That's Just Nuts!

We have three pecan trees on our property that we pick from.  There's a couple more in the back that the squirrels claim.  We don't get a single pecan off of those.  Then our neighbors directly east of us have three pecan trees.  Those pecans are huge!  Ours are very small.  In fact, most people wouldn't bother shelling them.  The thing about our pecans is this: although they are small, they are oily and very rich.  This makes them delicious!  So in our brief winters here in South Louisiana, I spend nice relaxing times in front of the fireplace shelling pecans.  It is a satisfying pastime while listening to music or visiting with family.  The only downside is the mess I make.  I keep the vacuum cleaner close and try to clean up after myself when I'm done.

Pecans freeze very well.  So we pack them in gallon-sized zip loc bags and put them in the freezer once shelled.  Some years the trees produce lots and some years, they make absolutely nothing.  That's why it's a good idea to store some in the freezer during the "fat" years to be prepared for the "lean" years.  I think that's what ol' Joseph did back in the Book of Genesis.  Here are 9 gallons of pecans in our deep freeze in the house:

And here are four more on the door of the stand-up freezer out in the garage.

And six more gallons on the shelves in the same freezer.

If my math is right, that's 19 gallons of shelled pecans this year.  I think we gave some away, so it's more like 20 or 21 gallons.  For the bigger pecans from our neighbor's tree, we crack them ourselves with our "Reed's Rocket" pecan cracker.  For the smaller pecans?  Forget about it!  We bring onion sacks of whole pecans to our local feed store.

They have a pecan cracking machine.  They pour the pecans in the machine and it cracks them.  You can hear the noise in the warehouse with the machine going, "Crack, Crack, Crack."  They charge $0.33 per pound before the government takes their share of it in taxes.  The machine is ancient and I figure they've probably paid for it many times over.  I think it is worth it for our small pecans.  The paperwork below shows that we brought them 109 pounds of pecans and paid $39.77 for the cracking.

We like to eat them to snack on.  Tricia will oven roast them in butter and Worcestershire sauce.  That's pretty addictive.  My favorite way to eat pecans, though, is in pecan pies.  I love pecan pies.  We like this Recipe right here that uses Steen's Pure Cane Syrup.  What can be better than a slice of homemade pecan pie and a cup of coffee?

A Year Without Pecans

After the Thanksgiving feast was over yesterday, the coffee was set to percolate and we prepared to eat dessert - traditional pumpkin pie and pecan pies.  It is hard to beat a homemade pie.  It is also hard for me to name a favorite - they are all good in my book!  Since I can never make up my mind, I always say, "I'll have a little slice of each."  C'mon, I bet you do that too.  I enjoyed my pumpkin and pecan pie immensely!

Speaking of pecans, This morning I walked across the yard to our Husband and Wife Pecan trees in the front yard that I wrote about in THIS BLOG POST last year. Since we've only had one frost, the leaves are still clinging to the trees and have started to turn yellow a little bit.  The wind was blowing softly and I witnessed a few leaves beginning to fall.  Pecan trees are notorious for dropping limbs. After each rainfall, we pick up bunches of limbs that we use for fuel in our fire pit.  We enjoy sitting out around the fire pit, watching the fire and talking on cool nights.  The smell of pecan wood burning is a nice fragrance.

Our "Husband and Wife" Pecan Trees

I walked under the canopy of the pecan trees and began searching on the ground. Last year we picked up hundreds of pounds of pecans.  I sat in front of the fireplace throughout the winter, cracking and shelling pecans, then packing them in gallon Ziploc freezer bags for storage.  This year I'll pick up exactly ZERO.  That is too bad, but not entirely unexpected.

Nothing, Nada, Nil, Zip...

The phenomenon that takes place with pecan trees is called alternate bearing and it simply means that you can count on a really good crop one year and then a poor crop (or no crop) the following year.  It is all based on nutrition.  After a really good pecan crop, the trees are nutritionally depleted.  They'll store up their energy to produce a good crop in the next year.  You can do things like fertilize the trees with nitrogen, spray zinc and make sure the tree is sufficiently watered, but we tend to just let it be.  

