• Long Island Cheese Pumpkin vegetable from Hudson Valley Seed Co., showcasing its pale green, flattened shape and ribbed surface.
  • Long Island Cheese Pumpkin vegetable from Hudson Valley Seed Co., showing a large, tan squash with a distinctive wedge shape.
  • Long Island Cheese Pumpkin vegetable from Hudson Valley Seed Co. showing a ripe, oval-shaped pumpkin with a creamy orange skin.
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Hudson Valley Seed Co.

Long Island Cheese Pumpkin

Curcurbita moschata

Certified Organic

Grown on Our Farm

Superb flavor for pies and soups.

Ken Ettlinger grew up on Long Island in the 1950s, where his family would pick up a cheese pumpkin so his mother could make Thanksgiving pie. In the 1970s, Ken noticed that the once common squash, one of the oldest cultivated in America, was becoming a rare find. He didn't want the pies to become just a memory, so he started saving seeds. Due to this local seed steward's efforts and the work of the Long Island Regional Seed Consortium and Glynwood's Kitchen Cultivars, these pumpkins are here to stay!

Linked to cheese through appearance only, the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin has been revered for centuries thanks to its smooth flesh and string-less interior (not to mention the high nutrient content). It's one of the oldest squashes domesticated for food, which we think speaks well for its taste and grow-ability. Choose this cheese-wheel-like squash for your autumn sweets and buck the canned stuff once and for all!

Our founder Ken Greene helped ensure that the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin made it to the Slow Foods US Ark of Taste, a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting, sowing, and growing Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.

Unit Price Quantity Availability
30 Seeds $4.99
In Stock
30 seeds | Art Pack $5.79
In Stock
90 Seeds $8.39
In Stock
270 Seeds $13.79
In Stock
4 Ounces $26.79
In Stock

Price as selected: $0.00

Ships within 2-3 business days

Growing instructions
Direct sow after frost, or start under protection up to 3 weeks before (but no earlier—grows very quickly at this stage). Plant in well-fertilized hills of 4-8 seeds with hills spaced 3' apart. Thin to three plants per hill. Harvest when color is well developed and rind is hard. Cure for a week in sun and fresh air, but protect from frost. Cured squash will store all winter.
Product Details
Days to Maturity 100 days
Days to Germination 5-10 days
Height at Maturity 24"
Sun Conditions Full Sun (8+ Hours Sun)
Planting Depth 1"
Row Spacing 72"
Plant Spacing 24"
About the artist
Artwork by Todd M. Casey. Like an heirloom seed saver, Todd is a collector of antiques. To tell the story of this heirloom, he assembled the book Cucurbits of New York, a vintage map of Long Island, and an antique trunk for storing seed collections.
 
    Long Island Cheese Pumpkin vegetable from Hudson Valley Seed Co., showcasing its pale green, flattened shape and ribbed surface.
    Long Island Cheese Pumpkin vegetable from Hudson Valley Seed Co., showing a large, tan squash with a distinctive wedge shape.
    Long Island Cheese Pumpkin vegetable from Hudson Valley Seed Co. showing a ripe, oval-shaped pumpkin with a creamy orange skin.
    • 5 stars: 2 (67%)
    • 4 stars: 0 (0%)
    • 3 stars: 0 (0%)
    • 2 stars: 1 (33%)
    • 1 star: 0 (0%)
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    Nicole M.

    This pumpkin yielded the most delicious smooth dark orange flesh. I made the best soup of my LIFE with this. It also seemed a little bit more resistant to vine borers than my NE pie pumpkins.

    Nicole M. review photo
    K
    Katie D.

    These were my only winter squash to survive the dreaded squash vine borer and took over a new garden patch that I started this year (I did this on purpose, hoping that the shade from the pumpkin vines would reduce weed pressure). As I type I've got 15-20 pumpkins hanging out in my yard ready to be harvested soon. Some will go to neighbors and co-workers, some will decorate our porch for fall and the rest will be stored away and eaten all winter. They out-competed kombucha, a different moschata variety, and runner beans. I estimate most are around 8 lbs. Very productive and easy to grow in the Hudson Valley!

    J
    Jennifer B.

    I was very excited for cheese pumpkins - I shared seeds with a coworker, and we both ended up with some devil squash that took over our respective yards, yielding massive vines (one of which is happily burrowing into my sidewalk) and pumpkins that, while intriguingly striped, were not cheese pumpkins. We are growing them over 200 miles apart, so there’s no way they could have both cross pollinated with other squash.

    Hi Jennifer! We are so sorry to hear that your Long Island Cheese Pumpkins do not look the way you expected. The vine you describe sounds about right for the Cheese pumpkins. While the young unripe fruit of the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin is striped and green, we'd love to have a look if you could send us a picture at mail@hudsonvalleyseed.com, to make sure you got the right seed.