Texas pecans are good for you
Editor’s Note: This is part 13 of How To Be Texan, Wherever You Are. It’s an up and coming eBook on how to maintain your Texan ways, no matter where you live. Some of us fortunate souls still live in the Great State and others are Ex-Pats who were forced to leave by marriage, jobs, or circumstance. You all however, have a great heritage and you can still be Texan, Wherever You Are. This installment is all about that Texas favorite….pecans. Turns out Texas pecans can make you a lot of money and they are very heart healthy. So there ya go, grow pecans, get rich, and be healthy to enjoy it all. Yep, only in Texas, y’all.
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It’s a common sight in rural Texas. An older man comes to the coffee shop and his fingers are stained with black stuff. Nobody says anything because their fingers are usually stained also. They have been cracking pecans in the evenings 
and sometimes it stains fingers.
Yes, the Pecan tree is the state tree of Texas and pecans (pronounced puh-cahn here in Real Texas – pee-can in other places) are an abundant and valuable crop. Pecans are a prized addition to cakes, fudge, ice cream, muffins, and almost anything else made by man or woman. And pecans are good for you.
Our good friends Frank & Starlie Shaw up in Seminole traded us two big bags of Western Schley pecans for 10 chickens. I thought we got the better end of the deal with the pecans going to our house.
Ramona shelled them in the evenings while watching TV. Our favorite pecan trees were three Choctaw in our yard back in our former hometown of Big Lake. Those were the best producing pecan trees I ever saw and we fertilized them every other year and took extra good care of them. In turn, they yielded some of the very best pecans I ever tasted and we enjoyed our quart zip lock bags full of big halves we shared with our neighbor in exchange for shelling them.
For sheer size, I would match our pecan trees in our yard here at Sherwood Ranch with any in the entire state. They are huge, stately, and the limbs on my trees are bigger than most other folk’s entire tree. However, the nut they produce is native and hard as a rock.
In the picture are some of the trees in my front yard. The limb stacked on top of two stumps is just that. It’s part of a limb that broke off a tree on the other side of the house. I had it stacked there and son Joe David took a chainsaw and flattened out a spot for us to put our name on the tree limb.
If that’s not Texas redneck I don’t know what is.
Now get this. If you are looking for a long term business opportunity, buy some land and plant pecan trees. They are in demand and you can get a good price for them. In fact, in a report dated November 2011, because of drought in Texas and increased Chinese demand, the price of pecans is up 22 percent from 2010. Those darn Chinamen are driving up the price of everything!
One of the very best places to stop and look at…and purchase pecans is at Berdoll Pecan Farms at their retail location about 15 miles East of Austin. Even you Houston folks can stop there next time you venture toward the state capitol. They have a very tall flashing sign that tells you when you are getting close. We stopped there on the way to College Station one Saturday and it was time well spent. They have cracked pecans, shelled pecans, pecan pies, pecan candy, pecan trees, pecan fudge, pecan divinity, pecan oils, pecan crackers and shellers, and more. If it has to do with pecans, they have it.
And you can buy some pretty good looking pecan trees there too! Get a few, plant them properly, and you can start having your own pecans in just a couple of years. It’s worth a visit.
Pecans are good for you-
- Pecans are a natural, high-quality source of protein; contain zero cholesterol, and very few carbohydrates.
- Pecans contain over 19 vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, several B vitamins, and zinc.
- Pecans are heart-healthy! Over half the fat (56%) found in pecans is monounsaturated fat and another 29% is polyunsaturated fat.
- Studies have shown that blood cholesterol levels can be lowered when pecans are incorporated into the diet.
- Pecans rank highest among all nuts and are among the top category of foods to contain the highest antioxidant capacity, meaning pecans may decrease the risk of cancer, heart disease, and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
- One ounce of pecans provides 10% of the recommended Daily Value for fiber.
- Pecans are naturally sodium-free, making them an excellent choice for those on a salt- or sodium-restricted diet.
