John Ackerman says his pumpkin crop was a good one this year, despite the fact his fields saw no measurable rainfall for weeks in the late spring and early summer. “You know pumpkins, they like it dry ...

Pumpkin farmer John Ackerman poses with some of his pumpkin crop at his farm near Morton, Illinois. Ackerman, a third-generation farmer, says he grows 160 pumpkin varieties, along with corn, soybeans ...

Drought has affected several pumpkin-producing states, including Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. But rain arrived at the right time to produce a bumper crop in parts of the Midwest. John Ackerman says ...