Pickin' Up Pecans

We were happy to find that we had pecans this year.  We pronounce them puh CAHNS.   Our trees haven't produced in a couple of years.  We were out!  We don't know if it was a fertilization issue or something else that caused them not to produce.  Tricia's theory is that the hard freeze did something.  Who knows?  

Normally, we pick up a whole lot and then shell them and freeze them in quart sized freezer bags.  We'll snack on them, use them in baked goods, making pesto and then we soak some and ferment them.  Pecans are delicious.  We have seven pecan trees on our property.  The ones up front make small pecans that are kind of hard to shell.  Although they are small, they are "fat."  By that, I mean they are full of oil.  The trees in the back either don't produce or the darned squirrels eat them all.  The tree by the garage makes larger pecans, but they aren't quite as good as the ones in front.

Last weekend was a beautiful weekend.  Tricia and I each grabbed a bucket and went into the front to pick.  There were pecans everywhere!

Tricia likes to just pick them up with her hands.  I have a contraption I use that collects the pecans in lazy fashion, where I don't have to bend over.  You just walk, press the device over the pecan and the wires separate and allow the pecan to enter.  Then the wire closes behind it, capturing the pecan.  Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

In no time at all, the pecan-picker-upper is full and ready to be poured into a bucket.

So far, we've filled a couple of big landscape buckets along with two five gallon buckets.  We have more to pick, too!  As you look in the bucket below, you'll see some pecans with the green 'hull' still on them.  Tricia made a grievous mistake and tried to peel off the green hull.  It stained her hands!  It won't wash off.  It has to wear off!

I do have a different mode 'pecan-picker-upper.'  I have a photo of it below.  It operates on the same principle as the one above, except this one is like a Slinky.  Instead of pressing down over the pecan, you roll this one over it.  I don't use this one any more.  It is from my childhood and was from my great-grandmother.

We still have some more pecan picking to do.  Once we've finished, we'll weigh them and shell them.  Then we'll weigh the shelled pecans, so we'll know gross and tare weights.