“I would not wait until Nov. 20”, University of Illinois professor Mohammad Babadoost said, referencing the Nov. 26 holiday. “But how soon we may run out of the cans in the store, I don’t know”. He said jack-o-lantern pumpkins were also affected, but not as severely as pie pumpkins.
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Experts are predicting a shortage of canned pumpkin around the holiday season due to extreme rainfall that ruined crops in Illinois earlier this year.
Although there are no fears regarding the availability of pumpkin for Halloween, it appears that there aren’t enough products to last until Thanksgiving, on November 26.
Nevertheless, it appears that this year pumpkin pie may become more of an elusive luxury, since the harvest is one third smaller than the years before.
“Not only was the Land of Lincoln drenched by its record wettest June, but it was second only to September 1926 in the list of all-time wettest months in the state of Illinois”, said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.
Roz O’Hearn, the company’s spokesperson, said she’s hoping there’s enough to make it to Turkey Day.
Farmers whose crop was washed out once, even tried to replant to no avail.
“Some of what we put in just got drowned out”, said Morton pumpkin farmer John Ackerman.
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Bellevue Berry and Pumpkin Ranch owner Ed Schaefer told Omaha.com that despite losing about 10 percent of his crops to rain and standing water, the majority of his pumpkins were looking good.
