Walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, peanuts...In America, we love these nuts.
Okay, peanuts aren't really nuts...but the point is, none of these are actually from here.
There's only one nut we can buy today, that's native to this nation - it's the pecan.
Wait, what? What...it's pecan...pecan...pecan...pecan...pecan...? (Repeated in various pronunciations.)
See, America's relationship with its native nut...it's complicated - right down to the pronunciation.
Well, there's no better way of "cracking" this story, than to find out:
Pecan: How Does It Grow?
The pecan takes its name from the native Algonquin word "PAKAN", which means "any nut
that's hard to crack". If you map the native habitat of wild pecans, which
fanned out west from the Mississippi River, you can kind of see how the
pronunciation evolved. The French in Louisiana pronounced the Indian word as
the French would - with the second syllable stressed: "pecan". But as the nut
move to english-speaking territories, they pronounced it with the first
syllable stressed: "pecan".
I've come to the epicenter of pecan world production:
Georgia - the top producing state in the top producing nation - which is
mind-blowing, since pecans are not native to Georgia. But being here has given me
an even more astonishing realization: most of us have never eaten a truly fresh pecan!
If there's one person who knows pecans,
it's dr. Randy Hudson. His family's been farming them for over a hundred and
fifty years. In fact, they planted some of Georgia's first pecan trees, back when
pecans were mostly used to feed hogs...We're talking about a super nutritional
nut with more antioxidants than a same-sized serving of blueberries - once
served to swine...Lucky pigs!
Now, the Hudsons are among a wave of
farmers driving a comeback for America's long-neglected nut.
Yes, this is a comeback story, but one that takes an unexpected turn. Hang in there, because
we'll be coming back to that. First, let's go meet our farmer!
(Nicole): Now, I have to admit - I didn't realize that there was more than one kind of pecan!
(Randy): Oh my lord, there's hundreds if not thousands...
There is a difference - between flavor and between texture. There are some varieties
that are closer to one of the parents - which is Hickory. Pecans are very
high in very good oils; and the way that we demonstrate that is, we take a
little lighter, and we light a pecan, and...
(Nicole): Wow...(Randy): Here we go...how about that...
(Nicole): It's like a candle!
(Randy): The pecan has (in proportion to other things that we might eat) a significantly higher
level of energy - as evidenced by the flame that you see coming. You can't
hardly take a grapefruit and burn it at all...(Nicole): Right! (Randy): And for that matter even take other
nuts, and be able to stand here and get that you know get it to burn like that,
with that much energy, for that length of time.
(Nicole): so wait so how do you open these?
(Randy): In the absence of nutcrackers, what you can do is just simply take two nuts, smash them together.
(Nicole): Wow...
(Randy): Ah you got it? You did it! Just a little country learning...
(Nicole): That was very satisfying...Randy: Oh yeah?
Okay, so pecans come in a multitude of varieties, and it was this awesome
natural diversity that stood as a huge challenge to farmers, because even though
pecans have been growing in North America for millennia, it was only around
170 years ago that people figured out how to grow the kinds they wanted...
The nut we eat is actually the seed of
one of these trees. That little thing can grow a tree over 100 feet tall, which by
the way, can live for centuries. But each nut is genetically unique. So, if you've
seen our episodes on apples or oranges (and of course you have), you'll know where
I'm going with this: a Stuart pecan, for instance, won't grow a tree that bears Stuart's;
it will be some other unpredictable variety, and since farmers
only wanted to grow the biggest, tastiest varieties, they had to figure out a way
to grow exactly the ones they wanted. There couldn't be a commercial pecan
industry until they "cracked" this code. And the man who cracked it was a slave.
We don't have his picture, we don't even know his last name, but we know he was
called Antoine, and he was enslaved here on this Louisiana plantation called Oak Alley.
We also know that he was a very talented horticulturist, and the first
person to successfully graft a pecan tree. That means he took a young branch
from the variety he wanted, and fused it to the trunk of another pecan tree.
So that it would grow the variety he wanted. Now, hop with me over to Philadelphia for a sec...
Woo, a bit windier here...Okay, in 1876, pecans from Antoine's grafted trees came
right here to the World's Fair. His superior nuts were exhibited alongside
things like Alexander Graham Bell's new telephone, and the Remington typewriter,
becoming America's first popularized variety of pecans.
And so the commercial pecan industry was born. Today, farmers like Randy buy already grafted saplings
from nurseries and plant them in orchards. It takes five to seven years
for pecans to bear a significant harvest.
The hope of that harvest begins in the spring,
when the pecan trees flower. No, really there are flowers there!
They're just about the size of pencil erasers.
These are female flowers. Each tree also
grows male flowers, which shed pollen. The pollinated flowers transform into pecans,
that grow within green husks. In the autumn, these husks turn brown and peel
back to reveal the finally mature nuts.
When the pecans mature, farmers don't wait around for them all to fall.
They take matters into their own hands.
The nuts lay in the orchard for three to four days to dry out.
It's an anxious time. Everything from squirrels to feral hogs love pecans, and
Randy has basically laid a buffet...
His crew returns to gather the nuts into rows, so harvesting machines can do
their work. By the end of the season, which usually lasts till Christmas,
they'll process over five million pounds.
Okay, let's go! Let's do it! Woo!
This is the biggest thing I've ever driven before! I think I can get used to this...
Going through a pecan tree right now...Oh my god!
At the packing plant, good nuts are separated from sticks, leaves, and other debris.
They'll finish drying to less than 5% moisture, before being cleaned, sorted, sized, and packed.
While pecans destined to be sold without their shells head over to the cracker...
So, there's one final crazy twist in our amazing story of America's nut.
Tell me how do you like to eat your pecans? In pecan pie during the holidays?
Yeah? Well, that's part of the problem. Outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas,
there's not yet a big demand for pecans in America.
Crazy, right? It turns out that the biggest year-round fans of America's nut
are the Chinese! And we can thank them for the rebirth of our pecan industry.
See, for several decades, the American pecan market was in the doldrums.
It's only recently that Randy packed his pecan bags for China - a country that
hadn't even seen a pecan before the late 90s! But they loved hickory nuts!
A nut in the same family as the pecan. So Randy and other farmers championed the pecan as
China's next big thing, and they loved them!
Now that the pecan is enjoying
international fame, the US government is backing a huge domestic marketing push,
and farmers like Randy hope you'll "go nuts" for pecans - as you've done for almonds.
Just think: pecan butter...pecan flour...pecan milk...you heard it here first!
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