The Great Fall Tragedy of 2009

Last night, I was planning on making a pumpkin pudding and I didn’t think that the pumpkin shortage would be so real. I went to Whole Foods, Food Emporium, and two different Gristedes. There were no pumpkins or canned pumpkins at all. The closest thing I could find were the pumpkin pie filling that come in tofu-like boxes; they were already sweetened and ready to bake. Sigh.

From the Washington Times:

Cox Farms, which hosts one of the Washington area’s largest fall festivals this month, is looking at a pumpkin shortage.

Cox Farms marketing manager Bob Richard said a rainy spring in some parts of the country has led to a dearth of the little pumpkins that children carry home from the patch. Those pumpkins are free with the $15 admission price […]

“It has been a weird weather situation,” Mr. Richard said. “Usually we have no trouble at all getting brokers to bring us pumpkins. But Pennsylvania farmers are seeing yields down 50 to 70 percent.”

Even canned pumpkin king Libby’s (with 5,000 acres) is suffering. I think we’re looking at a season of gourds, butternut squash soup, sweet potato pies and temporarily forgo the great American tradition of pumpkin pies, pumpkin breads, cinnamon pumpkin bundt cakes, pumpkin decorating, pumpkin pudding, curried pumpkin soup, and pumpkin cheesecakes. Honestly, I’m not crazy about squash so I will not be baking a lot this fall.