Yes. Still no Lysol spray. And the other thing is why can we not get Libby’s pumpkin anywhere. Can’t even get it online.
Pumpkin might be short this year because of the dry July & August in Illinois. Spring was a bunch wetter than normal, but then rains mostly quit. About 90% of the world’s canned pumpkin (actually a brownish squash) comes from Morton, Illinois (Caterpillar City). The number of trucks to the processing plant on the highway and the number unloading seemed to be less than normal this year when we visited the grandkids & family in September, but they were cooking pumpkin. This was about 2 weeks ago, so it might not be in your store yet.
Buy a fresh pumpkin now. Double duty it by drawing a Jack ‘O Lantern face instead of carving it. You’ll have a decoration for Halloween and by the time Thanksgiving rolls around toss it in the oven for your pies. Yeah, yeah, there are carving pumpkins and pie pumpkins, whatever. Carving pumpkins are more watery and not as flavorful as pie pumpkins but add more spice and enjoy.
I have a couple cans of pumpkin and cranberry sauce leftover from last year in the pantry so that’s good. But it will probably be chicken from the freezer instead of turkey and ham this year.
Our local grocery store has always been at the end of the supply chain, I have to plan months ahead for the holidays. Had to order Karo syrup and molasses online one year. They plain don’t stock Karo, ever! Yes, I could have made some homemade Karo but was annoyed. Celery and eggs are never stocked during the holidays. Haven’t seen a head of cauliflower or a can of pork ‘n beans in 15 years or longer here. Milk will be stolen out of your cart because they never order enough. For years, not just the pandemic shortages, customers haven’t bothered to look at meat prices (I do) but just grab what they can get. I had to do what seemed like a drug deal to get some fish once. Called ahead to meet the guy at the back out of sight and then argued with him I needed more than one kilo, uh, pound. The cashier and bag boy were all surprised they had fish.
Since Feb., we have been going to Walmart (3 towns over) to do curbside pick up since our local grocery doesn’t have that service. Walmart is much larger and has a better supply however they’re also out of many things. I’ve talked to them for months about not having yeast so may have to look online. Tried to start a grocery order a few days ago but, as usual, of the 40 items they let me click on, 33 showed up as out of stock even though it showed they were in stock in the menu. Of course, we have to settle on the wrong size or a brand or flavor we don’t like or some such just to get something, anything. I did score celery last month but couldn’t get eggs. Couldn’t get corn husks for holiday tamales last time, either.