Worse yet, the pies always fall flat after removal from the oven. Butternuts have solid stems and are not attacked by the squash vine borer. Last summer, I harvested 79 butternuts from just two vines. I'm not bragging, but in the same space I could have gotten 4 large pumpkins or 12 small pumpkins. The amount of useable flesh from the butternuts was at least 4 times greater, and that is without processing the flesh that surrounds the seed cavity.
Butternuts require little in the way of fertilizer or water by comparison.
I gave them a little less than one inch of leaf compost the previous November, and that's all. I have not observed a squash bug working the butternuts. The cucumber beetles gather in the blossoms, but cause little damage, and unlike the pumpkins, there are only two to five beetles per blossom. Butternuts are cooked completely and quickly in the microwave oven, and the puree'd flesh is much finer. Butternuts, stored in a cool basement last until April or May in fine condition.