Three Squashes, One November Kitchen: Which Pumpkin Truly Earns Its Bed?

For years, the pumpkin patch was a decorating department. You grew a big orange thing, carved a face in it, and quietly admitted the flesh tasted of damp cardboard. Then somewhere along the line, British growers cottoned on: the squash varieties that actually taste good are just as easy, and they store through to Christmas and beyond.

So this autumn we grew three side by side and then ate them side by side. Not a formal trial with replicated plots — just a decent comparison in a normal UK summer, with a roast tin and an honest fork as the final judge.

The three contenders

Crown Prince — the heavyweight

A proper Cucurbita maxima, and it grows like one. Expect long, vigorous vines that will happily cross a path if you let them, so give it room at the back of the plot or train it up something sturdy. Sow in late April under cover, plant out once the frosts have gone, and count roughly 100 to 110 days to harvest.

Yield is the draw: two to four fruits per plant, each often three to five kilos. Storage is outstanding — a well-cured Crown Prince will sit in a cool spare room until February or March without sulking.

In the kitchen it is dense, dry and deeply coloured, with a nutty sweetness that holds up to roasting in chunks, mashing with butter, or blitzing into soup. The skin is armour-plated, so use a heavy knife and take your time. It is the squash to grow if you want one crop to carry you through winter.

Uchiki Kuri — the small, sweet workhorse

If Crown Prince is a Labrador, Uchiki Kuri is a terrier. Compact vines, often happy to climb a frame, and noticeably earlier — around 95 to 100 days — which matters in a cool, grey summer. It has a reputation for setting fruit when other squashes are still sulking.

You get four to six small fruits of one to one and a half kilos each, so total yield is lower, but the reliability is hard to beat. Storage is shorter — think Christmas, maybe January — because the flesh is moister and sweeter.

And that sweetness is the point. Roasted in wedges, skin on, it goes soft and caramelised at the edges with a chestnut flavour that needs nothing but salt and a little butter. It is the best of the three for eating straight off the tray, and the one to grow on a small plot or in a big container.

Barbara butternut — the one that ripens here

Butternuts have long had a reputation for refusing to ripen in a British summer. Barbara is a British-bred selection that fruits earlier and more compactly, with a bushier habit that suits a raised bed.

Expect four to six fruits around a kilo each. Flavour is smooth and sweet rather than nutty, with fewer seeds and a thinner skin — much less faff to prep. It stores reasonably, though check it weekly from January as it can go soft at the neck without warning.

In the kitchen it is the versatile one: soups, curries, pasta, a traybake with chickpeas. It does not have the depth of Crown Prince, but it is the squash most likely to get used on a Tuesday night after work.

The kitchen-table verdict

We roasted all three the same way — chunks, olive oil, salt, 200C for about 40 minutes — and tasted blind-ish. Crown Prince won on depth and texture, with a dense, almost chestnut bite and no wateriness. Uchiki Kuri came second on pure flavour, sweeter and more caramelised but softer in structure. Barbara was the mildest and the easiest to eat, with the smoothest texture.

Then we cooked with them properly. A spiced soup went to Crown Prince, which gave it body without cream. Uchiki Kuri went into the oven whole, halved and stuffed with pearl barley, sage and walnuts. Barbara became a midweek traybake with leeks, mustard and a little cheddar crumbled over at the end.

Worth knowing before you sow

• Space: Crown Prince needs a good three square metres or a very sturdy climbing frame. The other two will manage in half that.
• Curing: leave fruits on the plant as long as the weather allows, then move them somewhere dry and warm for a fortnight with the stalk intact. That curing step is what makes winter storage work.
• Storing: cool, dark, around 10–15C, single layer, not touching. A spare bedroom beats a cold shed, which gets too damp.
• Seed saving: only bother with open-pollinated varieties, and keep isolation distances in mind — squashes cross easily, and a Crown Prince grown near another maxima may not come true.

What to grow in 2027

If you have the room, grow all three: Crown Prince for the winter store, Uchiki Kuri for the flavour and the reliability, Barbara for the quick midweek meals. If space is tight, pick Uchiki Kuri first — it earns its place in the smallest plot. Whichever you choose, the important shift is the same one British growers have been making for a few years now: stop growing pumpkins to look at, and start growing squash to eat.