Tuesday, November 3, 2009

pickin' and shellin'


(Oops!  Forgot to change the font.)




Wharton County is pecan country.  Everyone has pecan trees in their yard and there are pecan groves all around.




Last Friday morning I picked up 31 pounds of pecans.  A storm had blown through earlier in the week while we were in the city and the ground was literally littered with them.  That 31 pounds was from only 2 of the 3 pecan trees in our back yard.  I had decided last week not to pick up the nuts from the third, most prolific tree.  They were small, light and every one I cracked open was dried up inside.  That 31 pounds doesn’t include the approximately 45 pounds of nuts I have already collected over the last two weeks.




When we bought this place, our 80+ year old neighbor told us that our trees were the ‘good’ pecans, not natives.  The nuts on the native pecan trees are small, tiny even, only about an inch or so long.  For all their smallness, they are the best tasting, prized by bakers and confectioners.  You can read more about pecans and Texas native pecans here.




I took my 31 pounds down the road to one of the pecan buyers/sellers in the area to get them cracked.  They’ll run them through their crackers for 30¢ a pound. 




The lady put my nuts in a hopper that fed into the ‘lift’ which picked up the pecans one at a time and carried them over to get thwacked with a bolt and then dump them into a bin.  The drawback to the cracker is that sometimes it will pulverize your nut.  Other times it can bruise the meat.  (Stop that!  I know you’re thinking all kinds of nasty things.)





While I was waiting, this man was bagging up pecans that people brought in to sell.  I’ve been seeing people on the sides of the roads picking up pecans lately.  This outfit here pays 40¢ a pound.  The nuts in the red mesh bags are of a certain variety.  They were selling two different kinds, Cheyenne and Pawnee.  The nuts in the burlap bags are natives and whatever else in the mix that people bring in to sell.  The lady told me that the little natives are the heaviest of the pecans.  I asked her what she does with all those native pecans.  “Ship ‘em out.” she says.  I hope whoever gets them has a shelling machine as well as a cracker.




This is less than half of my 31 pounds of cracked nuts.  Left uncracked, they can be stored a long time.  Now that they are cracked, they have to be shelled.  It’s a lot of work but then they are ready to eat and use. 




Four nights of shelling and I haven’t even emptied one bag yet and man are my fingertips sore.


Obviously, there is no way I’m going to eat all these nuts so I’m going to do a giveaway.  The winner will receive a pound of shelled pecans, the runner-up will get 2 pounds of cracked (but unshelled) pecans.  Let me know in a comment if you want in the drawing.  

17 comments:

  1. I don't need in the drawing - my dad gives us all the pecans we need from his tree. He considers the shelling to be a form of therapy. He can sit & watch golf or football & shell some pecans & call it work.

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  2. Pecans are expensive little nuts .. at least here. I think your pecan adventures are very interesting ...

    Maybe I could bag up my moss ...

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  3. I use these all winter long in my baking/cooking. I would love to be entered. Please?

    Thank you.

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  4. You do know that you can freeze them..... My dad loads me down with them every year and I use them in just about everything I cook. I wonder if the trees would grow here in the midwest.

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  5. I'd love some. But, it'll cost more in shipping than it's worth. Thanks for the offer, though. What a lesson I learned.

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  6. Goodness what an operation going on there! I'll pass on the drawing, but thank you for the pecan stories. You must be going a little nutty right about now ;)

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  7. Oh, i'd love to enter your give away!

    My parents used to live in AL & had pecans. I don't think i appreciated then all the work my mother did in order to give us a quart sized bag of pecans.

    How generous of you to share! :)

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  8. My distant cousins own Dees Pecan Company in Grand Bay, AL. I've never visited and have always been curious about the process of the nuts and the shelling, etc. Fascinating post, Ellen. Yes! Please count me IN!!

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  9. ME! Me, me, me, me, memememememememe.

    Please, oh please, me!

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  10. Oh well, absolutely, yes, please. Want some blueberries next season? We could trade...

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  11. I'd love to enter. We are enjoying little bowls of pecans, walnuts and almonds (raw), as an afternoon pick-me-up. They are really good for you!

    So sweet of you!

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  12. I'll skip the contest, though they look great - just catching up after a while - I must say that describing 50% weather as cool is amusing, as we are heading into some very chilly weather up in the northern region. Enjoy!

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  13. 31 pounds? Fantastic. Our son just went picking with his grandparents two weekends ago...he was so proud of his little bucket. Your undertaking is awesome.

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  14. Yes, yes . . . add my name to the nuts drawing! I love pecans. If I lived close, I'd even offer to help shell them!

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  15. I have never known much less seen pictures of how the pecan market works. What an interesting machine that cracks them! There's nothing like a rich pecan pie during the holidays. I am sure being from the area, you must be totally tired of them by the time you actually get to use them! Count me in...I have been known to be nutty at times so might as well live up to the name!

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  16. I'll be in the drawing, if it's still open.

    75 pounds of pecans? Whoa. That's a lot of pecans! So relieved to see that you had someone else crack them - though - you still have to shell them all. Actually I find projects like this to be very meditative. I shelled a bunch of pumpkin seeds the other day. It was very calming.

    So Ellen, do you see PEEcan or PeCAHN? Just curious.

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  17. Interesting post! Hungry for some pecan pie now! Have a sweet day!

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.