Oh My Gourd! There Could Be A Serious Pumpkin Shortage This Fall

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Joanna Fantozzi|Oct. 7, 2015 3:05 pm EST

Pumpkin is the in-demand crop of autumn, from pumpkin spice everything (Starbucks' PSL now actually contains pumpkin!) to pumpkin pies and Jack O' Lanterns, 'tis the season of the orange gourd.

But according to Illinois crop experts, U.S. farmers' pumpkin yield has been off by as much as one-third this season.Fortunately, your lattes and carved pumpkins are safe this month, but by Thanksgiving we could be facing a serious shortage of canned pumpkin, according to the Associated Press.

"I would not wait until Nov. 20," University of Illinois professor Mohammad Babadoost said, referring to Thanksgiving. "I'd buy it whenever it comes to the store."

Approximately 90 percent of all pumpkins in America are grown in Illinois. Farmers are blaming the record rainfall in June for drowning their crops, and a spokesperson from Libby's, an Illinois pumpkin processing plant, is saying, "Once we ship the remainder of the 2015 harvest, we'll have no more Libby's pumpkin to sell until harvest 2016."