This afternoon was the first (and hopefully not the last) Wakarusa Valley Farm Tour. 10-12 Farms from all over the Wakarusa Valley (as far north as Tonganoxie and Perry, East to Desoto, West to Topeka, and South to Baldwin) participated. Some were mainly for adults and others were very geared to families with children.
There was no way to make it to all of the farms - so we picked three that looked interesting and were "kid friendly." A sheep farm, a pecan farm, and a nursery we go to every summer that had animals, and other autumn things set up for the kids.
The pecan farm was by far the best! When they said "kid friendly," they meant it! Pecans have a green outer husk (see small inset picture on left), then a brown hard shell and the nut rests inside. When the pecan is ready to be harvested, the green husk splits and the brown hard shell inside falls out. To aid in the process, farmers can "shake" the tree using a contraption hitched to the back of a tractor (top picture).
When we arrived they were getting ready to shake a tree so we could help pick up the nuts. It was amazing. Normally they would lay down tarps, first, but I guess they figured we had plenty of hands to help pick the nuts right off the ground (bottom picture), so no tarp was used. I expected a more definitive shake, this is more of a fierce and rapid vibration of the tree - and hundreds of huts rained down to the grown for atleast 60 seconds. It was so cool! We atleast partially filled 3 or 4 - 10 gallon buckets (the ones we'd use for seats at girls camp).
This Pecan farm is family owned ... Dad is a conservationist, and the Pecan's are a family hobby on the weekends in the fall. I can see he and Grandfather having grand conversations about the different "experiments" he's been running on growing and watering techniques. He just mentioned a little bit of what they've been trying with new drip irrigation systems, and planting times to see how they effect crop yields and tree growth.
For $3 I purchased 2 pounds of unshelled, undried nuts. I stuck them in my dehydrator and they are now waiting to be shelled. A friend has a pecan sheller that makes it much easier. I'm going to try and borrow it from her - my pliers work, but it's a slow and tedious process.
4 comments:
That looks like so much fun. I wish we could have been there.
When we lived in Germany there was a walnut tree behind our house. Mom helped us shell them, but it wasn't easy. There were some that would not crack open even with the hammer.
What will you do with all the pecans? How long will they last?
ooh- make pecan pie for thanksgiving! soooooo delicious....
is sam wearing a mizzou jersy? would gr stand for that? also, mizzou beat iowa state at our homecoming game in a stunning 4th quarter/overtime comeback. burn.
No he's actually wearing a University of Iowa shirt... good think MU didn't play them for their homecoming game or then I would be in trouble!
I love pecan pie too, so I'd be happy to make one. But I must warn you, shelling pecans and keeping the halves from breaking is nearly impossbile using the plier method, and I'm not sure my friends little contraption will be much better, but we'll see.
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