B.C. pumpkin growers are sounding the alarm saying this year’s pumpkin supply has taken a hit due to the dry and hot summer.
The owner of Galey Farms in Saanich says the supply at his pumpkin patch is down 20 per cent.
“We do have a less amount of the pumpkins and some of the sizes are down quite a bit this year,” farmer Rob Galey said.
The dry summer caused some complications in the pumpkin growing process.
Without rain, farmers had to irrigate more than usual and that caused extreme weeding issues.
“Pumpkins are a very labour intensive crop, a lot of weeding and we had to irrigate so much that we had a whole third crop of weeds come through and they’re really hard to deal with,” Galey added.
The farm owner says they’ll have enough pumpkins for all of their events this year, but they will be shipping fewer pumpkins to grocery stores.
Farmers say while people can still buy a pumpkin, they might want to get it early and it may cost a little more.
“Our cost here at the farm is definitely up by 25 per cent this year … eventually the price is going to have to go up to compensate us for it,” Galey said.
Mitchell Farms says its crop is fairly normal for this time of year, but the dry weather and a lack of irrigation did result in a smaller crop in one of its fields.
“We basically went three months without a drop of rain here so it dries out fairly quick and once they get stunted they don’t come back to size up,” co-owner Terry Mitchell said.
Farms on Vancouver Island aren’t the only ones facing pumpkin problems, Maple Ridge pumpkin farmer, Ken Laity, is experiencing the same issue.
Laity says while there may be fewer and smaller pumpkins to choose from, smaller pie or baking pumpkins shouldn’t be affected.
With files from The Canadian Press
