Have you ever picked pecans?

[cypressfarms]

This will show exactly how "country" I am, but if there were a place that I wouldn't mind people knowing I'm country, it would be here.

Pecan trees grow in a large part of the country but down south it's a money making venture. If you have pecan orchards, you can raise cows on the land and harvest pecans.

Since I was a kid though, the fall meant it was time to pick pecans. Almost everyone around will get their buckets out, find their favorite tree(s) and drop to their knees to start picking. I've done this since I was a kid, and continue to at 41, although I'll admit that the years the pecans are priced very low I don't bother.

Well pecans are bringing $1.00 per pound; almost every convenience/gas store buys pecans so it's easy to go out and pick 50 pounds in a couple of hours, and sell them quickly for a little cash. This year my plans are to pick enough to buy 4 or 5 heifers with the money.

Anyone else out there know about this dirty knee adventure?

 

[curtis]

Everyone picked up pecans when i was a kid, not a lot trees in my area anymore.

 

[cypressfarms]

Everyone picked up pecans when i was a kid, not a lot trees in my area anymore.

Here in south Louisiana it's almost sacreligious to cut down a pecan tree. Our great grandfathers, or grandfathers if your above 60 or so, may have cleared the land, but they always left the native pecan trees. You can pass by pasture after pasture around here and the only trees standing will be native pecans trees. Natives are much more hearty than the stuarts and elliots of today. They will grow huge and don't self destruct after 20 or 30 years like some of the newere type big fruited pecan trees do.

 

[AudieWyoming]

We have several pecan trees on the Alabama place. Cherie loves to pick them up in her spare time, she has probably 2 or 3 bushel in the garage. The yard is covered with them and they are still dropping. I like to grab ten or twelve in my pocket as I walk to the 4 wheeler to eat as I check cows.

I found a few black walnuts under a ridge if trees in one of the pastures, but not much meat in them this year. @

 

[Kingfisher]

We have several pecan trees on the Alabama place. Cherie loves to pick them up in her spare time, she has probably 2 or 3 bushel in the garage. The yard is covered with them and they are still dropping. I like to grab ten or twelve in my pocket as I walk to the 4 wheeler to eat as I check cows.

I found a few black walnuts under a ridge if trees in one of the pastures, but not much meat in them this year. @

I did not think you could eat a black walnut.....? I don't know that is just what I heard.

 

[Kingfisher]

If you have pecan orchards, you can raise cows on the land and harvest pecans. " Mmmmmm not every where. Maybe on a natural lay orchard. How do you figure a pecan is only worth $1.00 pound? Are you talking halves or bits? I think they worth more than that. I hear the Chinese really like em but I don't really trust everything I read. I'm going to that part of the country soon and Ill let you know waht they are worth where we grow em. Peace.

 

[Jogeephus]

We have several pecan trees on the Alabama place. Cherie loves to pick them up in her spare time, she has probably 2 or 3 bushel in the garage. The yard is covered with them and they are still dropping. I like to grab ten or twelve in my pocket as I walk to the 4 wheeler to eat as I check cows.

I found a few black walnuts under a ridge if trees in one of the pastures, but not much meat in them this year. @

I did not think you could eat a black walnut.....? I don't know that is just what I heard.

Blue Bell makes a wonderful black walnut ice cream that I highly recommend. As for the poison you are thinking of the husk. It has tannic acid in it and if you've ever picked green walnuts with your bare hands you will know its not a smart thing to do cause you will have to wear the stain off. Crushed husks are sometimes used to paralyze fish in streams. Indians did this and a few poachers.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Blue Bell makes a wonderful black walnut ice cream that I highly recommend. As for the poison you are thinking of the husk. It has tannic acid in it and if you've ever picked green walnuts with your bare hands you will know its not a smart thing to do cause you will have to wear the stain off. Crushed husks are sometimes used to paralyze fish in streams. Indians did this and a few poachers.

I know of a guy that had a nice stocked pond and for some reason all of his fish started dying
they finally drained the pond and found about 25 toesacks full of Black walnuts ,husks and all laying in the pond

I know who did it and don't really blame the guy but it can't be proven in a court of law :lol: :lol:
the story is the owner let a neighbor stock his pond on the terms that the neighbor could bring his grandkids and fish anytime well when the fish got big enough to fish the owner denied the guy who stocked the pond the right to fish
I guess walnuts were easier than dynamite :lol: :lol:

 

[jedstivers]

Blue Bell makes a wonderful black walnut ice cream that I highly recommend. As for the poison you are thinking of the husk. It has tannic acid in it and if you've ever picked green walnuts with your bare hands you will know its not a smart thing to do cause you will have to wear the stain off. Crushed husks are sometimes used to paralyze fish in streams. Indians did this and a few poachers.

I know of a guy that had a nice stocked pond and for some reason all of his fish started dying
they finally drained the pond and found about 25 toesacks full of Black walnuts ,husks and all laying in the pond

I know who did it and don't really blame the guy but it can't be proven in a court of law :lol: :lol:
the story is the owner let a neighbor stock his pond on the terms that the neighbor could bring his grandkids and fish anytime well when the fish got big enough to fish the owner denied the guy who stocked the pond the right to fish
I guess walnuts were easier than dynamite :lol: :lol:

Not as loud either.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Pecan trees grow in a large part of the country but down south it's a money making venture. If you have pecan orchards, you can raise cows on the land and harvest pecans.

