Pecans are sold out!
Our pecans are hand-picked, hand-shelled, naturally fertilized and go straight from our farm to your door.
Thanks to everyone who purchased our pecans as we are all sold out for this year! Pecans will be back next year starting around Oct/Nov.
Information on the pecan:
Pecans are undoubtedly the most
important nut trees native to North America. Although named for their
northern most habitat, pecans are actually indigenous to a wide
geographical areas, including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa and Mexico as far south as Oaxaca.
For North American Indian tribes in the south central region of the
United States, especially in the Mississippi Valley, the pecan served
as a dietary staple long before the arrival of Europeans. Later they
traded pecans to the settlers for furs, trinkets and tobacco. Before
the early sixteenth century, no European had ever seen a pecan nut.
Texas was blessed with more native pecan trees than any other state:
possibly as many as seventy-five million growing wild, mostly near
the states many watercourses. The pecan is the official state tree of
Texas. The first United States commercial pecan orchard was planted
in Brownwood, Texas in 1880. Between 1900 and 1925, numerous
real estate projects, which featured pecan trees were developed in
the southeastern states. Hundreds of thousands of acres were planted,
mostly with Stuart variety pecans in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi
and northern Florida.
It took about four centuries for the pecan to
become an important crop in the United States: it reached commercial
scale in 1920 and has increased steadily ever since. The average,
annual pecan production is now over 200 million pounds, although
there is considerable variation from year to year. The pecan
industry, like the macadamia nut has largely developed during the
twentieth century. Most edible tree nuts are essentially one state
crops: almonds, pistachios, walnuts in California; filberts in Oregon
and macadamia nuts in Hawaii. The pecan is a multi-state crop,
stretching across the country from the Southeast to the Southwest
throughout some twenty states.
The most important and largest
producing states in the country are Georgia and Texas, Alabama, New
Mexico, and Louisiana. The pecan, although it resembles the walnut,
is more elongated, has a smoother shell and a higher proportion of
kernel in its shell. In the pecan, the partitions which separate the
two halves of the kernel are thinner than in the walnut. When mature,
the husk of the pecan, unlike that of the walnut, splits open into
four segments.
The pecan is a large, stately deciduous tree. Under
favorable circumstances it may grow to over one hundred feet in
height, with a trunk diameter of six feet and a limb spread of some
100 feet. Pecan trees are very long lived; some native trees in the
Southeast are known to be over a thousand years old. Once fallen to
the ground, the pecans are harvested, cleaned, and either packed in
shell or shelled and graded. The largest demand for shelled pecans is in the baking
industry. The versatile pecan continues to grow in popularity every
year.
I just have to know. Is it PEE-CAN
or PA-KAWN?
A 2003 national survey found that "PEE-can"
is the overwhelming choice among Americans. Nearly half of consumers
(45 percent, including almost seven out of 10 living in the
Northeast) prefer this pronunciation of the all-American tree nut,
with the rest of the nation roughly split between pa-KAWN and
PEE-kawn (Source: National Pecan Shellers Association).
| Approximate storage times of pecans |
|
Pantry
70-80 ° F. |
Refrigerator
38-40 ° F. |
Freezer
0 ° F. |
Pecan
Halves
|
2 months |
9 months |
2 years |
Pecan
Pieces
|
1 month |
5 months |
1 year |
Unshelled
Pecans
|
4 months |
18 months |
2-4 years |
- Pecan nuts are rich source of energy, provide 690 cal/100 g
and contain many health benefiting nutrients, minerals, antioxidants
and vitamins that are essential for wellbeing.
- These nuts are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids like oleic
acid and an excellent source of antioxidants. Regular intake of
pecan nuts in the diet help to lower total as well as LDL or “bad
cholesterol” and increase HDL or “good cholesterol” levels in
the blood. Research studies suggest that Mediterranean diet, which
is rich in dietary-fiber, mono-unsaturated fatty acids, and
antioxidants would help to prevent coronary artery disease and
strokes by favoring healthy blood lipid profile.
- Pecan nuts are rich source of many phyto-chemical substances
that may contribute to their overall antioxidant activity, including
polyphenolic antioxidant ellagic acid, vitamin E,
beta-carotenes, lutein and zeaxanthin. Research studies have been
suggestive of that these compounds help body remove toxic oxygen
free radicals and thus, protect body from diseases, cancers, as well
as infections.
- Anti-proliferative properties of ellagic acid are
because of its ability to inhibit DNA binding of certain carcinogens
such as nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; thus
protecting body from cancers.
- Pecans are an excellent source of vitamin-E,
especially rich in gamma-tocopherol; provides about 25g per100 g.
Vitamin E is a powerful lipid soluble antioxidant, required for
maintaining the integrity of cell membrane of mucus membranes and
skin by protecting it from harmful oxygen free radicals.
- The nuts are packed with many important B-complex groups of
vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pantothenic acid,
vitamin B-6, and folates. These vitamins functions as co-factors for
enzymes during cellular substrate metabolism.
- The nuts are also rich source of minerals like manganese,
potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium.
