Pecans, pecans, pecans!

A quick story. We had been driving into our driveway for days hearing this, "pop, pop, pop" sound. We were very annoyed and vowed to get rid of our neighbor's tree that was dropping all these annoying "seeds" on the ground. As we contemplated tree removal, cutting, etc. our neighbor boy came over and picked one up off the ground. He told us that his Dad loved these things. April asked him how his Dad could love seeds. Anthony explained that they weren't seeds and cracked one under his shoe and handed April the nut. It turns out they were pecans! We were TOTALLY thrilled!

April went over to the neighbor's house and made sure it was allright to pick up the pecans on their side of the yard. So we started picking. The kids picked for days and days. Then we decided we'd picked enough. We had 24 pounds!!

Here are the steps we learned in the pecan process:

Step 1, Pick them all up. Children are awesome at this (the smaller the better) as they are closer to the ground. There are also several "pecan picker upper" contraptions you can buy at Lowe's but we did it by hand!

Step 2, Take the pecans and get them cracked at the pecan place ($0.40 per pound). We went to Peoples Pecans and the girls watched the pecan shelling from start to finish. It was awesome!

Step 3, Even though the pecans are shelled, you still have to spend hours sorting them because the entire shell is not blown off. This is time consuming, but can be tasty (especially if you eat lots while you sort -- we had to take Eric off this detail as we were losing the profits of our labor)!

Step 4, Sample the goods:

Step 5, Beg April to make some of her delicious Pumpkin Pecan Muffins and other delicacies!