One less slice of pumpkin pie?
For Christy Harp, a math teacher from Ohio, it was a great year for competitive gourd growing — her 1,725-pound giant pumpkin shattered the world record by more than 30 pounds.
But that achievement is a lone bright spot in the Midwestern world of pumpkins. In Morton, Ill., the "Pumpkin Capital of the World," 2009 is shaping up to be a dismal year, and that could mean less pumpkin pie over the holidays.
Farmers around the town of 16,000, about 160 miles from St. Louis, grow most of the pumpkins that end up in cans and on American dining tables — as pies or cakes or breads — over the holiday season. The area’s pumpkin yield — from about 5,000 to 6,000 acres — is shipped to a Nestle-owned plant in Morton that processes between 80 and 90 percent of the country’s canned pumpkin, labeled under the Libby’s brand.
But as of this week, tons of pumpkins remain unharvested, resting on their pale oblong sides in sloshy fields of mud.
"There are healthy pumpkins out in the field," said farmer John Ackerman, who planted 33 acres of pumpkin for Libby’s this spring. "If we could just physically get them into the plant."
Record rains have turned fields around Morton, and throughout the Midwest, into soggy mires, preventing tractors from harvesting. That, Nestle says, could mean canned pumpkin will be in short supply through the holidays. Several regional and national chains, including Wal-Mart, say they expect supplies to drop off deeper into the holiday season.
"If we had picked every pumpkin on all our acres and it was all canned and all turned into pies, it would make 90 million pumpkin pies, and there’s not going to be 90 million pies this year. It’s more in the 50 to 60 million range," said Roz O’Hearn, a Nestle representative. "Now that’s still a lot of pies, but it may just mean you only have one slice this year."
Libby’s started the year badly. Last fall, farmers in Morton harvested fewer pumpkins than expected, mostly because of delayed spring planting, meaning there was less surplus heading into 2009. This spring, planting was late again. That, followed by a cooler-than-usual summer and a rain-soaked fall, meant some supermarkets ran out of canned pumpkin late this summer.
A mini surge of harvesting and processing in September replenished supplies, but those may not last through the season.
"Last year’s supply was short, so there really wasn’t anything in the pipeline," explained Leo Darrow, a grocery manager at Dierbergs. "Then they had a late spring, a cool, wet summer, a rainy fall, and things just snowballed."
Dierbergs and other supermarkets haven’t advertised canned pumpkin in the usual preholiday fashion, Darrow said. "Everyone has some pumpkin now. But they felt if they advertised and discounted, they wouldn’t have enough to get through the holiday season."
After last year’s light harvest, Nestle asked growers to plant more acres. But even the added acres haven’t compensated for the rain-related delays.
"We’ve been canning pumpkin for 80 years, so you sort of know the history of the rain averages," O’Hearn explained. "But this has blown us out of the water."
For Ackerman and his fellow farmers, it’s an especially frustrating scenario. Their job is to grow the pumpkins. Now the harvesters — also contracted by Nestle — take over, but with the soggy fields, they haven’t been able to. Not a single pie pumpkin has been harvested from Ackerman’s farm, leaving about 700 tons of pumpkin behind, he estimates. Those will likely be plowed under before a hard freeze.
"It would make perfectly good pumpkin pie," Ackerman said, though he has been able to harvest some of his ornamental pumpkins by hand.
For Morton and its residents, the weather conditions have put more than a crimp in holiday feasting. The village prides itself on its pumpkin-centric ways, celebrating the gourd in two annual festivals. One event — a pumpkin toss in which people toss 600 pumpkins in a cornfield — had to be canceled this year because unharvested corn stood in the muddy ground.
"It was a real bummer," said Susan Pyles, Morton’s director of tourism.
Dozens of farmers within a 50-mile radius of Morton contract with Libby’s to grow the pumpkins — a specially bred smooth-skinned gourd with light-colored flesh — and about 200 extra people are hired to work at the plant during the fall processing season.
"Of course, everyone’s impacted," Pyles said. "Our plant is manned by a lot of migrant workers who come in for the pumpkin pack, and I know over the last few months, the plant has shut down for several days in a row, and I’m not sure what happens to those employees. … You’re looking at people that for them this is a year’s work."
As workers in Morton wait for the weather to clear or scramble to can whatever they harvest, pumpkin growers in another part of the country are basking in the post-harvest glow.
In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, growers at Stahlbush Island Farms harvested pumpkins in sunny weather for the Farmer’s Market Foods label.
"We’ve had a wonderful pumpkin year," said Karla Chambers, a co-owner of the farm. "We’re not having a shortage, but we’re sure shipping a lot because others are."
While some supermarkets are hunting for other canned pumpkin sources, they’re also crossing their fingers that what’s left on the shelves will last through the holiday season when roughly 65 percent of the canned pumpkin is sold.
"I’m worried … that this will create a panic, that everybody’s going to run to get their pumpkin," said Darrow, of Dierbergs. "But I think we’ll have enough to get us through. We’ll be tight, but we’ll make it."
Filed under: term by Finance Boss