By Tracy Mumford

MPR News/90.1 FM

A can of pumpkin at the grocery store this holiday season will cost you about $1.50. Three bucks if you’re going organic.

But if you’re looking for Festal Golden Pie Pumpkin, you’re going to have to look to eBay.

The online auction site has multiple listings for Festal, “pride of the Midwest.” Three cans for $20, six for $32. Undamaged, unopened, unused — “The ONLY Canned Pumpkin To Make PIE With….” one listing promises.

Over on Amazon, it’s the same story: Festal cans there are sold for an average of $6.50 each.

“Is this the real Festal?” one customer wants to know.

The response: “Yes it is. Outrageous price but it’s the real deal.” Over the last few years, the gold-toned cans of Festal pureed pumpkin have become the Air Jordans of the Thanksgiving table: People trade tips online about where to find them.

The Minnesota-born pumpkin brand was a longtime holiday staple before it began disappearing from local grocery store shelves. For decades it was produced by the Owatonna Canning Company in southern Minnesota. In the ‘90s, the brand was sold to Chiquita, and then to Seneca Foods Corp. in 2003. Now the cans are a rare, coveted find.

Fans have taken to posting sightings on Facebook: “I found 1 can at Byerly’s in Burnsville. I guard it and [save] it for that special occasion!”

“I stocked up in Albert Lea, MN. It was at Hy-Vee on the bottom shelf.”

Rumors abound that the brand has been discontinued. Some Festal fans say they’ve been told by Seneca Foods’ customer service department that the canned pumpkin is out of production.

There’s even a Facebook group devoted to bringing it back.

But, according to Seneca Foods, it never went away.

A representative for Seneca Foods said that the company “still proudly packs that label” — but declined to say which stores stock those coveted cans. They said only that they’ll keep delivering it as long as retailers keep asking for it.

A lot of Minnesota shoppers, nostalgic for the taste of the pumpkin pies of their childhoods, would like to know exactly who those retailers are. The company’s product locator — “find Seneca products at stores near you” — doesn’t list Festal as an option. Fans say it shows up sporadically at stores in southern Minnesota, and they’re left to grab when they can where they can.

Earlier this month, Angie Probst saw a few cans of Festal at a store near her home in Owatonna. She bought 12.

“The clerk looks at me weird. I’m like, whatever.”

Probst added those 12 to the stockpile of Festal she’s been building in her basement. She keeps them in a makeshift pantry by the furnace.

Shelf space is running low; she has more than a hundred cans down there.

They’re carefully organized by expiration date. One batch is set to expire this December.

“I have a lady that works at the food shelf, and she said [that,] supposedly, canned items can go about two years past expiration date, so I’m hoping that’s true,” Probst said. “I guess I better get on making some pies.”