No Seconds of Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving? Blame it on the Rain

Word of advice to pumpkin pie lovers: Savor those bites at Thanksgiving dinner because you might not be able to come back for another slice.

The pumpkin harvest in central Illinois is down this year, which could make the canned variety of the gourd a scarce commodity past the fall, according to a Peoria Journal Star report.

Central Illinois is the epicenter of the nation’s pumpkin production, with 90 percent of the crop being grown within 90 miles of Peoria, according to the report.

This summer’s early rain storms are the reason behind the low yield, which could be down by almost a third, the report stated. And the weather could still adversely affect the state’s pumpkin harvested that runs now through early November, the report added

A spokeswoman for Libby, the company that has the canned pumpkin market cornered and gets most of its product from Illinois, told the Journal Star that there should be just enough canned pumpkin to meet consumer demand this fall. But that’s it.

“Once we ship the remainder of the 2015 harvest (most likely by mid-November), we’ll have no more Libby’s pumpkin to sell until harvest 2016,” the spokeswoman told the newspaper.

via the Peoria Journal Star