Nature's Energy Food

I picked up this small handful of native pecans off of our front sidewalk.  They aren't very big but they are very flavorful.  It's probably because their oil content seems to be higher than many of the cultivated varieties.  That oil makes them high in energy.  We had a pecan pie made from some off of the same tree for Thanksgiving.

Most people in this part of the world don't bother with the native pecans since they are so small; they prefer the cultivated and grafted varieties that produce much larger nuts.  As a consequence, most of the smaller, native pecans are wasted.  Some, of course, are eaten by wildlife, including the pervasive squirrels which seem to be the most prolific of the local fauna.  Many, however, are buried by the squirrels to come up as trees in the spring.  I never would have thought that I would view seedling pecan trees as weeds.

One of our dogs -- the redbone coonhound -- can smell the pecans in the ground.  We find her digging them up from where the squirrels had buried them.  If you watch, you will see her sniffing around the yard until she comes across one of the subterranean treasures which she then will dig up and eat.  I'm sure the shell isn't good for her, but I don't know how to stop her from doing it.

Growing up I wasn't a big fan of pecans.  I still don't care for pecans in cookies -- except for Pecan Sandies and maybe a few others where the nut has been ground to tiny pieces.  I definitely don't care for them in chocolate chip cookies but, I have found that as an adult, it's hard to beat a Pecan Pie.  My preferred way to eat it is on top of a bowl of Bluebell Ice Cream.

This was a bumper crop year for pecans in this part of Texas.  A number of people have mentioned that their trees are loaded and I have observed it to be true as I drive about the area; it's easy to spot the clusters of nuts hanging high on the bare branches.

Every few days I will walk around the front yard picking up the pecans that have fallen.  I often find half-eaten ones that the squirrels got to first.  They waste an awful lot of them.  We should be getting close to the end of the crop since most have fallen from the trees.  Now, I just need to get them all shelled....