Jack Atkinson
King Nut, the Pecan

Many years ago Atkinson's Pecan Products in Garfield had an advertising logo named the King Nut. It was a pecan with a big, gold crown on top. For my family and for many folks in our area the pecan has been a source of livelihood. By the 1950's the pecan industry in Garfield had far outstripped the cotton crop as the main source of income. The company bought, shelled and sold several million pounds of pecans each year.

One of the oldest pecan orchards is at Grey Mule Farm out from Garfield. I grew up knowing the place as the Durden farm and Mr. Sam Smith says his grandfather bought it in the 1890's as the Dick Gay home place. The pecan orchard is about a hundred years old and still produces a fine crop some years. The thing about pecan trees is they are just not that consistent.

A treasured volume in my personal library is a 1920's book entitled Pecan Growing co-authored by H. P. Stuckey, the Director of the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station. It is a comprehensive accounting of pecans including history, geography, diseases and uses. It is a type of hickory not native to Georgia or Florida. Native trees are most abundant in Texas and then other areas of the south.

What most of us know about pecans, though, is that for years they paid the taxes on our small properties and that they were good to eat in just about everything. Every home, whether in the country or in town, had at least a few pecan trees. Not fertilized or sprayed these trees usually produced enough for local consumption and enough were sold to pay property taxes.

My introduction to the pecan crop came at my grandfather Atkinson's in Garfield. He had a small orchard that each fall we were invited to pick up the nuts. The orchard was sandy, full of sandburs and sticks. The days were cold, rainy and dreary. The pay was a nickel a pound. There were not many nickels around but for a small kid, a pound seemed like a lot of pecans. He made us take out the hulls, leaves and sticks before he weighed them!

On a happier note there were times just before Christmas (just in time for shopping) that the trees were filled with money. It was a trick but it also reminded us of how important the pecan was to our family. It paid for everything including our college educations. But on these days the family would gather at my grandparents. The elders sat on the porch, while the kids stood under a large pecan tree in the front yard. My sister Barbara and my cousin Charles were the oldest grandchildren. They got to climb the tree and shake the limbs from which change in every value dropped to the ground. Pecan trees rained with money. It was much more fun picking up money than those hand staining nuts.

The vocabulary I grew up around held such terms as Success, Stuarts, Moneymakers, Frotschers and Schleys. These are all different varieties. Now there are improved varieties such as Sumners and Cape Fear. The growing and care of the pecan crop is now a complicated business. My cousin Donald Atkinson is an expert at this. He knows how to fertilize, irrigate, spray and harvest. Now, shakers are used and the nuts all come down at once. I wanted to lie under the tree and wait until the next one fell. Besides all of the above mentioned things one has to do to get a good crop, pollination is that natural thing over which man has little control. If the weather is not just right in the four or so days available for pollination, then there will be no crop. Add to this risk, hurricanes or high winds on loaded limbs from the brittle pecan and you can see why the harvest is so iffy.

By the home fireplaces many pounds of pecans have been cracked and picked out by hand. Commercially complicated machines crack and remove the shell very efficiently. Machines with little electronic eyes scan the conveyor belts to spot shell and remove it instantly. It is a fascinating process going from a whole pecan to the meat without shell. Tourists for years have left the highways and made their way to see this process in Garfield.

Already high in fat content, I particularly like pecans toasted in butter and salted. Or is it healthier to eat a large slice of pecan pie? No, I will just have a large serving of butter pecan ice cream. I've got it; I'll have a nice salad and sprinkle a half a cup of toasted pecans across the crisp lettuce. What a crop. What a life.-- Jack Atkinson is our regular guest columnist and a resident of Garfield.

Reader Comments

No comments have been posted. Be the first!

Other Stories With Comments:
Article	Comments
Relay for Marie	1
Seedling Garden Club holds auction	1
Good teachers make a difference	1