Re: Pumpkin shortages??

We have a big pumpkin carving party every year - 200-300 people attend. This year we are expecting just over 100 kids/carvers plus parents. Each of the last two weekends we got a truckload of jack-o-lantern sized pumpkins. We buy wholesale from a great nurseryman whose pumpkins, because of his growing methods, are usually cleaner, rounder, and have little or no pale downside. His pumpkins ship all up and down the East coast. We've been buying from him for years, and his pumpkins are always head and shoulders nicer than any others I've seen.

This year he charged us almost nothing for the pumpkins because he knew they were so bad. We've had so much rain that the water content in the pumpkins is too high and they rot really easily. So far we've brought in about 120 pumpkins. I have to inspect all of them each day. We probably have put a dozen straight into the garbage, and there are maybe another 20 (so far) under shrubs and hedges. I think they will hold for decorative purposes, but no way are they carvable. I'm also terrified that when these kids start cutting into the pumpkins they will all be rotten inside.

Usually we buy the pumpkins, move them in and don't have to think about it any more. Maybe one or two out of 150 go bad. This year pumpkin maintenance is a major headache. All the pumpkins from this whole area are the same. Robert, our grower, ended up acting as a middleman this year - he bought pumpkins from all over the country and had them shipped in for the big customers he normally supplies himself. He didn't make any money on those deals; he's just hoping to keep the customers for the future.

----Original Message Follows----
From: LawnNgardenguy@aol.com
Reply-To: pumpkins@hort.net
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: Re: Pumpkin shortages??
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 22:55:18 EDT

I have seen this for the past three or four years ,the media cries wolf and
the prices go up

Dale

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