the trick of knowing when to harvest pumpkins

I checked out a friend's pumpkin patch the other day, where she had a variety of pumpkins and kabocha squashes growing. "You think they're ready?" she asked. She'd started the plants from seed back in May and the squashes were big and beautiful and looked ready, buuuuut... after wiggling them a bit and looking over a few, I said they needed a bit more time on the vine. How could I tell? Simple: I used 5 different visual cues that tell me exactly when it's time to pick them. Some people rely...