Cooking Fall Decor pumpkins/squash

I planted a bunch of mixed heirloom squash and pumpkin seeds this year into some mostly-not-decomposed wood chip piles. The things took over that part of the garden! Absolute monster plants! They climbed all over a chain link fence we have, too.

I missed one of the squash until it got huge—this thing almost the size of my toddler was hanging!

It made a very good soup, baked and then puréed along with an onion and some parsnips. I had just grabbed the parsnips from the garden and figured, why not toss them in? Well, the parsnips made it a little weird (for my tastes), so I probably won’t add them next time.

I still have some pumpkins and… well, I can’t tell whether it’s squash or pumpkin. But it will get eaten!

It is really worth it to cook squash and or pumpkins. Sometimes you will discover a new taste you really like, sometimes not. When it comes to food, I have the luck of being an adventurous spirit, so I'll try all of them. Either way their size and keeping quality makes them precious as additional feed for my flock.
Because I raise chickens and ducks, I always try to get more than I need: the seeds of these make a good vermifuge before the long winter sets in. About using these seeds as a vermifuge, the opinions are contradictory. I would not want to rely on pumpkin seeds to cure a worm infection as the effect is mild. But it might work better as a preventative.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332568083_Evaluation_of_the_in_vivo_efficacy_of_pumpkin_Cucurbita_pepo_seeds_against_gastrointestinal_helminths_of_chickens
The chickens, even young ones will enjoy pecking at the flesh and will manage a few seeds too. The ducks prefers theirs cooked as their beak doesn't lend itself to pecking. I have no idea if the vermifuge effect applies to ducks or to cooked pumpkin either. The way I look at it, it primarily cuts down on the cost of feed.
I'm sure that making sure they have clean quarters, clean food / water is probably more important to keep them worm-free...
I don't keep pigs, goats or sheep or I would try those on them as well

2022 was the first year we started gardening again at our acreage.  We had a bumper crop of squashes, which created a variety of issues.  To add to the challenge, we had most of the squash in the house at the acreage and the furnace went, so we had to load everything up and bring it to the city.  That day, I filled a mid-size SUV (Buick Envision) with the rear seat folded down with vegetables.

Prior to that event, I learned that the sugary bumps of Galeux d'eysenes appealed to mice.  After some damage was done, mold was stopped by wiping down with some vinegar.

This year was a poor year for our winter squashes...I generally had failures in seed starting.  She Who Must Be Obeyed purchased 2 Galeux plants...each produced one fruit.

That said, we do have a fair amount of frozen puree from the last year or two.  We've found that after boiling chunks and draining, you can mash them well, then freeze in freezer bags.  We usually do a 2 cup measure (which is our recipe amount for pies) - they can be flattened somewhat so store nicely in the freezer.

This year, as part of our SEPP time at Wheaton Labs in September, two varieties of pumpkins were grown on the GAMCOD hugel.  To differentiate between flesh and seeds, which have a different caloric density, She Who Must Be Obeyed butchered one of each variety to get a ratio of the weight of flesh to that of seeds.  That resulted in  seeds being roasted and some flesh was roasted with some other vegetables.  Some thin chunks went straight into the rocket-assist solar dehydrator.  If I understood correctly from Stephen's BEL thread, they turned out quite well.