Think “winter luxury” means a week in Jackson Hole? Think again!

Among the legions of pumpkins that fill fields, stores, farm stands and tables at this time of year are varieties with the names Winter Luxury, Autumn Gold, Harvest Moon, Howden Biggie, Baby Bear, Funny Face, Young’s Beauty, Spooktacular, Ghost Rider, Triple Treat and Happy Jack.

Most are grown and harvested largely for their festive, decorative qualities. With hues running the rainbow-gamut from traditional orange to dusty white, green, grey, pale blue, yellow, red and even black, the pumpkin is an autumn aesthetic dating back centuries.

Dried in strips and woven into mats by Native Americans, referenced by Shakespeare, required by Cinderella and revered by Linus of the Peanuts gang, pumpkins punctuate historical, literary and popular cultural landscapes. But what about pumpkin cuisine?

“You can eat any kind of pumpkin — none are poisonous and all are edible,” said Christopher Sprague, who grows 60 of the hundreds of varieties in existence for his parents’ Rocky Ridge Orchard and bakery in Bowdoin. Noting that some are better for cooking and baking than others, Sprague said he chooses Sugar Pie (also simply called Sugar) pumpkins, which tend to be smaller and tender. “They’re sweeter and less stringy,” he said, affirming pumpkins pack a nutritional punch — high in fiber and rich in vitamins A, B, C, beta carotene and potassium, among other things.

For Lewiston’s Fuel restaurant owner Eric Agren and Chef Justin Oliver, creative use of the local pumpkin crop extends beyond yummy desserts, like the pumpkin creme brulee they’ve featured in previous years. Starring in this season’s pumpkin curry soup with “bacon dust,” fresh pumpkins are cut and roasted with olive oil to caramelize the flavor, before blending with chicken stock and seasonings.

“We make our own chicken stock,” said Agren, but home cooks can just as easily purchase a low-sodium version for this robust pumpkin soup recipe, which warms the stomach and the soul on crisp autumn nights.

Pumpkin logic

Heeding the pumpkin’s great propensity for palate pleasing, the Colonists, who called them “pompions,” deftly sliced off the top, removed seeds and filled the inside with milk, honey and spices. Baked in hot ashes, they produced a sweet, porridge-like delicacy. In 1672, John Josselyn, an early visitor to New England, wrote about pumpkin possibilities wherein the fruit was stewed “upon a gentle fire the whole day” with butter, ginger and vinegar for tartness. Stewed, roasted, dried, baked or pureed, often with ample spices, and transformed into soups, breads, cakes, cookies, pies, puddings, pancakes, pasta, tarts, pumpkin butter and muffins, local growers and culinary experts agree pumpkin is a gastronomic gift at this time of year.

In South Paris, Maurice Restaurant Francais owner Corey Sumner appreciates fresh pumpkin, but often opts for convenience. While he occasionally features foods that use pumpkin off the vine, because of the amount of work involved in preparing fresh pumpkin for consumption, Sumner usually chooses canned pumpkin for its ease and level of consistency.

“With a fresh pumpkin, you have to peel it, cut it, cook it down and run it through a double-mesh strainer for that really smooth consistency,” he explained. Nevertheless, for one of the restaurant’s eight to 10 annual wine dinners, which involve three or four kinds of wine and a four-course meal, Sumner has prepared a soup made from fresh pumpkin (a smaller variety for tenderness), apples, onions and stock, simmered for hours and propelled through the double-mesh strainer, and served up to great acclaim.

For Harvest Hill Farms baker Cindy McCaffrey, while pumpkin rules at this time of year, the volume baking she does for Harvest Hill in Mechanic Falls, plus Chipman Farms and Cyndi’s Dockside restaurant, both in Poland, dictates the turn of a can as opposed to smashing what could amount to hundreds of pumpkins in any given week.

McCaffrey bakes several hundred loaves of bread during the fall — including pumpkin — on a weekly basis, about 20 pies (many pumpkin), and hundreds of cookies (including pumpkin chocolate chip). Add to that about 200 much-in-demand chocolate or pumpkin whoopee pies a week during Harvest Hill’s seasonal ”Pumpkin Land” event.

“It’s really a lot of work to start with fresh pumpkins for our purposes,” said McCaffrey, though the farm grows vast quantities of three varieties for decoration and sale. Noting her sister-in-law does take the time to bake from scratch for her family using the fresh gourd, McCaffrey produces sweet treats for thousands with the healthful addition of pumpkin — though without a requisite hammer or carving knife.

“Some people even eat pumpkin to help avoid prostate cancer,” Rocky Ridge’s Christopher Sprague said of the research he’s done on his crop, speaking to its reported health benefits. “But in general, as food or otherwise, pumpkins just make people happy.”

Pumpkins are a member of the curcubita family, which includes squash, watermelon and cucumbers.

The largest pumpkin grown last year weighed in at 1,810 pounds, grown by Chris Stevens of New Richmond, Wis.

Pumpkins were once used as a remedy for snakebite and were thought to help eliminate freckles.

Some anti-wrinkle products contain pumpkin.

Pumpkins are believed to have originated in Central America. Seeds have been found in Mexico dating back to 5500 B.C.

Antarctica is the only continent inhospitable to growing pumpkins.

Eighty percent of America’s pumpkins are available in October.

Fuel restaurant’s Pumpkin Curry Soup

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized fresh pumpkins, cut into 1- to 2-inch pieces with outer skin removed

8 cups low-sodium chicken stock

Olive oil for coating

Salt and pepper

1-2 tablespoons curry powder

Crisp, crumbled bacon

Directions:

Toss pumpkin pieces with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on sheet pan at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until tender. Mix pumpkin with chicken stock and blend with immersion blender. Add curry powder and heat on low heat on stove top. Re-season with more salt and pepper to taste. Pile bacon on top in the center.

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