Not just for pies.

The first adjective that comes to mind when I think of pumpkin is "voluptuous." Is there any other fruit or vegetable whose shape can be more bosomy, full-figured and curvaceous? I think not.

Ontario is now in the throws of its pumpkin season. And even though Southern Ontario’s heavy rains and fewer days of sun this summer are rendering our beloved October gourds smaller than in years past, Kathleen Mackintosh, Founder and President of Culinarium—a midtown Toronto store that sells a range of locally grown, organic, natural, artisanal and sustainably produced products—is pleased to report that taste has not been compromised.

Mackintosh looks for heavy pumpkins, as this usually means that the flesh is lush and dense with freshness. In years past, many of us learned to shop with our eyes only, meaning that we chose produce that appeared to be unblemished and perfectly symmetrical. But in this age of awareness, with organics, Mackintosh explains, this is not a suitable way to make selections. "I say bring on the scarring and unique look of well-raised healthy food."

Mackintosh likes to bake pumpkins into muffins, "with chocolate chips for a little piece of heaven." Or she fills a mini pumpkin with a wild rice–chicken pilaf and drizzles the lot with a bit of maple syrup. "Pumpkin pairs well with the brown spices—nutmeg, clover, cinnamon—or with some savoury spices, like curry and ginger." (For those comfort food–addicts among us, Culinarium offers a Soups On! Class this upcoming November 23, including instructions on pumpkin soup, taught by local food lover Lesley Stoyan.)

The last few weeks of Toronto’s cold nights have also shrivelled the leaves of the pumpkins in Vertical Restaurant Chef Tawfik Shehata’s garden, which will stunt their growth. Still, Shehata has "harvested pumpkins as heavy as twenty pounds," and so far his farm has succeeded in supplying diners’ demands for Vertical’s two pumpkin offerings.

Shehata’s culinary style can be described as "sense and seasonality," and of late, Shehata envelops roasted and pureed pumpkin with homemade ravioli, mixes a fine dice of roasted pumpkin with ricotta and serves it with herbs from his farm ("parsley, thyme, marjoram and a little bit of sage, quickly blanched then pureed with oil to keep them bright"), and tops the lot with hazelnut brown butter.

Kabocha squash also partners with medium-rare elk on this menu, this time roasted, wedged, and served skin-on, with saor (a Sicilian, chutney-like condiment that tastes both sweet and sour).

Grace Mandarano of 100km Foods, a company that partners chefs and producers to bring locally grown food from farm to restaurant, has been busy supplying Toronto chefs with batches of uniformly sized pie pumpkins. "Thankfully," says Mandarano, "growers are pretty consistent. Markets will fluctuate in terms of supply. But prices have been the same this year as last, and they haven’t been going up and down throughout the season."

The chemical-free pumpkins grown on Ed and Sandi Taylor’s Honey Wagon Farms (613-476-6191) in Prince Edward County are popular among gourmets and gourmands alike. Although they do not offer any formal tour or extracurricular farm activities, visitors are invited to pick-their-own pumpkin from the field any day of the week save for Saturday (when Ed and Sandi participate in Kingston’s Farmer Market). When I talked to Ed this afternoon, he’d just come in from harvesting and washing 100 pumpkins. "This is a hobby gone crazy," he chuckled.

Visit http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/CAONpumpkins.php for a list of other Southern Ontario farms that offer pick-your-own pumpkins this Fall.

Kelly Jones is a freelance writer and editor. She teaches Food Writing at George Brown College.