I went down to meet the boss lady's parents about 34 years back. Her dad asked me if I would go down to the barn and help him load a truck with pecan sacks. I said "sure" thinking it was a pick-up "truck". Got there and it was an empty 18 wheeler. There were hundreds of 130 lb burlap sacks of pecans. We would weigh 3 sacks at a time and then load them into the truck box. They were bringing 90 cents a pound back then. I calculated something close to $200K in that barn. The trucker finally said, "I am at the load limit."

There were "pecan shakers" that were huge out of balance wheels that shook trees. Pickers that picked them up along with sticks. They would dump them in a hopper. Pecans would roll down a conveyor. The sticks and trash did not roll and just had to be pulled off. At the end of the conveyor they were catching pecans in a sack and stitching the sacks up as fast as they could.

The wife's grandad would go into the barn, grab an old nail, get on the anvil and make a needle to sew up the sacks. Go figure. Thousands of dollars revenue and he'd make the needles instead of spending a few nickels.

 

[stocky]

I have never picked pecans. I bought about 50 trees from Missouri Department of Conservation and planted them in the fence rows in the creek bottoms. They came out real nice and then the llamas ate the buds off and killed them.
We have alot of black walnut trees and in our area the nuts are a huge business. Stockton, Missouri has the largest processor of black walnuts in the world and buys every fall. They set mechanical hullers at every little town and people pick up the walnuts and bring them in to be hulled and weighed. A full sized pickup bed piled full and rounded up will weigh around 800 lbs after hulling. If you use 1x8's above the bed, you can get on 1,000 lbs. The most I ever picked up was 1,200 dollars worth, at 10 cents per pound, that was 12,000 lbs. That was alot of work.
The price varies, but it has been starting out around 12-13 cents per pound and then as the walnuts come streaming in, they drop it to 6 or 8 cents. Then they sell the goodies for 10-20 dollars per pound in the store to make candy and ice cream. You start out with a green walnut 2-3 times the size of a golf ball and end up with a little goodie that weighs almost nothing, but sure does taste great.

 

[Angus Cowman]

They also use the black walnut hulls instead of sand for sandblasting around here
works real good

 

[cypressfarms]

If you have pecan orchards, you can raise cows on the land and harvest pecans. " Mmmmmm not every where. Maybe on a natural lay orchard. How do you figure a pecan is only worth $1.00 pound? Are you talking halves or bits? I think they worth more than that. I hear the Chinese really like em but I don't really trust everything I read. I'm going to that part of the country soon and Ill let you know waht they are worth where we grow em. Peace.

Around here many people plant pecan "orchards", and let the cows graze the pastures that they are in until abround October. By late December all of the pecans have fallen and you can move the cattle back in. It's not like orchards in other parts of the country. We (normally) get plenty enough rain to not only make a great pecan orchard, but hay as well on the same land if you want.

My kids had picked some pecans over the weekend, and when we went to the local gorcery store (this a hometown small AG store), they gave us $1.05 per pound. That's actually pretty good. To clear the air this is pecans with their shells still on, freshly picked from under a tree - not shelled - those would be worth much more. From what I understand the two other big producer states for pecans (Texas and Georgia) are having supply problems. Lousiana appears to have an abundance this year so they expect the price to stay up. As a kid I remember picking pecans for 25 cents per pounds (early 80's)

 

[cfpinz]

Black walnuts (when they still have their husks on) will fly really, really fast out of a potato gun.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Black walnuts (when they still have their husks on) will fly really, really fast out of a potato gun.

I figured you would know that

 

[dun]

In ca the call "almonds" "A monds" cause when they pick them (shake them from the tree) the shake the L out of them

 

[cfpinz]

Black walnuts (when they still have their husks on) will fly really, really fast out of a potato gun.

I figured you would know that

The walnuts couldn't hold a light to the golf balls packed with newspaper wads, but you can't see the golf balls when they'd leave the barrel. At least you could see the walnuts in flight.

I remember once in my drunken youth shooting the side of a metal house trailer (with people inside) with a walnut out of a potato gun, made quite the racket.

 

[MistyMorning]

Black walnuts (when they still have their husks on) will fly really, really fast out of a potato gun.

I figured you would know that

The walnuts couldn't hold a light to the golf balls packed with newspaper wads, but you can't see the golf balls when they'd leave the barrel. At least you could see the walnuts in flight.

I remember once in my drunken youth shooting the side of a metal house trailer (with people inside) with a walnut out of a potato gun, made quite the racket.

Last weekend?

 

[cfpinz]

The walnuts couldn't hold a light to the golf balls packed with newspaper wads, but you can't see the golf balls when they'd leave the barrel. At least you could see the walnuts in flight.

I remember once in my drunken youth shooting the side of a metal house trailer (with people inside) with a walnut out of a potato gun, made quite the racket.

Last weekend?

No, last weekend it was a 12 gauge and I was the one going after the drunkard.

But you probably know how that feels, being friends with angrie and all. Speaking of which, where is the little turd hiding lately?

 

[Lammie]

Man, when I was a kid, it was a yearly thing. I have fond memories of freezing my tiny butt off, getting blackened hands, freezing again... Seems like it was always cold when we did this. My dad always got a cain pole and thrash it around in the trees to knock down the loose pecans. Of course, they have machines that shake the trees, but this was a low tech adventure.

I love pecans, but I have having to pick them up. I sure do wish I still had Dad's place for his trees, though. I imagine all the neighbors have cleaned them out by now. Dad had about fifteen grafted trees that had native and papershells. We used to pick at this orchard owned by a fellow that my dad knew. He had pecans and peaches, so we'd pick fall and summer. I have to say I liked the peach thing better.