Halloween in a tragedy as California pumpkin prices rise In Illinois, a healthy pumpkin crop will signal that Thanksgiving will be good. However, California’s current condition is showing bad signs for the coming Halloween. The normal salad bar in California has had a very ugly outlook on its menu, as in numerous ways it has had to increase its prices. From walnut hijackings to honey shortages and the milked dry dairy farms, California is going through some of the worst droughts of its history. In addition, considering that half of all the plantation (fruits, nuts and vegetables produced) of the United States of America, are produced in California, the winter squash that would usually appear this time of the year, a week before Halloween, has also been very adversely impacted by the three year dry spell of the state. However, before you think that there is no option left and start hoarding pumpkins for Halloween; a piece of information for you is that, even though California produces much of the pumpkins, it is actually Illinois that grows the orange crop for food processing. It is Morton Illinois and not Morton California that prides as the pumpkin capital of the United States of America and in fact the world. However, California grows these pumpkins, these are mostly decorative pieces that are sold locally and then carved, cut and then filled with small lights and other fancy things. The drought has directly resulted into heat waves across northern and central California; the pumpkin crop in California is pretty small and premature. These hence, have lesser flesh and are bigger in size as compared to the ones that were reaped last year. With the pumpkin produce going down, the prices have gone up. The impact has been grave on the residents and if it doesn’t rain soon enough, they might not be able to grow much this winter. In addition, since the agriculturalists would have to pay for water, the consumers will have to pay the price eventually. Most producers have had to increase around 15 cents per pumpkin due to the absence of moisture in the soil. Some farmers, as a reason of this, have even decided to decrease the pumpkin growth and instead replace them with less water-intensive crops. What is lost is lost though and not much can be done about these prices. However, the specialists forecast a good rain in the mid of 2015 and hence, a better crop growth in the summers.
Related Article: http://www.researchomatic.com/New-Research/Halloween-Day-89187.html