BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN and MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[pumpkins]](/editions/1998/10/15/pumpkins_180x140.jpg)
Dry weather had already reduced Jeff Wentworth's crop before thieves hit.
(Dick Swaim photo)
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CLEARCREEK TOWNSHIP -- This Halloween season, there may be a black market for big orange pumpkins.
Too little rainfall this summer has left Tristate pumpkin patches parched, farmers say. Compounding the problem, fungus wiped out some of the larger, more prized pumpkins.
And one Warren County farmer suspects the shortage may have spurred a bit of pumpkin plundering.
Thieves have crept into Jeff Wentworth's Wayne Township patch during the past three weeks, taking more than five tons of his crop, he told Warren County sheriff deputies.
"There's a possibility, because of the shortage, they may have found a market like ours that would take them," he said Wednesday at his Windmill Farm Market in Clearcreek Township.
Because of the drought, Mr. Wentworth expects to bring in only half of his normal 150-ton pumpkin crop.
"We're going to run out prematurely," he said. "Who knows, I may even end up buying my own pumpkins," he said, referring to his missing gourds.
In past years, a fall visit to Don Spaeth's Warren County farm near Lebanon meant a stroll through acres of pumpkin patches. But Mr. Spaeth said the weather left him dry, too.
"I'm having to buy pumpkins and ship them in," he said.
Northern Kentucky's self-proclaimed "Punkin King," Ray Keeney, whose small farm eight miles off Marshall Road south of Covington has been dubbed Punkinville USA, said his crop is the smallest in three years.
Despite the shortage, however, consumers shouldn't see a big jump in cost. Mr. Wentworth's pumpkins are selling for 35 cents a pound -- 3 cents more than last year.
And while the drought has been disappointing, he's bothered more by the thieves, who are still at large.
"I take it personally," Mr. Wentworth said. "This is like the Super Bowl. Everything leads up to pumpkins."
![[pumpkins]](/editions/1998/10/15/pumpkins_500x389.jpg)