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?