By Halima Fasasi, Justin Gonzales, Anna Johnson and Vanessa Ledesma
Anna Johnson for The Hub @ TTU
The Halloween season isn’t just about carving pumpkins, dressing up or getting candy. It’s about pumpkin everything.
Ashli Wieck for The Hub @TTU
The phenomenon of the pumpkin cult has grown in many ways. Although old-fashioned pumpkin carving isn’t going anywhere, there may be a bigger, badder pumpkin around the corner!
Thanks to Pinterest, homes these days are adorned with fancy pumpkins sporting glitter and paint.
Let’s not forget about what CNBC calls pumpkin spice mania, including the glorified Pumpkin Spice Latte — although not much real pumpkin is used in making the popular flavoring. Celene Sanchez, a supervisor at a Lubbock Starbucks location, said more than 100 PSLs are sold each day.
According to Nielsen, 37 percent of American consumers purchased something pumpkin-spiced flavored in 2014. With that in mind, pumpkin products have accounted for $361 million in sales last year, growing 79 percent since 2011.
Mary Fisher for The Hub @TTU
One company following the trend is Isagenix for Life, which specializes in nutritional cleansing, cellular replenishing and “youthful aging.” When it recently created a PSL shake, 30,000 units sold in three hours, wiping out the company’s supply, according to its Facebook page.
Texas Tech Chancellor Robert Duncan sponsored a bill in 2013 officially designating the pumpkin as the state squash of Texas.
The pumpkin yield and production are increasing, said Darren Hudson, the director of the Texas Tech International Center for Agricultural Competitiveness. Sales of fresh pumpkins, however, have been reported to be decreasing.
We went to the annual “Punkin Day” festival in Floydada, the official pumpkin capital of Texas thanks to another 2013 bill sponsored by Duncan, to find out whether this is true.
Jason Pyle and Matthew Rainwater, co-owners of Pumpkin Pyle in Floydada, said demand was high enough this year that they could have sold more pumpkins had they planted more.
Vanessa Ledesma for The Hub@TTU
In fact, pumpkin prices have been greater than normal this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, Pumpkin Pyle’s owners said they did not partake in the price increase.
Watch the video below to find out more about the modern-day pumpkin cult.
Alicia Keene contributed to this report.
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