Looking for a perfect pie pumpkin or a decadent component to some other pumpkin dish, whether sweet or savory? Look no further than the beloved Winter Luxury Pumpkin! As breathtakingly delicious on the inside as it is classically beautiful on the outside, this pumpkin will delight all the senses and make your pumpkin dish or seasonal display absolutely unforgettable this fall season.
Read on to learn more about everything the wonderful Winter Luxury Pumpkin has to offer!
History
The Winter Luxury Pumpkin seed was first introduced by the renowned Johnson & Stokes Seed Company in the year 1893. The small to mid-sized Winter Luxury Pumpkin rapidly gained in popularity as it became known for being a fantastic component for pumpkin pies; quickly, it came to be considered a standout among its fellow pumpkin varieties for cooking and baking. The Winter Luxury Pumpkin continues to maintain that rampant popularity to this day, garnering praise from food critics, bloggers, and casual bakers who continue to experience its addition to the pumpkin pie palate across the world.
Characteristics
The Winter Luxury Pumpkin is known for its classic, almost fairytale-like appearance, with a supple roundness in shape and a brilliant orange flesh that can vary from a more mellow orange color to a rich, almost sunset orange hue. Typically, you will also find a soft netting across the flesh of a Winter Luxury Pumpkin.
As far as taste and texture go, the Winter Luxury Pumpkin is the cream of the crop. With a flesh that’s remarkably velvety smooth, creamy, and delicious in all the best ways a pumpkin should be, you will be hard-pressed to find a better component for pumpkin pie!
The Winter Luxury Pumpkin plant has incredibly vigorous and often longer vines that will bear fruits generally around a height of up to 6 and ½ inches and weighing in between 7 to 8 pounds.
Because of its beautiful appearance in addition to its edible delicacy, the Winter Luxury Pumpkin is considered not only to be a great component for dishes and pies but is also lauded as a great decoration piece! Though it doesn’t keep long, a fresh Winter Luxury Pumpkin can make a great centerpiece for a Halloween or Thanksgiving decoration display.
Fun Facts
Eating Them
The Winter Luxury Pumpkin is, without contest, one of the best pumpkins out there in terms of overall flavor and texture. In fact, the Winter Luxury Pumpkin is considered the golden standard for pumpkin pie making due to the density and texture of its flesh!
However, the traditional pumpkin pie is not the sole eating application you’ll find for a Winter Luxury Pumpkin—not by a long shot! This is a versatile squash that can be consumed in many ways.
Some other sweeter applications for the Winter Luxury Pumpkin include as a component in any breads, muffins, or cookies that include a pumpkin element. This pumpkin can also add a pop of color and flavor to ice cream, tarts, waffles, and cinnamon rolls… or my personal favorite, pumpkin cheesecake!
In addition to these sweet treats, you can also find some savory applications for the Winter Luxury pumpkin as well. Use this delectable pumpkin in soups, frittatas, curries, pastas, and more! It pairs excellently with feta or ricotta cheeses in particular and can be used across a variety of creamy and savory dishes.
If you are interested in dehydrating and powdering vegetables to use in a similar way to seasonings, adding a subtle yet healthy boost of nutrients and a spike of flavor to any meal, the Winter Luxury Pumpkin can be used in this way as well, similar to many other squash varieties that do excellently with powdering.
Health Benefits
Like many other squash varieties, the Winter Luxury Pumpkin has great health benefits! This is a squash variety that has many nutrients and few calories. It is high in antioxidants, which help reduce overall inflammation throughout the body and can also lower the risk of certain cancers, mental degeneration, heart disease, and more. The vitamin contents of a Winter Luxury Pumpkin include vitamins A, C, and B, magnesium, potassium, and manganese. The Winter Luxury Pumpkin is also an excellent source of fiber, helping with intestinal regulation and so much more!
Growing At Home
The Winter Luxury Pumpkin makes a great pumpkin variety for growing at home—as long as you have the room for it to spread out and the patience to tend its high needs! Like all pumpkins, squashes, and other vining varieties, you’re going to need a lot of space to have a happy, healthy, well-growing Winter Luxury Pumpkin plant. But if you can make room for the pumpkin in your garden, and put forth the effort to care for it, you’ll reap a rewarding harvest just in time for those chilly fall days and the pumpkin spice season!
To grow a Winter Luxury Pumpkin at home, you have the option to start them indoors in small planters right around the middle to the end of March to give them a bit of a jumpstart, or to plant them directly outdoors around the middle to the end of April, which will likely result in a slightly later harvest.
Once the threat of a final frost has passed—usually no later than the beginning of May—you may either begin planting your pumpkin seeds outdoors or transplant your young Winter Luxury Pumpkin plants that you’ve been keeping indoors.
Outdoors, seeds or young plants should be sown to a depth of ½ inch to 1 inch, with 2 to 3 seeds or one young plant placed in each space or hill, with a gap of about 36 to 48 inches between hills in rows that are 48 to 60 inches apart. This will ensure ample space for your Winter Luxury Pumpkins to happily vine and sprawl out.
The Winter Luxury Pumpkin does require moderate care. It is a heavy feeder, requiring lots of water (at least an inch per week to reach those coveted 7 to 8-pound pumpkins) and lots of mulching. The Winter Luxury Pumpkin also has high nitrogen needs, so you will need to make sure your soil is fertile or help it along with some compost or manure.
You will also want to ensure your Winter Luxury Pumpkin Plant receives a minimum of 6 hours of sun per day, and be prepared to patiently wait…it takes about 100 days for this plant to come to full maturity!
Where To Buy
You have a couple of options when looking to buy one of these pumpkins: seeds or young plants.
It’s always recommended to shop locally and support your area nurseries, garden centers, farmer’s markets, and farm stands by scouting them out first and foremost for seeds or young plants. However, if you don’t have any luck there, you do have the option to purchase your seeds online! One great option for shopping online for these pumpkin seeds is Hoss Tools, a very reputable seed seller.
In terms of young plants that are ready to be transplanted straight into the soil, these are more difficult to find online. Your best option for procuring a plant is to search your local nurseries, garden centers, and even grocery stores to see what is available in your local area.
Wrapping Up The Winter Luxury Pumpkin
Ready to grow and harvest a Winter Luxury Pumpkin crop and enjoy the best pumpkin pie of your life? Don’t stop there!
Excited for more pumpkin content? Keep learning all about pumpkin plants to become an expert on pumpkin planting, growing, harvesting, cooking, and more!
- About the Author
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Renee Dugan is a lifelong writer, professional editor, and lover of all things nature, gardening and the big outdoors.
A Midwest girl who’s been in the garden since she could first hold a hand trowel, Renee’s love of growing things has bloomed into a passion for healthy living, holistic lifestyle, and knowing where our food comes from.
Now a mother and maturing gardener herself, Renee is passionate about channeling everything she knows and continues to learn about gardening into lessons for her son and others. Her excitement for sharing this knowledge is only superseded by her excitement about being able to finally grow her own citrus plants in pots.
Renee can be reached at renee.s.dugan@gmail.com