I confess. I’m guilty. I have stashed away enough pumpkin so that DD and I can have a can a week until the end of the year. I also paid way too much for it. But pumpkin is beneficial for both of us, and we didn’t want to do without.

I remember last Thanksgiving hearing something about a pumpkin shortage, but I didn’t pay any attention because I could still get pumpkin at my local grocery store. Admittedly there was no pumpkin at Walmart - even between Thanksgiving and Christmas - but I speculated that it had to do more with some food supplier being at odds with Walmart than any real problem.

My grocery store carried large and small cans of Libby’s pure pumpkin, plus their store brand of pumpkin. I always liked the small cans of Libby’s best. During the winter the store stopped stocking small cans of Libby’s. I switched to the store brand, but by spring that was no longer available either. By then it was nearly time for DD to be home for the summer, so I didn’t mind switching to the large cans of Libby’s.

At that moment, I should have seen red flags. I should have googled pumpkin shortage. I should have stocked up. But no. I didn’t want to believe anything was really wrong. (Perhaps a parallel could be drawn to those who don’t want to believe that deficits are getting worse, unemployment is getting worse, and the economy is getting worse while the Washington administration promotes policies just the opposite of those which are proven to end a recession. Sorry, I didn’t intend to get political, but the comparison is so obvious.)

Last week large cans of Libby’s were gone from the shelves. There were small cans of organic pumpkin for double the price. “Outrageous,” I cried. “No way am I going to pay that much.”

I had to go to the city for an appointment so I tried several grocery stores. It was expensive organic pumpkin or nothing. I came home and googled pumpkin. I found out that for the last three years the pumpkin harvest has been small. One year it was drought, another year it was too much rain. One year they didn’t even harvest enough pumpkin to get seed for replanting.

So I have bought out the organic pumpkin in three grocery stores. DD and I will have pumpkin for the rest of this year. I hope – for the farmers’ sake as well as our own – that this year’s harvest will be better.