Pe-cans or Pe-cons?

In this part of the country we say pe-cons. In GA they call them pe-cans. I prefer pe-cons.


Today we took a 5-gallon can of pecans to the farmers coop bldg. to have them cracked with a mechanical pecan cracker. What a great invention!! It's a far improvement from when we used to use a brick or hammer to crack them. Not only that, but they almost come out as two halves instead of broken pieces. Our neighbor let me pick up some pecans in their yard since we don't have a pecan tree of our own.

My parents and grandparents always had pecan trees in their yard and when we were young, it was a dreaded chore to have to pick up pecans every winter. And picking them up wasn't nearly as bad as having to pick them out. My mouth would break out from eating too many pecans.


We would keep some to eat and then bag the other pecans and take them to town and sell them and use the money to buy Christmas presents.


I guess that next to peanuts, pecans are my favorite nut. I love using them when baking cookies or making candies. But most of all, I like to sprinkle salt and spices on them and roast them in the oven. My mother made divinity candy and put pecans in it as well as chocolate fudge. And those delicious pecan pies were a favorite at holiday time.


During WWII my mother would make a cloth bag like a pillow case and fill it with pecans to send to her sister in Washington, DC. She would sew across the open edge of the bag and then write Aunt Faye's name and address on the bag. Then we would take these to the post office and mail them to my aunt who was so excited to get Alabama pecans. Then my mother did the same thing for me when I lived away from Alabama. Now I am carrying on that tradition and I package pecans and peanuts to give to family members at Christmas. Anybody can go to the grocery store and buy packaged pecans and peanuts but they are very expensive and sometimes are not fresh. They just aren't the same as those we gather, crack and shell ourselves.
There's a big problem with pecan trees if you use them for shade trees. They have those fuzzy green blooms in the spring that look like worms that fall on the ground and are a mess. Then about the time the pecans start to fall on the ground, a ton of leaves start falling also. You have to keep the leaves swept up so you can see the nuts on the ground. It's a good thing that I like pecans or I'd never go to all that trouble!