Too Much Rain In Illinois, Pumpkin Prices Are Up
Our home state of Illinois is the largest producer of pumpkins in the US (Yes, we really do think that's cool, ok?)
Sadly for you, it rained too much in the Sucker State and you probably paid a lot more for your pumpkins this year, says NPR.
In other news: The series of crazy rain storms split one of our Mom & Dad's maple trees right in half. Sorry, nation, for the expensive pumpkins. Mother nature is fickle.
"We had 24 inches of rain for two weeks at the end of August," said Carrie Goebbert, owner of Goebbert's pumpkin farm in South Barrington, Illinois. "So all of our pumpkins were set, and a lot of them (because of the warm night and warm days) were fully mature and ended up rotting in the fields. They were basically floating."She had to import pumpkins from Kentucky, New Mexico and Texas to meet demand; and raise prices from 35 cents to 39 cents a pound.
Still, her profits will be down substantially, Goebbert said.
"I know certainly in the surrounding farms -- within 60 miles of our farm in every direction -- had the same problem," Goebbert said
Pumpkin Prices at Premium [NPR]
(Photo:meghannmarco)
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Comments:
Excuse me? I live in Missouri. You know, right next door. Try "we haven't been getting enough rain" and you'll have it right.
Oh No! The sad thing is I didn't get a pumpkin to carve this year. I attempted to, but the two grocery stores near me in Chicago were sold out. I ended up just getting some pie pumpkins for seeds and soup and have been enjoying the awesome video game themed pumpkins on Kotaku.
Ditto in Michigan. My brother's pumpkins were done by the beginning of October and we planted really late this year. Too much damn rain this summer.
@Buran: It was far too much rain north of I-80, far too little rain south of I-70, and in the middle of the state here the punkins got a fungus.
It's unusual because rarely do all three of Illinois' growing regions (loosely divided as above) suffer the same meterological fate all at once, so we've never had a pumpkin crop failure of this magnitude before.
Ahh Goebbert's, the giant pumpkin on silo in front of $5 million dollar homes.
Rain was very localized this summer. We grow produce and we had too much rain in early July and it flooded out our late squash & pumpkin crop. Forty miles east of our farm--barely a trace of rain the whole time. Weird weather this year.
Many of the fields around us (we are in Central IL) contract to grow pumpkins for Libby's, hence Morton IL is the Pumpkin Capitol of the World.
@Buran: Yeah you're right Missouri always gets exactly the same weather as Illinois. And since Missouri is also "right next door" to Kansas, you always get tornados. And since Kansas is right next to you and next to Colorado, you have mountains covered with snow. And since Colorado is right next to Utah which is right next door to Nevada, Missouri is thus 90% desert.
So how's your governor doing, that former actor from Austria?
:)
Q: What do Illinois hicks do on Hallowe'en?
A: Pump kin.
Wow... I thought our pumpkins in Oregon were expensive at 14 cents per pound. Of course, all the pumpkins were huge, which is really why I thought they were expensive.
The pumpkin we got this year from a Jewel in Downers Grove (IL) cost 5 dollars and rotted within two days of carving. Very disappointing. Something similar happened last year.. I think we are done with real pumpkins.
Dupage county IL here... Got three nice pumpkins from the local farm deliveries (including one enormous one), but didn't know how to prepare them so I donated. Got them from Wellhausen Farm: [www.wellhausengroup.com]
And here in Northern Virginia, we were under a severe drought with mandatory water restrictions because we went 3 months with only a few inches of rain. I still managed to pay $12 for 3 pumpkins at Giant (grocery store) though so I'm not complaining about pumpkin price.
Is it a coincidence that your next
article is about pump and dump?
Just wondering.