Cool summer means fewer pumpkins

Pumpkins
Worker Remedios Suarez, right, loads pumpkins off of a conveyor into crates in Minnesota City, Minn. on Monday. The harvested pumpkins are brought in on wagons, where they are washed before being taken to area retailers.
AP Photo / Melissa Carlo, Winona Daily News

Minnesota's cool summer means fewer pumpkins for this Halloween.

Todd Beumer, owner of Collegeville Orchards, started harvesting pumpkins about a week ago and says his harvest will be down about 30 percent compared with last year's bumper crop.

Beumer says his crop started off well with ample rain in June, but a cool July and August has slowed the pumpkins from ripening. He says the good news is they'll still ripen if they get more sunshine.

Terry Nennich, an extension educator at the University of Minnesota-Crookston, says the cool summer will affect pumpkin production statewide.

He says there are pockets around the state where it will be OK, but too much rain has ruined much of the pumpkin crop in northeastern Minnesota.

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Information from: WJON-AM, http://www.wjon.com