New York pumpkin shortage for Halloween.

Hurricane Irene destroys pumpkin plantations. No jack-o-lanterns this year

This year New York has been pummelled by ice-storms, heatwaves, earthquakes and hurricanes but is about to face its biggest natural disaster of the year. Come Halloween, the city will be facing an extreme pumpkin shortage.

New York is facing a pumpkin shortage at Halloween as Hurricane Irena destroyed so many pumpkin plantatation

When Hurricane Irene blew and howled its way across New York state last month, it not only left a city reeling from a generation defining storm but also wiped out hundreds of pumpkin plantations across the state. As a result wholesale prices of the big orange vegetable have already doubled and are expected to rise further before the pagan Irish festival of death comes knocking.

With prices in dollars already higher than the Halloween film franchise is in sequels, children across the New York state are going to be left devastated on the 31st October when the cold hard realisation that making a scary lamp from the fruit known in France as a citrouille is going to be off the agenda.

As the Autumn begins to take its chilling grip and the daylight starts to lose its blinding heat, farmers in New York are preparing for the worst.

“I think there’s going to be an extreme shortage of pumpkins this year. I’ve tried buying from people down in the Pennsylvania area, I’ve tried locally here and I’ve tried reaching across the border to some farmers over in the Quebec area. There’s just none around.”

Tags: breaking news, halloween, hurricane irene, hurricane irene destroys halloween, pumpkin shortage in new york

This entry was posted on September 18, 2011 at 9:17 am and is filed under Headlines, News, Traditions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.