Pecan Wealth

Our tiny .24 acre urban lot enjoys the summer shade of no less than four pecan trees (and one ginormous poplar) which means that roughly every two years late fall brings a deadly hail of tree nuts and hours of stooping, plastic bag in hand, to gather as much as I can ahead of the squirrels. I have a strange compulsion to pick up every single nut I see, as if somehow I'll be held accountable for those that are left. After a few evenings of shelling, however, the compulsion is gone and I have no qualms about tossing the lot into the trash. It's no wonder that pecans are as much as $8/lb and the grocery.

My shelling technique is rather basic. I do have a lever-action cracker given to me by my dad (or maybe I just took it) that makes for easier work than hand-held jobber that is only good for inducing hand cramps in less than sixty seconds, but it too leaves quite a bit to be desired. In my quest to find a better method I ran across Southern Nut'n Tree and I now understand the elevated price of shelled pecans. Yes, there are methods that are easier on the hands, but good golly, look at the prices on that equipment! Hardly any item under $5k and many over $10k. Granted these are geared to commercial operations, but I guess that means I'm stuck with hours of fun sitting on the floor, working the lever and dodging the occasional shrapnel from exploding pecans.

Wish me luck!

Garlic's in the ground

I got around to putting in ~40 cloves of garlic this past weekend. Twelve are German Hardneck Rocambole and the rest are S&H Silverskin, all from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I like the taste of the hardneck varieties better, but I want to try a little of everything before I settle. When I planted garlic a couple years ago they had quite a bit of top growth before spring due to a very mild winter and I think the bulb size suffered as a result. Let's hope we actually have a winter this year.

I didn't do anything special with the planting (though I did scour the net for potential tips and tricks). They are on ~6 inch centers, about 1.5" deep and covered with a few inches of leaf mulch.

The Deliberate Agrarian has quite a bit on info on planting/growing/processing garlic ... good read, but I don't see myself going that big anytime soon (though I could dig up the front yard ...?).