The Delicious Pecan : Buying Them Cheaply Or Getting Them For Free
By Randy Godwin
"Yankees Love Pecans"
Yankees love pecans! I know this is a bold statement, but it seems to be true as far as I can tell. Gosh, you can go to one of the local tourist stops, be it Adcock Pecans or the Magnolia Plantation, along I-75 and watch them ooh and ah over the shelled pecans and pecan candies. Don’t get me wrong, I love them too. But this is like so many other things we experience in life, what we have easy access to others crave.
Beside this explanation there’s another reason to take into consideration. I have spent hours, at least hundreds, picking up these delicious nuts. As a child, it was one of my duties, along with my siblings, to gather the pecans up for sale to the local pecan buyers. But many of these nuts were also taken to the local pecan store or buyer to be cracked for mom to make pecan pies with.
If you travel through the rural south during the fall of the year you will most likely see children and adults somewhere along the way picking up pecans. Almost every home site has at least one tree. Well, not in the more upper scale developments, these trees are not chosen for their beauty although they are beautiful during the summer. The woods and roadsides are dappled with old and young pecan trees as the squirrels cache them everywhere and often forget where.
It is not unusual to see a family gathering pecans on the roadside from a wild pecan tree hanging over the right-of-way fence. So for the locals the pecans may often be had just for the trouble of picking them up. Vast orchards planted with both old and young pecan trees are harvested with machines but the small growers still pick up their crop by hand.
Pecan Trees :Majestic and Bountiful
Pecan Pies and Family Tradition
But lets talk about pecan pies. These wonderful confections are perhaps the most thought of dessert when a northerner is asked about southern cooking. They cannot get enough of the nutty pastries. Besides the traditional pecan pie there are many different variations on this southern favorite. There are recipes for pecan chocolate pie, pecan peanut butter pie, pecan butter pie, and the list goes on and on. No traditional southern Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner would be complete without a pecan pie of some sort or another gracing the dessert tray.
And besides the pies there were also spiced pecans covered with cinnamon and sugar to tempt even the most diet conscious individual. On cold winter evenings we would shell pecans by the open fire while the wind howled outside. We could do this as we watched TV or talked without even thinking about it. We enjoyed thinking about the many good candies and pies we were in store for, but it was also something my family did together.
Since pecans can be had at little or no cost for the maker, these pies are full of the tasty nuts. Many northern ladies I have spoken with remark on how they cannot afford to cover the top of their pies with pecans. “We just sprinkle some pecans over the top of the pie” they tell me. The first time I heard this I was very surprised by the statement, but after thinking about it for a while I began to understand why this was so.
I had never bought pecans from anywhere because the freezer was always stocked with gallon plastic bags full of the nuts ready for use. When I began looking around at the local pecan store I was in shock. No wonder the northern folk loved the nuts so much, they could not afford to eat them very often. Like most all of the food grown across America, the growers receive very little for their efforts while the middleman makes a very nice profit for very little work. Nothing new to the farmers of America it seems.
Nuts To You!
How To Find Cheap Or Free Pecans
If you are planning to buy a large amount of pecans to use or share with friends you can easily buy them directly from the growers at a very low cost. Almost any small Georgia town will have many small pecan producers who will be glad to sell you pecans at the same price the buyers give them, usually around a dollar a pound and sometimes much less depending on the crop quality and price. If there is a bumper crop the price will be even lower. Seedlings (smaller nuts) may be bought for as little as forty cents a pound and are still delicious.
If you want to save even more money there is a chance you can pick up pecans on halves. Many older residents offer this deal to local kids and adults who want to earn a little money or just pecans to eat or cook with. By asking around in these small towns you may find many such opportunities for cheap or even free pecans. Southern hospitality still exists in these small south Georgia towns with many residents happy to help “northerners” obtain the pecans they are looking for. We are proud of these wonderful delicacies and also the wonderful pies and candies they provide America with.
So don’t do without pecans because of the high prices charged at the tourist stops. Go on a quest which will be entertaining as well as fulfilling. Have a piece of pecan pie for me while you’re at it!
Other Southern Articles
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Comments
I was amazed at the pecans I saw down there wasting away on the ground the last time I went south. I heard a lady in GA say that it is pee-can' when still on the ground and pee-cahn' after it is shelled. I loved that one. LOL I have a bag from GA my friend brought me still in the shell. I am shocked also at the price of them, but we feel it is worth every penny. Pecan pie has always been my favorite pie.
