PECANS - FROM THE FARM TO THE MARKET IN SOUTH GEORGIA

The word Pecan is derived from an Algonquian word which means a nut requiring a stone to crack. The pecan tree is a deciduous tree that may grow over 100 feet tall and have a canopy limb spread from 40 to 75 feet, with a trunk diameter up to 6 feet. There is one advertised to be 7’ wide in a little town, called TyTy in South Georgia, not very far from Pelham, Georgia, where Godwin Pecan & Gifts is located.

In the spring, around the end of March, pecan trees start budding out with leaves and blossoms and with good weather conditions, male & female catkins will grow. The male catkins are long & pendulous, while the female catkins are smaller with 3 to 6 flowers clustered together. Pecans are pollinated by the wind. Some trees such as the Desireable are self pollinators, whereas, other varieties, usually several different varieties, must be planted in the same orchard for the wind to spread the pollen to these trees. However, on a good windy day, the pollen may travel for 10 miles. Once pollinated, the female catkins start to look like little sandspurs hanging in a cluster. Pecans are “babied” in the South. Due to the insects and diseases, the pecan trees have to be sprayed rigorously, which is very costly, irrigated if at all possible and the groves mowed & scouted all summer long. If the producer is successful, the actual nut grows inside a thick green husk to maturity at which time the husk dries out & turns a dark brown. In South Georgia, the husks on the earlier varieties, such as Pawnee, began to crack open the middle of September and later varieties opening in October & even some in November. After the husks open the pecans fall to the ground or are shook to the ground by pecan shakers and can be harvested by hand or machines, called pecan harvesters.

There are numerous brands & types of pecan harvesters. Some harvesters require sweeping machines to sweep the pecans into rows & blowers that blow the pecans that have fallen in the treeline out to the side for the harvester to travel over. Depending on the type harvester used the pecans are delivered by belts or chains to a hopper or dump wagon. There are blowers located on the harvester that blow out a lot of the leaves & trash light enough to be blown away. A lot of the sticks travel back to a desticker in the dump wagon & are dropped out back onto the ground. When the dump wagon is full the pecans & small debris will be dumped onto a big wagon. Other type harvesters are designed so that you do not have to sweep the pecans into rows and have the capability of circling around the tree coming very close to the trunk of the tree. These work really well in groves where different varieties are planted in the same row and you want to keep the varieties separate, due to market prices. It is best to keep the Desireables, which produce very large halves, separate from the smaller varieties such as seedlings. Of course, in a big grove where one variety has been planted, you can still take long rows with this type of harvester. The pecans & small debris travel up the conveyor into a hydraulic holding bin, and the sticks fall onto a chain and are carried out the back to fall on the ground. When the holding bin is full, it will be raised up & dumped into a big wagon.

Once this big wagon is full, the pecans are transported to the farm cleaner or to a commercial cleaning plant, such as Godwin & Sons Pecans. The wagon is pulled into a pit area, raised up on a hoist and the pecans roll off the wagon into the pit, which is a hole in the ground that has been laid with blocks & cement poured in the bottom. A conveyor is mounted in the bottom of the pit and carries the pecans up & dumps them on a chain with holes for the pecans to fall through & the larger sticks that made it into the pecans in the grove are carried out by overhead conveyor to the trash wagon. At this stage, the pecans may still have stones, hulls or tiny sticks in them. The pecans are dropped into a metal tumbler that has metal slats with a small space between them where the hulls and some of the trash fall out onto trash conveyor, but the slats are farther apart on the other end so as the pecans are rolling they travel to the end of this barrell and fall onto a conveyor that takes them up & drops them into vented holding tanks, which in turn have a conveyor mounted to the bottom to carry the pecans into another machine called an airleg, where most remaining leaves, trash, hulls are blown out and the pecans fall out onto a picking table. This is a long rubber conveyor belt about 2 foot wide that goes around a table and bright lights are hanging over this picking table. It is at this point, that the pecans are hand cleaned & graded by six pickers stationed on either side of the table to remove any trash, pebbles or bad quality pecans that escaped through the machines. From here the pecans go through another air leg that is set to vacuum any light meated nuts that would ruin the count and grade of the good quality pecans. The trashy pecans fall into one box and the good pecans go into another box. Sometimes, at this point, the pecans may go through a sizer to separate the smaller varieties from the larger varieties. The smaller pecans will hurt the count per pound and bring the grade down on the larger varieties. Some years, a pecan is a pecan, but with different overseas markets getting into the picture, varieties must be kept separate. Also, with the local markets, the larger varieties such as Desireables command a higher price.

