Pecans are a delightful and healthful treat for any time of the day or night.
Within the past 100 years, the production and public acceptance of pecans has doubled here in the United States.
In the old days pecans, like all nuts, had to be shelled individually by hand.
Shelling Pecans Back in the Day
Consumers usually bought their nuts in bulk and sat around, perhaps on the porch during good weather, and shelled pecans one by one…but they agreed unanimously that the extra work was well rewarded when they popped the pecans into their mouth.
Of course, consumers then, as today, found many other uses for these delicious treats. They baked them in cookies, in cakes, in sweet rolls, as a cinnamon roll addition adding a bit of flavorful bite in each roll. Pecans add a wonderful finish to an appetizing ice cream sundae.
How Pecan Farmers Produce Pecans Now
For many years now, most of the pecans bought by consumers have been shelled before packaging. Large plants, or farms like ours, are able to shell pecans at an astonishing rate through the use of updated and modern shell-cracking machines. The pecans, both before shelling and after shelling are stored in cold units to preserve their freshness. After all that, the pecans are carefully inspected and graded to ensure that the consumer receives only the very best quality for each dollar spent.
It takes a lot of work and heavy machinery to turn that hard shelled pecan into the final product that turns up on the grocer’s shelf, and it takes a major investment of money and time. But consumers wholeheartedly agree that the time and money spent on providing these wonderful treats in an easy-to-eat form makes it all worthwhile.