September 27, 1995
Web posted at: 3:20 p.m. EDT
From Reporter Mary Curran
PERRYSBURG, Ohio (CNN) -- Here's a scary thought as Halloween approaches. Finding the perfect pumpkin this year is likely to mean paying more. "Look at this one, $7.99," complained one pumpkin shopper as she pointed to a perfect- looking prospect in an Ohio farmer's field. "There's no way I'd pay 7.99 for a pumpkin."
It's not just consumers who are squawking, either. "Normally
we have probably a 10-ton pumpkin display," said John
Sciberras, a manager at Vic's, Detroit's largest produce
market. "Now we're down to one bin due to the great
shortage."
The problem lies or, more accurately, doesn't lie in the pumpkin patch. Extreme heat and near-drought conditions on the East Coast and in the Midwest left farmers with half the normal pumpkin crop to harvest, putting would-be jack-o'- lanterns in short supply. "We've already had calls from California and that's never happened," said Ohio pumpkin farmer John Klickman. "We've been getting 50 to 60 calls per day from new customers and we've been telling them there's no pumpkins available."
"Pumpkin professor" Bernard Zandstra said the hot, dry summer
killed the plants' fruit-producing buds. "Obviously, if you
don't have female flowers, you don't have a lot of pumpkins,"
said Zandstra, a horticulturalist at Michigan State
University. He said late planting last spring also
contributed to the shortage.
Pumpkins that did make it through the summer heat have good size, color and stems, but consumers will pay for that perfection. "Prices have doubled," said produce manager Sciberras. "Last year at this time they were $2.99 each. This year they're $5.99."
The woman who balked at the $7.99 pumpkin has a Halloween
alternative in mind. "I've got ceramic ones at home I'd put
on the porch," she said. But another jack-o'-lantern shopper
decided price isn't what counts: "I thought it was a little
high just to dig it out, clean it up and put a candle in it.
But it's part of the tradition. You just do it."
Maybe it would help to think of the pumpkin scarcity as Mother Nature's own trick or treat.
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