Pumpkin pie filling may have to be frozen or from scratch

As pumpkin pie is a fall and winter tradition for many families we are falling on hard times, and finding a can of pumpkin products is not going to be easy. Food 4 Less in Joplin, Missouri states the canned pumpkin shelf has been pretty bare for at least a month or more. Libby Pumpkin blames a poor growing season last year. “Right now we can’t get our generic at all,” Store Manager Brooke Rentfro explains. Local pumpkin farmer Rich Wood suggest making your pumpkin pies from scratch. Wood blames the poor weather is to blame for the bad pumpkin crops. “Our pumpkins, our regular Jack O’Lantern pumpkins did alright, but we’ve had a lot of molding this year. And our big prize winner pumpkins did great because they like lots of water. We’ve had pumpkins up to 200 pounds this year,” stated Wood.

I am not shocked this has happened knowing how poor the weather has been the last year or so, but you never think about not having canned pumpkin on the shelf to fix your pie. It is tradition, I guess you can take this as looking a gift horse in the mouth, always expecting it to be there never thinking of it not for any reason. As I read the article on http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11242907&nav=menu657_3 I found myself looking for the first time small resemblances of the recession, what grandma and grandpa used to tell us of how the food was short during the great dust bowl, and how you made sure there was nothing that went to waist. Now I see.

This is an eye opener for me and my family, I can’t say it hasn’t changed my thought in regards to this thinking that it would not ever be an issue to go to your store and get what you want off the shelf. Always expecting it to be there, never thinking that it wouldn’t.

As mom always said, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”