Eclectic Red Barn: ALERT!! Do you cook/bake with pecans?

Saturday, September 16, 2017

ALERT!! Do you cook/bake with pecans?

As you know hurricane Irma hit hard in Florida last week. However, the rain and strong winds were also felt in Georgia. We left our home in Florida and went to stay with my brother-in-law who runs a pecan farm in Georgia.

The house sits on a lovely lake and it was so peaceful and then Irma came through. Although we did not have the high winds like Florida, they were enough to snap branches and topple pecan trees.

The pecans were less than 3 weeks from being harvested. Green pecans littered the ground and down trees and branches could be seen everywhere. It only lasted one day, but of the growers that he talked to, most had lost 50% of their pecan crop.

Eclectic Red Barn: Irma topples pecan trees

I asked if that meant the price of pecans would go up and he said most likely. So if you use pecans for baking or cooking in the fall, I suggest you think about purchasing some now.

We talked to him after we left and more and more trees were down as they checked their various fields. He was just sick.

Eclectic Red Barn: Irma topples pecan trees, farmers loose most of their crop

They had lost about 60% of their peach crop earlier in the summer so this was an added blow that they didn't want nor need.

New pecan trees take 10 years before they will produce. Pecans come from Georgia but they also come from Texas and California.

I can't predict if prices will go up or not, but my guess is that they will. Just wanted to alert you to the situation.