When word began to leak in grocery stores of the canned pumpkin shortage plaguing this holiday season, baking enthusiasts hoped the chatter was a joke.

And others, like Mike Sherrod, owner of the Pink Elephant Cafe, 301 E. Main St., couldn't stifle their amusement, exploding into full-throttle laughter when approached with the news.

Reality check: Those empty shelves aren't a mean trick or a byproduct of haphazard stocking.

This year, America is rationing its canned pumpkin.

"It's the Great Pumpkin Pie Shortage of 2009," Sherrod said between laughs. "Maybe I should have invested in pumpkin futures."

The culprit: Mother Nature.

Libby's, a component of mega food giant Nestle, typically uses surpluses from the previous year to stock store shelves during September and October, while the current year's harvest is under way.

But wet conditions during last year's growing season left suppliers without a surplus this year, said Roz O'Hearn, a spokeswoman for Nestle USA, the parent company of Libby's, which dominates almost 80 percent of the canned pumpkin market.

Morton, Ill., where Libby's has 5,000 acres of pumpkin fields, suffered unseasonably rainy conditions that struck after the pumpkins were cut from the vines, causing a large portion of the crop to rot.

"We're always fighting Mother Nature," she said.

A smaller harvest yield stalled this year's season, she said, adding that the canned pumpkin giant depended on its surplus from the 2008 season to carry it into 2009.

This lack of surplus meant some stores' shelves, like Norman's Super Target, were bare in the beginning of October.

O'Hearn said toward the end of September, the company shipped the current year's harvest, and by the second week of October, stores' supplies were replenished.

But the October shipment isn't a cure-all. Stores like Wright's IGA Supermarket on West Main Street are under an allocation of two cases of pumpkin per order, so Larry Wright, owner of the two Wright's grocery stores in Norman, is ordering pumpkin religiously, which means three times a week, to up his chances of receiving a shipment.

"You can order 100 cases, but that doesn't mean you'll get 100 cases," said Wright, after reading off an e-mail sent Oct. 16 that states the allocation formula was lowered from three to two.

Sherrod of Pink Elephant doesn't predict the shortage, which has pumpkin-lovers in a quandary, will affect his cafe, adding his eatery doesn't use a significant amount of pumpkin, minus the occasional pumpkin soup or pumpkin spice cake.

Even Wright isn't worried, since he knows every store is battling the setback.

In fact, he thinks smaller stores like his have the upper hand, since two cases of pumpkin for Wright's will carry further than the same two cases at larger stores like Wal-Mart and Target.

"You don't ever want to be out of a holiday item. But if everybody else is...," Wright said, trailing off.

Reality still hasn't hit a majority of the public, probably because there are several cans of Libby's canned pumpkin on store shelves at places like Wright's.

But store managers admit the numbers are dwindling.

Bill Hancock, one of the managers at Super Target, 1400 24th Ave. NW, said the store has sold out of the small cans of pumpkin, enough for one pie, and still has a few large cans left, but not for long.

"If you had a bad crop, there's nothing you can do but ride it out," said Hancock, who said when stores run out, customers bent on having pumpkin pie will have to resort to the old school method of buying a pumpkin and scooping out the goo themselves.

Because once the pumpkin is gone, it's gone.

Pumpkin isn't a repeat harvest, said O'Hearn, who has been with the company for 20 years and said this is one of the worst weather-troubled harvests she has seen.

Wright predicts his store eventually will sell out of Libby's, and customers will be forced to rely on other brands like Best Choice pumpkin, which he said isn't as popular because the brand uses ornamental pumpkins, like the ones used during Halloween, which are less meaty and flavorful.

"My suggestion: If you see your pumpkin, buy it," O'Hearn said.

Nanette Light 366-3533 pop@normantranscript.com