Pecan Picking

It's been hot here. No one has been real motivated to do much of anything. Sunday we wanted to get the kids out of the house, but nothing seemed worth getting off the couch for. Then Jay saw in the newspaper that a man who owns a tree farm was inviting people to come pick pecans and chestnuts for only $1 a pound, so we decided to take a drive out to the country and show the kids some hard labor.

Well, turns out the labor isn't all that hard. There really is no picking involved. When the nuts are ready to be eaten, they fall from the tree and then you walk around pushing, in the words of the tree farm owner, a "picker upper." (The picker uppers sorta reminded me of those awful push and pop toys that every child seems to have at one time or another. I never realized those toys had an actual purpose but now I know it's to prepare your child for life on the nut farm.)The picker upper is made of thin wires that spread apart when rolled over something hard, thus catching all the nuts.

When your picker upper is full, you empty the contents into your bucket and start over again.The farm itself is gorgeous. Here is a picture of Jay and the boy under a giant pecan tree. Most of what you see on the branches isn't leaves, but pecans that haven't fallen from the tree yet.Even though it's only the beginning of the season, we still came home with six pounds of pecans, which will be more than enough to make a few pies from. I actually made a pie last night but because my family has no patience, we dug into it before it was fully cool and now it's not the most photogenic of pies. It's delicious though. I should know, I just had a slice for breakfast.