By Debbie Hilton

A Halloween without pumpkins?

No way!

Jack-o’-lanterns may cost a little more and many may come from southern states that were not affected by heavy rains this summer — but either way, plenty of pumpkins will be available in Western Pennsylvania this fall for pies and carving.

With two torrential downpours by way of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, a lot of farmland devoted to pumpkin crops were too wet to harvest. This has led to the media creating much hype over this year’s pumpkin supply and dubbing it “The Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2011.”

Google lists more than 427,000 stories on the Internet about a shortage of pumpkins.

But, according to two local farms in the Pittsburgh area, the only people who can’t find pumpkins are the ones who believe the hype.

The bins outside of a Giant Eagle on Route 22 in Monroeville are filled with all sizes of orange gourds from small to extra large.

Same goes with a Saturday Farmer’s Market set outside Teddy’s Restaurant in North Huntingdon where customers are lined up near a pumpkin bin searching for the perfect orange orb.

There is no truth to the rumors says Tom Kerber, one of the two main farmers at Kerber’s Dairy Farm off of Route 30 in North Huntingdon.

“I think it’s all a media hype,” Kerber says. “Our pumpkin supply is more than adequate here at our farm. …We have not seen a shortage.”

While many farms in the eastern part of the state are having to cancel their annual hayrides and Halloween festivities because of marshy fields, Kerber’s Dairy Farm is still able to host local school field trips and other fall activities.

“We have a bunch of schools that will come out and take tours of our farm which is about five to six acres,” Kerber said. “The kids are still able to leave our farm with their favorite pie pumpkin, a smaller type of pumpkin.

While there is no sign of a pumpkin shortage at Soergel Orchards Family Farm Market in Wexford they admitted their crop this year was a bit smaller than last.

Eric Voll, the general manager of the Wexford farm, said that there is a scarcity to the pumpkin crop this year because the farms around Pittsburgh had more trouble growing pumpkins due to the hot and humid months of June, July and early August but not because of any effects of hurricanes.

“There is a scarcity to the pumpkin crop this year due to the hurricanes affecting the east coast states,” Voll said. “New Jersey, Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania supply large amounts of pumpkins throughout the region.”

Since the hurricanes did not directly affect our area, local farmers have only seen problems with more of a dry summer than recent past summers.

“Our farm was not affected by the hurricanes and the rain associated with it,” Voll said. “It was more affected by the deep drought throughout the summer, resulting in lower yields and smaller sizes of pumpkins. This crop is smaller than 2010.”

Along with the scarcity of pumpkins, many farms in the region have increased the price of pumpkins to compensate.

For example, for the first time in five years, the Soergel Orchards Farm Market decided to raise their pumpkin prices by from 39 cents a pound to 45 cents a pound.