The cleaning plant also, handles the marketing for most of the producers. Once the pecans are in the 1500 pound or larger box or bag, the buyers will send sample people out to the cleaner to pull samples of each lot for each producer, for their buying company. It is very important that each producer’s wagon is tagged as it comes on the cleaning plant grounds as this tag follows the pecans to the box or bags. These containers are weighed in and each container has its own label with producer’s name, total weight less tare (the weight of the container & pallet the container is on), and the variety and the date pecans were cleaned. The sampler records this information onto each sampling bag and a list of all names and lot numbers is sent with the samples to the buyers. When the buyers receive the samples, they count how many pecans it takes to make a pound, crack the nuts and pick out all the edible meats and reweigh the meats to get a percentage of good meats in that pound of nuts. Based on count of uncracked nuts per pound & percentage of good meats, the buyer will then make a bid on each lot of samples he received. The private bids from each buying company are accumulated by the cleaning plant and the buyer with the highest bid on any given lot will have the opportunity to buy that lot and any other lot that he bid the highest on. A producer may have several different varieties in several lots and all of his lots may not be sold to one buyer, if he is not the highest bidder. This method of marketing has worked really well for our company and our producers that put their trust in Godwin & Sons Pecans to do a good cleaning job and secure the highest prices for their pecan crop.

FACTS ABOUT GEORGIA PECANS

PECAN LADY FINGERS

1 stick plus 6 Tbsp butter 1 cup chopped pecan pieces

4 Tbsp. confectioners sugar 2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups cake flour ˝ tsp salt

1 tsp. water

Cream butter with sugar. Add flour & salt, nuts & vanilla. Blend well. Shape dough into tiny logs. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 degrees for 8 - 10 min. While still warm roll in confectioners sugar.

PECAN DIVINITY

2 ˝ cups sugar ˝ cup white Karo syrup 2 egg whites

˝ cup water 1 cup pecan pieces 1 tsp vanilla

Cook syrup, water & sugar on medium heat to softball stage on candy thermometer. Beat egg whites in large bowl to stiff peaks, add a tiny pinch of baking soda to whites & beat in. Gradually pour syrup mixture into egg whites while mixing continuously. Add vanilla & pecans. Let cool, but not harden in bowl. Drop from teaspoon onto waxed paper.

ICEBOX FRUIT CAKE

1 box Nabisco Graham crackers 1 qt chopped pecan pieces

1 can condensed milk 1 cup flaked coconut

1 qt raisins

Crush Graham crackers with rolling pin. In a big pan (dishpan) combine all of the above ingredients to a sticky consistence. Use wax paper to mash & form mixture into 3 loaves. Wrap each loaf with a layer of wax paper, then wrap tightly in tin foil. Place loaves in freezer to harden. Take out a loaf as needed & cut into slices.

MAMA’S PECAN PIE

1 cup sugar 3 eggs

1 stick butter or Parkay 1 cup Karo syrup

1 tsp vanilla flavoring 3 cups chopped pecan pieces

2 unbaked Pet Ritz pie shells (shallow)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar & butter with a fork. Add eggs & beat with fork. Stir in vanilla. Pour half of mixture into each pie shell. Divide & sprinkle chopped nuts over each pie. Bake until golden brown.

HOW CHOCOLATE IS MADE

The cacao beans are received at the chocolate factory. The beans absorb odors easily which will ruin the flavor of the chocolate. Therefore, upon arrival, the beans are sorted by origin and variety and then stored so no bad factory odors will be absorbed. As needed, the beans are cleaned and roasted to a dark brown, then cracked and shelled leaving the nib (meat) of the bean.

Each factory has secret formulas for mixing the different nibs and these mixed nibs are crushed by huge grinding stones or steel discs. Due to the friction, the fat or cacao butter in the nibs melt and form a chocolate liquor, non alcoholic, of course. This liquor is hardened and sold as unsweetened bitter chocolate for baking and other purposes. The cocoa butter is about 54 percent of the bean. This butter could be stored for years without spoiling. Healing creams for burns and scars are made from the butter by products. The chocolate liquor is put under high pressure in presses where most of the butter is squeezed out through screens, leaving a cake substance. The cake is pulverized and sifted into cocoa powder. The cocoa powder we use in our home has 10% or more cocoa butter content. A richer type must have 22% or more butter. The darker Dutch cocoa has alkali added in this mixture to give it a different taste. Cocoa butter is added back to the mix to make eating chocolate, whether it is sweet or milk chocolate. Sweet chocolate is a combination of chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter & maybe some vanilla. This mixture may be dark, light or bittersweet. Milk is added to the mixture to make milk chocolate. The mixture is then ground to a paste and ready for conching, a process that kneads the paste & was named for the conche machine that was used. Another manufacturing secret is how long to conche the chocolate since this process enhances the flavor of the chocolate. The chocolate is then molded and wrapped by automatic machines. The candy factories also dip nuts such as pecans, to make delicious chocolate covered pecans.