We just make sure that we put up enough pecans in the freezer to last and you know what?  Pecans will keep in the freezer for exactly two years.  I think we have enough stored to make it until then, but we may have to institute a pecan pie ration program if our inventories dip lower than we'd like.  

Picking up Pecans

The arrival of Fall means that leaves begin falling from the trees.  We'll mow those leaves eventually and then rake them up and work them into the garden soil.  There is something else falling from the trees besides leaves, though.  Pecans!  What is Fall and Thanksgiving without a piping hot from the oven, delicious pecan pie made with Steen's Cane Syrup? We are blessed to have four pecan trees in our yard and at least three in the pasture.  We end up having much more that we can use.

We also have a pecan orchard on the family farm that was planted by my Great Grandfather.  The pecans at the farm are bigger than the ones that we have at home and they are easier to shell.  Our pecans are very small and difficult to shell, but they are rich, fat, and full of oil.  Our local feed store has a mechanical pecan cracker, but our pecans are so small, they won't work in the machine.  That's okay, though.  I enjoy sitting in front of the fireplace on cold nights and cracking and shelling pecans.

Before you begin cracking and shelling, you've got to get out there and pick them up.  The shortened days don't allow me the daylight to pick up pecans on weekdays, so Tricia and Benjamin go outside and pick every day.  Just look at the ground.  You can't find a square foot area without a pecan or two.  And more fall by the day!

Pecans 'a Plenty!

Now you can pick them up the old-fashioned way - by bending over and picking them up and tossing them in a bucket.  Or you can use a couple of back-saving methods.  We have two different contraptions we use that are both based on what I call the "Slinky" technique.  I purchased this first one from a local hardware store. You simply hold the handle, point the pecan picker upper right over a pecan on the ground, and push down on the device.  The 'slinky' will open, allowing the pecan to enter the holding area.  Rinse, wash, repeat until the 'slinky' is full.  Simple as pie. Pecan pie.

Pecan Picker Upper #1

This second contraption is one from my childhood.  It is the same general principle, except instead of stabbing down on the pecan, you roll it.  When you roll over the pecan, the 'slinky' opens to accept the pecan and closes and will fill quickly.

Pecan Picker Upper #2

On Saturday Benjamin and I got outside for a few minutes and it didn't take long for us to fill a 5 gallon bucket.  He used one of the picker-uppers and I used the other.  It was quick work and soon we had picked up everything under the tree right outside the back door.  A quick glance skyward tells me that there will be more to pick tomorrow, and the day after, and so on and so forth.

Emptying Pecans in the Bucket

You can work fast or you can be slow and steady.  Both methods enable you to collect pecans that we'll eat on for the next year.  We'll also give some away and allow our neighbors to come pick pecans from our trees.  The only reason that you don't want to go too slow picking them up is that you are competing with critters for the pecans.  We have lots of squirrels in the trees that are interested in the commodity that falls from the treetops.  If you work too slow, they'll put a serious dent in your pecan harvest.  You can see some evidence of the squirrels' eating pecans below:

Evidence of Squirrels

So far we have 3 onion sacks (we call them crawfish sacks) full plus a half-filled five gallon bucket. We'll still pick up a few more, but this should be enough for our family for the year. 

2014 Pecan Harvest (so far)

We'll hang the bags from trees on low humidity days and allow them to dry.  One year I jumped the gun and began shelling pecans before they were dry.  I looked in my bowl of beautiful shelled pecans the next day and noticed that they were all molded.  Such is life in a high humidity zone, but I won't make that mistake again. From what I read, you are supposed to let them dry on screens or in mesh bags for 2 weeks.  You can test to ensure they are dry enough by shelling a few.  If the pecan half breaks, you're all good.  If it bends, you need to leave them out hanging to dry some more.

It's a lot of work between picking them, cracking them, and shelling them, BUT when you take that first bite of homemade pecan pie, well... you'll know immediately that your labors were worth the effort!