Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater

Unless you're the kind of "sneak vegetables into your loved ones" freak that I am, it may have escaped you that there's a pumpkin shortage going on. Seriously. When I embarked on my project of baking random sweets full of vegetables (in an effort to combat the effect of Duncan's poor attention span on his nutritional intake), I researched a lot of recipes. I've accumulated recipes for zucchini, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and who knows what else. I was sort of saving pumpkin for a desperate moment. Since I buy it in cans still, it's always there. But I went through this phase last fall when I loved pumpkin and gorged on pumpkin beer, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin muffins. At the beginning of June I went looking for a new muffin to try for Duncan and thought I'd break out the sweet potato muffin recipe, which calls for canned pumpkin. I thought, why not? I was excited because I had kind of missed the pumpkin. Easy peasy.

I couldn't find pumpkin anywhere in Stop and Shop. I thought, it's a big store, we're in a hurry, I'll get it next time. I popped into the local Freshtown to pick up a can. I KNOW where the pumpkin is in Freshtown, but there was none to be found. I looked in Stop and Shop again, to no avail. On my fourth attempt, I actually asked someone in the store to help me with the pumpkin. The nice boy walked me to where the pumpkin should be (the Jell-O and pie filling section, by the way), and the shelf was empty. He apologized profusely when he saw the sign, which read "This item is temporarily unavailable." Jokingly, I said to Jamie "Either there's some kind of pumpkin shortage going on, or everyone in the tri-state area is baking pumpkin pies for the summer."

On a whim, I typed "pumpkin shortage" into my web browser that night. Low and behold, there is a shortage of canned pumpkin. (I did read several articles from reputable news sources, but go ahead. Try it yourself). The growing conditions for the last two summers (overly wet and cool) resulted in lower pumpkin harvests and reduced production of canned pumpkin. In fact, people have even been selling cans of pumpkin on eBay. (It's true.  I looked. I did not, however buy. I'm not CRAZY. Just touched. Special, maybe. Crazy, no.) Mystery solved. I'm kind of sad because I really do enjoy pumpkin. I'm also disappointed that I didn't have the sense to roast my own pumpkin, like SOME people I know (Matt and Courtney...who probably still have last year's pumpkin in their freezer).  But there you have it. If you were thinking pumpkin pie, think again. And if you happen to live in an area lucky enough to still carry canned pumpkin, pick me up a can, would you?