Pumpkins May Be In Short Supply At Some Farms This Fall

Drought in Texas and record rainfall in Kentucky made it a tough growing season at the pumpkin patch.

Pumpkins will be in short supply at some farms this fall, according to a report from "Good Morning America" on ABC. Farmers are reporting that everything from drought in Texas to record rainfall in Kentucky has made it a tough growing season at the pumpkin patch.

"I ended up having 10 inches of rain in August here. I think last year, the year before that, we had 1 inch of rain in August. So it's quite a difference," Nathan Huyck, the owner of Huyck Farms in Paducah, Kentucky, told ABC News. "We went out, probably a month ago, and just the blooms weren't opening and we couldn't hardly find any pumpkins."

While Huyck ended up with about half of his usual harvest, he turned to other pumpkin farms to supplement his supply—a strategy many farmers use when weather squashes their hopes of a good pumpkin crop. So don't be frightened: Some farms may have fewer pumpkins or open fewer days than normal, but you can still have your Halloween jack-o-lanterns and fall pumpkin displays.

Plus, not every pumpkin patch has had a bad season. Illinois is the largest pumpkin-producing state in the nation, and Raghela Scavuzzo, the associate director of food systems development for the Illinois Farm Bureau, told ABC News that things are looking up.

"We were really concerned early on in the season with the summer, with the drought, followed by a lot of rain," she said. "But we're really happy to announce that overall this is gonna be a pretty good pumpkin season." We're feeling thankful since Illinois produces a lot of the canned pumpkin we'll use in our pumpkin pie recipes this Thanksgiving.

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.