SUAMICO (NBC 26) — The scariest thing this Halloween season may be the fact that there could be fewer jack-o-lanterns on front porches. Nationwide, farmers are experiencing a pumpkin shortage.
At Blaser's Acres in Suamico, the owner Chris Blaser said it has to do with the extreme heat we experienced this summer, and the rainfall, as well. It made it harder for the bees to pollinate the fruit.
“So when the heat came on, it just doesn’t allow the bee's to get their job done," said Blaser. "There ain't much you can do about it, you know. You can't make a pumpkin appear out of thin air."
Thankfully, at Blaser's it hasn't slowed down foot traffic. People come for the petting zoo, hay rides, and so much more, on top of the pumpkins. However, he does say they're running low. A normal year, he finds one-thousand to two-thousand pumpkins per acre. This year he had one seven acre field with only 30 pumpkins.
"Pumpkins are running short," said Blaser. "We are definitely scraping fields. We had 120 acres and we didn't ship anything out, we kept everything here, and we don't know if we have enough to make it to the end or not."
Many groceries started pumpkin season early this year. Blaser said both Festival and Piggly Wiggly had their blowout sales early, and at this point, with how unseasonably hot it's been, he said they're probably rotting.
"It's getting to serious pumpkin buying time and the carts go out one-by-one, and when they're gone, they're gone."
