Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Pumpkin Update 2: Organic Abounds

Evidently organic pumpkin is available! My friend says you can order it on Fresh Direct, and I ran across it at Whole Foods Darien yesterday. I only bought five cans, because realistically, I'll only make a few batches of pumpkin muffins. Plus, I did not want to be a pumpkin hoarder. I wouldn't do that to you guys. Happy cooking and let me know if/when/where you are finding pumpkin! Click here to read more.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Update: Full-On Pumpkin Freakout

Mrs. Green's didn't have pumpkin. (OmNomCT tells me they bought it all, but I think they're joking.)
Yesterday, my coworker swore her husband got two big cans of pumpkin at the Stop and Shop (or Shop Rite, she wasn't sure) on the border on Stamford/Greenwich on Rt. 1. I, of course, ZOOMED to both stores right after work. NO PUMPKIN. A Shop Rite employee said they'd have it in the next month, but is such a glib answer really believable? An employee at Stop and Shop said abruptly and gruffly, "We haven't had it for six months. It's the crop." Clearly, he understands how much trouble we are in.
My friend Mama Ball comments on the previous post that pumpkin will soon be in stores... she's usually right about everything, but I'm going to ask her to do some further research for me.

I am finding confusing info online about the pumpkin shortage. Some links:

--The HGTV readers seem to agree on this thread that there currently IS a shortage.
--I found several versions of an article written in 2010 about how the pumpkin crop of 2009 got destroyed, leading to a shortage in 2009, but suggesting that 2010 would be better.

Well, all my current info from grocery store employees suggests we are in another pumpkin crisis.

I MAY have a can of pumpkin shoved in the back of my pantry. Currently, it's my only hope for making the pumpkin muffins I'm craving so badly.

If you see any pumpkin around, let me know. And don't feed my any false info, you know, like my coworker did. She's clearly got some agenda.
Click here to read more.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Pumpkin Horror

I almost don't want to tell you guys this, but I feel it's my duty.
THERE IS NO PUMPKIN ANYWHERE!!!!!!!

I always go into a cooking and baking frenzy in the fall, and pumpkin muffins are on the list for this week. You may or may not know that I am a bit obsessed with pumpkin. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin spice lattes, and candy corn pumpkins are a big part of how I accept the end of summer.
The kid and I went to Stop and Shop yesterday morning to stock up on groceries, and the pumpkin wasn't in aisle 7 like it was supposed to be. I stopped an employee. "Excuse me, there's no pumpkin in aisle 7, is it somewhere else?"
"Oh we haven't had pumpkin in forever," she said. "It got recalled last year. If we have it at all, it would be in the natural foods aisle."
I tried to hold in my panic as I gathered yogurt and Drano on the way to the organic aisle... IN WHICH THERE WAS NO CANNED PUMPKIN.

I came home and googled "libby's pumpkin recalled," and on a Cooking Light thread, a commenter said, "You can get more Libby's canned pumpkin than you'll ever need on Amazon." I eagerly clicked on the link provided and saw an image of a can of Libby's pumpkin with the horrifying statement, "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

This situation is serious, people.

I'm stopping by Mrs. Green's later today to see if they have canned pumpkin. If not? Well, I guess I'm going to have to take the unimaginable step of BAKING A PUMPKIN and like, pureeing it myself. What a pain.
Click here to read more.