion about which pumpkins are eating pumpkins there’s a lot of fairly old varietals bred down from ornamentals with thingsp like “sweet” and “pie” in their name. Basically attempts to develop better flavor in lines meant more for looks, that’s what the Sugar Pumpkin is on about. It gets pushed as a pie pumpkin but it tastes nothing like traditional pumpkin pie.
I grew up in a major pumpkin growing area, one of the spots where heirlooms stuck around. Long Island Cheese Pumpkins are so called because the cultivar only survived here and were rediscovered at farms near where I live. So I know waaaaay too much about pumpkins.
Try this when they’re ready:
Its old french farmhouse dish for dealing with pumpkins. Though finding one small enough to make it not insane is tricky.