Weight Control and Pecans
Can pecans actually help in weight loss? A review of pecan and other nut research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (September 2003), suggests that nuts like pecans may aid in weight loss and weight maintenance. The 
study indicated that nut consumption may increase metabolic rates and enhance satiety or a feeling of fullness. When used in conjunction with a healthy low-fat diet, nuts also offer increased flavor, palatability and texture that can lead to sticking to diets better according to the review.
A one-ounce serving of pecans (approximately 20 halves) contains 196 calories, 20.4 grams total fat (1.8 saturated fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 0 grams sodium, 2.7 grams dietary fiber and over 19 vitamins and minerals including vitamin A, vitamin E, calcium, potassium and zinc.
Pecans are also a good source of oleic acid, vitamin B1, thiamin, magnesium and protein.
San Saba, Texas is reported to have some of the very best pecans in the state, but there are scattered pecan orchards all over the great state and by reading any number of Aggie reports written specifically for pecans, you too can be a good Texan Wherever You Are by growing a pecan tree in your yard or just consuming more healthful Texas pecans.
I’m David out in Real Texas
Enjoying my Real Texas pecans
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi David –
I think I shared with you before that my great, great Uncle Joe Burkett, was the fella that grafted the first Burkett Pecan Tree back at the turn of the century, in 1900.
It stood for years on I-20 two miles east of Putnam. It was hit by lightning and the Boring Pecan Weevil in 1994 and was felled that same year.
I was fortunate enough to get five sections of 2″ pieces of the wood off of the first limb. I’ve since made clocks with two of them and have three pieces left. I also purchased an ink pen that was made out of the wood.
Below is the story of how the Burkett Pecan came about, way back when.
The Burkett Pecan
In the fall of 1900, two young sons of J.H. Burkett were squirrel hunting in the bottomlands along Battle Fish Creek, in Callahan County. Neither realized that a handful of pecans they gathered from a squirrel’s nest that day would later be a factor in placing their name in the history of pecan culture.
Their father saw the nuts and, recognizing their excellence, urged the boys to find the parent tree. After some searching along the south bluff of the river, they found the tree. It was on land owned by W. A. Orr of Putnam. It was protected on three sides by live oak and mesquite trees, and between it and the river was a tall elm, which protected the pecan from the eroding river waters.
Each spring Burkett undertook to graft buds from the tree, but he had no success until 1903. Someone destroyed the parent tree in 1910. But today, thanks to Burkett’s work, the variety is firmly established. One of the first papershell pecans, it grows best in the upland sandy soil of the Texas Cross Timbers region and requires less moisture than varieties such as the Stuart, which are found closer to the Gulf Coast.
What a great family legacy, Stephen!
I do remember you mentioning the fact that you were related to Uncle Joe Burkett and the story about the Burkett pecan trees. The last time I stopped at Berdoll Pecan Farms about 17 miles east of Austin, I noticed that the Burkett variety was one of their favorites. It’s always good knowing “the story behind the story” about Real Texas pecans. Readers should also be sure to click on Stephan’s name to visit his blog. Lots of good Texas stuff there….
Dave, I’ve seen some historical accounts (no link, sorry) where the native Indians of WTX taught the Coronado expedition about pecans, keeping them from starving otherwise. I’ve also read where pecans are second only to macadamia nuts in fat content per net weight.
I was at the Waco farmer’s market Saturday and one of the vendors was selling roasted native pecan halves…first time I’ve seen anyone specializing in natives. Maybe you can sell him yours.
Some of those San Saba orchards took a big hit during the drought. It’ll be interesting to see how they recover. A severe drought in the Sterling City area in the 90’s killed a lot of orchards when irrigation water supplies dried up. Pecans don’t have a lot of tolerance for drought. Great shade tree though, and under-utilized for yards, in my opinion, where watering isn’t an issue.
When I was in grade school way back in the 40’s it was a status symbol to go to school with pecan stained hands. Everyone saw your hands and the kneww you had some pecans, and the firsy questioned they asked you was “Where is the pecan tree”?? You were a very popular person with those pecan stained hands.
I didn’t know that pecans were this good for you. I think after reading this article, a trip to Berdoll Pecan Farms is in my near future. Thanks for sharing!
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