Many years ago in the antediluvian period when I was living in the interior of Britih Columbia my aunt and I experimented making pumpkin pie with mashed cooked carrots. Carrots grow very well there, pumpkins not at all. In our family we make our pumpkin pies with a lot of spice so not only did these pies come out very dark, they were very tasty. None of us who ate them could tell that they weren't made with pumpkin. We were proud of these pies and served them to guests several times always surprising them when we told them the fruit--or vegetable we had used. Then an older relative came over for dinner and ate the pie with such obvious pleasure commenting that it was so good to have real pumpkin pie again. He said it had been years since he had tasted any, everyone there made theirs with carrots. We couldn't tell him that once again he had eaten carrot pie.
The point is, pumpkin, canned or fresh, or squash, or sweet potatoes, more depends on what you add to it than the fruit you start with. For ours we use the large can of pumpkin, 5 eggs well beaten, brown sugar, a little molasses, canned evaporated milk, 3-3 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and 1 tsp. each of cloves, ginger, and fresh grated nutmeg. Now I am going to try finely chopped crystalized ginger.