Chocolate satisfies the sweet tooth and provides quick energy because of its sugar content. It was used in WWII for this reason.

CULTIVATION OF THE CACAO TREE

The cacao tree originated in South & Central America, especially in the tropical area 20 degrees North or South of the Equator. Cacao trees cross pollinate so there are many mixed varieties. Special hybrid cultivars of the cacao tree have been developed, but there are 3 basic varieties named Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario. Wild trees may live 200 years and grow 60 foot tall. Cultivated trees are pruned to 15 to 25 feet and are replanted within 30 years. They are planted under the shade of other trees to protect them from the sun. The cacao tree usually begins bearing nuts in 3 years and some may bear all year long in the rainy regions. In a wet and dry climate, they may bear one large crop and a smaller one later.

The picker, called a trumbador, cuts the low pods of the bark with a machete and the higher pods with a mitten shaped knife being very careful not to bruise the bark of the tree. He picks only the ripe pods. Gatherers pick up the pods, split and scoop out the pulp and bean inside the pod and place it in baskets to ferment. This fermenting creates a high temperature that kills the seed and the chocolate flavor is formed. The beans turn to a rich brown. It takes 3 to 8 days to ferment. Approximately 400 dried beans make a pound.

The beans are taken to market and the buyers will cut some of the beans open checking to see if the beans have a purple or slate colored center. If so, they will not purchase the crop, because it was not properly fermented. From here the chocolate beans are sent to the chocolate factories.

THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

Christopher Columbus not only founded America, but found Central American Indians using cacao for money. He failed to discover the real treasure of the almond shaped bean inside the pod.

In 1519, Hernando Cortes, a Spanish explorer was offered a beverage in golden goblets from the Aztec ruler, Montezuma. This beverage was a bitter foamy drink called chocolatl., The Spaniards did not like the bitter drink until they found they could sweeten it with sugarcane juice. Cortes took the bean back to Spain and the Spaniards kept their valuable bean a secret.

Chocolate did not appear in England until 1657, at a place where the rich gathered and named the place the Chocolate House. Chocolate was expensive because it was processed by hand. In 1760 a machine was invented to speed up the grinding process which helped lower the price of chocolate.

In 1828, a Netherlander, C.J. Van Houten invented a press that squeezed the fat or cocoa butter out of the bean and ground the remainder of the chocolate bean into powder. It made a rather smooth chocolate drink, not as rich as the chocolatl. Van Houten revolutionized the chocolate industry by adding sugar and a chocolate combination to the cocoa butter and molded it into bars, thus the chocolate candy bar. It was still coarse and somewhat bitter.

In 1876, M.D. Peter of Switzerland, added milk to the chocolate mixture and after a few years of refinement turned chocolate into the velvety smooth chocolate bar of today.

PRICES ARE GOOD THROUGH FEBRUARY 2011.

WE CAN SHIP GIFT ORDERS FOR YOU, POSTAGE TO BE PAID BY YOU. WE INCLUDE A GIFT CARD & MESSAGE AT NO CHARGE. PLEASE INCLUDE REQUESTED DELIVERY DATE AND ORDER IN ADVANCE TIME TO BE SURE YOUR GIFT ARRIVES ON TIME. CALL 877-910-4917 TOLL FREE OR SEND EMAIL WITH GIFT REQUEST, ADDRESS, ZIP CODE.

PLEASE INCLUDE PHONE NUMBER ON ALL ORDERS IN CASE WE NEED TO CONTACT YOU ABOUT YOUR ORDER.

IF PAYING BY CHECK, YOUR ORDER WILL BE SHIPPED WHEN CHECK CLEARS.

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WE WILL NOT SOLICIT YOU OR THE PERSON RECEIVING FIGTS FOR ANY SALES BY PHONE OR EMAIL. ALL ADDRESSES, TELEPHONE NUMBERS & CREDIT CARD INFO ARE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL AND WILL NOT BE GIVEN OR SOLD TO OUTSIDE MAILING LISTS.

PLEASE CALL OUR TOLL FREE NUMBER FOR SPECIAL REQUESTS OR SOMETHING YOU MAY WANT AND DO NOT SEE ON OUR WEBSITE.

WE HAVE A GIFT SHOP ON THE FARM, SO IF YOU ARE IN THE SOUTHWEST GEORGIA AREA FEEL FREE TO STOP BUY AND MAKE YOUR PURCHASES IN PERSON. WE WILL BE GLAD TO GIVE YOU A TOUR OF THE CLEANING PLANT WITH YOUR SAFETY IN MIND.