A shortage of pumpkins could leave Thanksgiving holiday tables short this fall, according to Oregon Live. Stores are chock-full of Halloween pumpkins, but by Nov. 5 the nation could feel the pain of a pumpkin shortage in Illinois. It will create a shortage of canned pumpkin, the main ingredient in pumpkin pie. Fresh pumpkin guts aren't quite the same as the smoother, processed canned stuff that many bakers use for the Thanksgiving feast.
Libby, one of the nation's biggest makers of canned pumpkin, says its yield could be down by as much as one-third in Illinois. This is where approximately 90 percent of America's pumpkins come from.
"Buy it whenever it comes to the store," Professor Mohammad Babadoost of the University of Illinois said, according to Fox News.
And if you want pumpkin in the off season, you better stock up now. "Once we ship the remainder of the 2015 harvest, we'll have no more Libby's pumpkin to sell until harvest 2016," said Roz O'Hearn, the corporate and brand affairs director for Libby's.
Early summer rainfall hurt the fall crop, farmers say. The rain splashes mud onto the pumpkins, and that softens the skin, according to The Daily Mail. Bacteria may get into that softened skin, and the pumpkins then rot from the inside out.
