A Corvallis company is rescuing many holiday pie-bakers this year with its increased production of organic canned pumpkin filling.

Farmers Market Organic, a brand produced by Stahlbush Island Farms, said it increased its capacity and has shipped millions more cans of its product this year. It is the country's largest provider of organic canned pumpkin.

That's filling a gap created when bad weather damaged the harvest in the Midwest. Food manufacturer Nestle relies on those pumpkins to produce nearly 80 to 90 percent of the market of all the canned pumpkin in the U.S. That created a potential shortage of the company's Libby's pumpkin pie products through the holidays.

Farmers Market Organic said its pumpkins didn't have fungus and mold at its farm, unlike what big Midwest growers saw on their pumpkins this year as well as in 2008.

"Pumpkin pie is something people just won't do without; it's pretty sacred," said Tracy Miedema, national sales and marketing manager for Farmers Market. "They are willing to switch out of a previous brand but they aren't willing to switch out of pumpkin pie."

Nestle said heavy rains made it nearly impossible to pick its pumpkins during this year's harvest. The longer the pumpkins sat in the muddy fields, the more they deteriorated. As a result, the company announced this week that it would not pack any more pumpkins for the season, creating the possibility of a shortage.

"Mother Nature had other plans for us," the company said in an open apology to customers online.

Nestle plants a special strain of pumpkin at a farm in Morton, Ill., which provides nearly all its supply. Nestle estimates that if you turned all the pumpkins it grows on the farm to pie, it would total 90 million pies.

"There are a lot of beautiful pumpkins out there that we just can't rescue," said Nestle spokeswoman Roz O'Hearn.

Pie makers can still use fresh pumpkin or other brands.

Trader Joe's said it has its store brand pumpkin in stock but said it couldn't predict what would happen to supplies in the future.

Whole Foods Market Inc. said that while it is aware of lower pumpkin yields in parts of the country, the company was able to get enough pumpkin for its store brand product and actually shipped more product to stores this year than ever before.

Sarah Skidmore, AP food industry writer, reported this story.