Pecans: when the husk splits, the orchard goes loud

By Isla Quinn

The husk dries. Then it cracks along its seams. Then it splits into sections and turns brown, and that is the sign, according to a Texas grower’s blog, that the nuts are ready.

Too early, the same blog says, and the nuts are underdeveloped. Too late, and weather, wildlife and mold get there first. Growers watch the trees. Once nuts start dropping on their own, the rest of the orchard is close behind.

A nut that is not quite a nut

Wikipedia says the pecan is botanically a drupe, not a true nut. Its husk is oval to oblong, 2.6 to 6 centimeters long, and brassy greenish-gold. At maturity it splits into four sections and releases a thin-shelled seed with a buttery flavor. The name comes from an Algonquian word that covered pecans, walnuts and hickory nuts. Early Spanish explorers, the article says, called the tree nuez de la arruga, which it translates as “wrinkle nut.”

The tree is large. Wikipedia gives a usual height of 20 to 40 meters, rarely 44, spreading 12 to 23 meters. It is native to the southern United States and northern Mexico, in the Mississippi River region.

When

The sources do not agree on the season. Wikipedia says harvest is typically around mid-October. A Texas town’s economic development group, in a feature from 2020, says harvest in Central Texas starts in October and runs through early January. The grower’s blog gives two ranges, October through December and late September through November, depending on variety and climate. Our reading: all three fit a fall season that shifts with place and tree.

Noise

The shaking is the dramatic part. A trunk shaker clamps onto the tree and vibrates it, and the nuts rain down. A Texas A&M University education page, “Path to the Plate,” says trunk shakers shake the pecans out of the trees onto the ground.

How long? The 2020 feature says a hydraulic shaker holds a mature tree for nearly a minute, and that each tree is shaken once. The grower’s blog says “a few seconds.” Both are accounts of practice by different people. We show them side by side and do not choose.

Sweep and clean

After the shake, sweepers gather the nuts into rows and clear leaves and sticks, the blog says. A harvester picks them up and separates out much of the debris. Small operations may use rakes or hand tools. The A&M page puts it more bluntly: harvesters pick up the pecans along with twigs, leaves and other trash, and cleaners separate the trash from the nuts before bagging.

At a cleaning facility, the blog says, blowers and sorters remove hulls, twigs and soil. Then the nuts are dried, slowly and thoroughly, because damp nuts in storage risk mold and a rancid flavor. The blog gives no time or temperature, and we have none. Dried nuts are graded by size and quality.

Two trees, not one

Wikipedia explains something an orchard visitor might miss. Most pecans need at least two trees of different cultivars to pollinate each other. Cultivars come in two groups: protandrous ones shed pollen before they can receive it, protogynous ones shed pollen after they become receptive. An orchard planted in a single cultivar would be missing the partner it needs. Our reading: that is why orchards can look mixed to the eye, though the sources do not describe how any orchard is laid out.

A tree with a long history in the country

Wikipedia says Thomas Jefferson planted pecans at Monticello and that George Washington later grew trees he had received from Jefferson at Mount Vernon. Commercial growing in the United States began in the 1880s, and the article calls the pecan one of the most recently domesticated major crops. The 36th Texas Legislature made it the state tree in 1919.

Where the crop comes from

By Wikipedia’s figures, the United States produced 119.8 million kilograms (264.2 million pounds) in 2014, with Georgia, New Mexico and Texas together making 75 percent. In 2017, it says, Mexico produced nearly half of the world’s pecans, and Mexico and the United States together made 93 percent. The A&M page says 14 states reported production in 2014, and that Georgia and New Mexico were the top two producers, with 143 million pounds between them, and Texas produced 61 million. We report the numbers as stated. They come from different sources and different framing. They are not a ranking we computed.

After harvest

The blog says pecans keep longer in the shell than shelled, and that shelled nuts need a cool spot such as a refrigerator or freezer. It gives no durations.

Dates in order

Late September to early January: the range of harvest dates across the three accounts.
1880s: commercial growing begins, according to Wikipedia.
1919: the pecan becomes Texas’s state tree, according to Wikipedia.
2014: United States crop of 119.8 million kilograms, according to Wikipedia.
2017: Mexico makes nearly half the world’s pecans, according to Wikipedia.

Side by side

Harvest season: mid-October (Wikipedia); October to early January (Texas feature); October to December or late September to November (grower’s blog). Shaker time: nearly a minute (feature); a few seconds (blog).

What kind of sources these are

One Wikipedia article. A university education page. A town economic development group’s feature, which we saw only as an excerpt. A producer’s blog that promotes its own nuts and gives few measurements.

What we left out

Prices, recipes, health claims, shelling methods, which the sources do not describe, and the story Wikipedia tells of the first grafted cultivar, which deserves more space than a line. Any named farm.

Quick answers

Is a pecan a nut? According to Wikipedia, botanically it is a drupe, not a true nut.

When are pecans harvested? Wikipedia says typically around mid-October. A Texas economic development feature says October to early January in Central Texas.

How are pecans harvested? A university agriculture page says trunk shakers shake the nuts onto the ground, harvesters collect them, and cleaners remove the trash before bagging.

Roam first. Shop later.

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