Today is November 9, 2010, which means Thanksgiving is only 16 days away.
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It means Christian will be home from college in 14 days! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it! I can’t wait! I can’t wait! I can’t wait! I love this time of year. I love everything about it. I love the falling leaves. I love the weather. I love hot apple cider and cinnamon-scented pinecones in baskets. I love turkeys, the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, and Pilgrims.
I especially love pumpkin. I love the look of pumpkin, but I really love the taste of pumpkin. Nothing, I mean nothing, says Happy Thanksgiving and ushers in the season of advent like the smell of something “pumpkin” cooking, which is why last Thanksgiving was such a disappointment. Surely you know that I am referring to the Great Pumpkin Blight of 2009. The disastrous pumpkin shortage proved tragic for those of us for whom a Thanksgiving feast is not complete without the reassuring taste of pumpkin pie.
Heavy rains early in the 2009-growing season left pumpkin patches in Morton, Illinois wet and mucky. Crops were mired in fungus and full of moldy, rotting, rancid useless pumpkins. The plague began with poor harvests in 2008 leaving suppliers with depleted stockpiles of pumpkin, and therefore unprepared for the 2009 blight. Morton Illinois, America’s Pumpkin Capital, supplies the country with more than 85% of its canned pumpkin products, so a pumpkin crisis in Morton means a national pumpkin shortage. Everyone knows you can’t have Thanksgiving without pumpkins. IT”S UNAMERICAN!
I used to take pumpkin for granted. I’d stroll into the grocery store on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and grab myself six cans of pumpkin. I’d buy just enough to make a pie, a couple of Mrs. Peter’s famous pumpkin breads, and soup for eight, never imagining that a day would come when my pumpkin needs would be left unfulfilled. Until the Great Pumpkin Blight of 2009. That’s why I bought 24 cans of pumpkin at the grocery store today. I’m not kidding. I’m not taking any chances. In fact, I might even go back and pick up another dozen or so cans tomorrow. I will not be left pumpkin-less ever again.
Today is November 9, 2010, which means Thanksgiving is only 16 days away. I am Thankful for many things. I am thankful for family, friends, health and happiness and I am Thankful I’ve got 24 cans of pumpkin… enough to make up for last year’s holiday pumpkin blight. Order is hereby restored.