Thanks Holle, yep, the people who do all of the hard work make the least on any type of food product. Most people think farmers make lots of money on their crops when actually the retailers and middlemen profit the most.
ralwus, you are correct about the amount of nuts that rot on the ground down here. I am constantly finding wild trees in the woods or around the edges of fields. Such a shame to waste them but there is so much other food going to waste in nearby produce fields year round. Usually more food rots than is harvested. This is because the farmers cannot afford to harvest the produce and make a profit because of the low prices offered to them by the middleman. Thanks for the input.
Randy - This was a fun article. Gus
I always appreciate your input Gus. Glad you liked it!
Hey Randy - I am reminded of what how the Yankees pronounce "pecan." They usually say "pee can" We tell them that a "pee can" is what you put under your bed and that a "pee cahn" goes into one's stomach. :-)))
Funny Gus! That's similar to the old saying down here, "a canopy goes over the bed and a can o' pee goes under the bed."
I hope the "Yankees" know we're just funnin'.
I have 6 pecan trees on my property and have picked a few off the ground and have a bag full now. Just wondering if the meat would come out better or easier if I'd roast them in the oven! If so; how long?
Rob K.
We always have our pecans cracked at the place we sell them,Rob. About roasting them first, I have no idea if this would make it easier to shell them or not. Sorry, perhaps a little trial and error is the only way to find out. Thanks for reading!
Randy
Hey Randy-I lived in Birmingham-Alabama, of course, not that British wannabe-for about 8 years and when I'd venture over to your peachy state, I'd see the stands you mention.
I was a college student at the time and had no idea what I was leisurely passing by. If wishes were horses, as they say!
Great hub.
Great to hear from another southerner, Lorlie! I just noticed I have been spelling your name wrong! Sorry!
Yep, when we are of college age we tend to not see everything we are looking at! Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments!
Randy
Actually, my name is Laurel-Lorlie's a childhood nickname...so don't worry about the spelling at all!
I really do still feel like a Southerner even though I reside in California. As I mentioned, I just couldn't take the humidity!
Take care.
Then you have hated it here this year, Lorlie! It has been the hottest and most humid year any of us can remember! Even I never got used to it and that's saying a lot!
You made a wise move, it seems! See ya!
I love pecans so I especially enjoyed your hub. Thanks.
up/useful
Glad you took a look, Fay! We southerners tend to take pecans for granted it seems. Thanks for your time and input.
Randy
I'll certainly be gathering some this Fall. Not too far away there's some nice little sweet native pecan groves.
The Texas "sweet natives" put out smaller pecans, but they do taste better than those giant pecans that are most often found in stores.
I've probably got, no kidding, 50lbs left to shell from last year. Guess I better get after it!
There's also something around here called "hog pecans," and I'm told that they look almost just like the ones that we all like. . . .but they taste awful, and are only used . . .to feed hogs. Luckily, all the trees around here that I know of are the good un's.
We have all sorts of pecans here, WTS. They grow everywhere because the grey and fox squirrels cache them throughout the woods.
I've never tasted a bad pecan if it was not spoiled, so I suppose we don't have "hog pecans" here. Pecan wood is a favorite here for barbeques and smoking meats too.
Thanks for the input and your time!
Randy
Hey, that's what the restaurant my brother runs uses to smoke meat - pecan. Most often in Texas people use Mesquite, I think.
Yeah - I've got to get some clarification about these hog pecans. I only know that I've an uncle that had one of those trees in his back yard - and people would always pick em, and say that they were awful after eating a few. I'll have to find out about that some more.
Yep, we like to burn pecan wood down to coals and use it to slow cook a pig. It takes awhile but this means more beer may be consumed by the cooks. LOL!
Found this very interesting as we've been picking up and cracking and baking with our own walnuts instead of paying so much (but the time into it would be more expensive if we didn't enjoy it as a "hobby"). I've got a friend in Georgia who never told me about these pecans - I'm going to get on her for that!
HA! Some friend she is, farmloft! I understand how tough it is cracking those walnuts as we have a huge black walnut tree on the farm and I can guarantee you this, as far as I know, there have been none of the nuts cracked in any amount for at least 30 years!
I suppose it's because pecans are so plentiful and easy to have cracked at the local buyers. You can clean a pound of halves in just 10 or 15 minutes. Give your friend heck! :lol:
Thanks for reading and for you input too!
SSSSS
habee 2 years ago
Thumbs up, RD. Good hub! I, too, am always shocked by the prices of pecans in retail stores. Sure wish we had gotten even half that price when we had pecan trees!