Practices
Pecan harvest begins in mid-October but the work is year-round.
All the orchards must be maintained by mowing, pruning, grafting young trees, thinning, and clearing fallen limbs. Click on the categories of our practices to learn more and check out the photos below to see some of the process!
Growing
Many of our pecan groves include native trees that are over 200 years old. Missouri is on the Northern edge of the native pecan territory as its climate can be too short of a growing season for some pecan varieties. Frost is liable to kill the flowers in the spring or strike in the fall before maturity. However, through intentionally grafting and propagating varieties best suited to the Missouri climate we are able to consistently produce pecan crop most years. As with any facet of agriculture, a large part of our success depends on factors beyond our control like the weather, wildlife, and pests.
Pecans are cross-pollinated which is why you generally see a group of trees (referred to as an orchard or a grove) within a certain proximity to each other. Through cross-pollination, the genetics of any given progeny are wholly unknown until that tree reaches maturity. Even if you planted the nut from a tree with desirable characteristics there’s very little chance of the new tree producing similar results. Controlling genetics is one of the primary reasons we choose to graft trees. Grafting is the process of binding scion wood from a desirable cultivar to the rootstock of a young growing tree. The second main benefit of grafting is that the time until initial production is cut in half. A native tree may take 10-15 years before producing pecans, but a grafted tree starts producing nuts within 5-7 years.
Additionally, we monitor the soil nutrients, scout and manage pests and mow or graze the grass in the orchards.
Harvest
Pecan harvest begins in mid-October as pecans ripen naturally, but a hard freeze will encourage the nuts to fall off the tree easier. The pecans naturally cling to the trees and we would have to harvest multiple times. With the shaker, we can make the majority of pecans fall at the same time from the tree so we can harvest more efficiently. The shaker hydraulically clamps onto the tree and the counter-balance weights spin inside to send gentle vibrations up the tree trunk and limbs causing the pecans will fall from the tree.
Once the pecans are on the ground we run the pecan harvester to "sweep" the orchard floor. The harvester has a metal drum inside with hundreds of rubber fingers. The fingers lift the pecans off the ground as the drum rotates into the machine. Once gathered inside, a fan blows the leaves out the back. The pecans are heavy enough and fall through a grate where they are stored in the hopper.
When the hopper is full it is then dumped into a wagon. The wagons are equipped with hydraulic hoists so that they can be unloaded easily. The wagons are used to transport the pecans to where they will be processed.
Processing
The wagons are dumped into the cleaner. This work is usually done at night or when the weather prevents normal harvesting. In this process, the good pecans are separated from all the limbs, rocks, and other foreign materials that the harvester picked up. This is a very labor-intensive process. The pecans are then moved by the conveyor into a sizer where they are sorted according to diameter, so we can do a better job of cracking.
From there the pecans are ready to be washed. We NEVER clean our pecans using heat. Although it is a common practice for commercial processors, heat breaks down the oils in the nut, sacrificing flavor. We use a chlorine solution to wash dust and dirt off the pecan shells before cracking. This is why our pecans appear so much lighter than what you typically find on a grocery store shelf.
The pecan cracking machines are adjusted to different size nuts, so it doesn't crush nuts that would be too large or leave nuts that were too small still whole. The hammer in each machine hits one pecan at a time, which then spills out on a conveyor belt. People watch the line, removing any inferior pecans. The quality pecans travel toward the end, where they are funneled into a brown paper bag, removed, weighed, and packaged or processed further. The brown paper bag is a very intentional packaging choice. The porous material allows the pecans to “breathe” and prevents trapping moisture leading to mold. Also, the opaque material shields the pecans from light, which can darken the kernel over time.
At this point, the pecans still have lots of shells. We have a machine called a sheller that can blow off the lighter loose shells and make picking out the nutmeats easier. The final step to getting pecan kernels separated from the remaining shells is done by hand. It is a tedious process, but it ensures a high-quality and undamaged pecan kernel.
Storage
We have fresh pecans available year-round through careful management and storage. We process in small batches to ensure freshness. Whole pecans are kept at zero-degree storage until ready to be processed. Once they have been processed and packaged they are sold or returned to the freezer. Pecans can keep in the freezer for up to 2 years, although ours never last beyond one growing season. We do not recommend storing in the fridge, as the moisture content is too high and they tend to absorb other flavors. The freezer is best if not being used right away. Shelled pecans can keep at room temperature for 3-4 months.
