One of my cherished memories of my dad’s parents was sitting around the kitchen table with them, shelling pecans. We would do this ritual every Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation (for Easter, it was sticking the Green Stamps into the booklets. If you don’t know what this is, ask someone wrinkled).
We are still nuts for shelling pecans at my house, but over at Stewart, it’s a veritable industry. They have rows of pecan trees, and are systematic about gathering them. The pecans are sent off to be cracked, and after that, every day that is cold or rainy enough to preclude outside work is spent inside the “Junior Wreck Hall” doing the detailed work of picking away the hard and bitter shell.
The treasure that is left is bagged up and frozen (yes, pecans are perishable), and used in our delicious baked goods during summer at Stewart and The Heart.
Hoping your holidays are more happy than hectic, and hoping you don’t make each other nuts over the break! <3
Catherine ‘helps’ with the selection of good pecans
Just a few of the buckets of pecans collected at Stewart
Cracked pecans waiting to be picked through and cleaned
The real work begins. Don Lucio has decades of experience with this!
The finished (delicious) product in the freezer– ready for use in the summer
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