Something rotten in the pumpkin patch
Last Updated: Thursday, October 25, 2007 | 2:48 PM PT
CBC News
With a week to go before Halloween, anyone in the Lower Mainland hoping to carve a jack-o-lantern may want to hustle to the store.
This year's pumpkin crop is one of the worst in the last decade and a half, local farmers say.
"There's too much water, too much rain," said Bill Zylmans of W and A Farms in Richmond. As a result, rot has set in on his crop.
"Over the last 15 years, this is really one of the worst three or four," Zylmans said.
"Usually we get a semi-[truck]-load-and-a-half per acre, and now we're lucky if we're getting three quarters per acre, so it's a 50-50 loss."
Lucas Hogler, who's been growing pumpkins for 25 years at Richmond Country Farms, advised shoppers to be careful when picking up their pumpkins this year
"Make sure there's not some small little hole that you can put your finger through," Hogler said. "If there's a weak handle or a soft handle, that means it will likely rot."
Hogler said farmers negotiate their prices for pumpkins in the summer, so the losses will come out of their pockets and he doesn't expect prices to go up for consumers.
