Hold Pecans Thanksgiving
November 28, 2013 by staff
Hold Pecans Thanksgiving, It is a meager holiday in the pecan groves of the South, and the pain is stretching to kitchens across the country.
A rare collision of ill-timed rain, marauding animals and a growing love affair between the Chinese middle class and the pecan has resulted in the worst pecan supply in recent memory. As a result, grocery store prices are up by about 30 percent, which is causing Thanksgiving bakers to think twice about their menus.
“It’s like the world doesn’t want us to make pralines,” said Anna Butler, 24, a Texas native who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Ms. Butler has a ticket home to Texas for the holiday, so she and her New York friends celebrated an early Thanksgiving last weekend. She had planned to show off her Texan roots with a black-bottom pecan pie. But at her favorite Manhattan market, a pound of shelled pecans cost $15.99.
“That’s a real investment in a pie right there,” she said.
Too much, in fact. She brought a dish of cauliflower, macaroni and cheese instead.
In 2012, the nation’s pecan orchards produced about 302 million pounds of pecans. This year, that number could drop by as much as 35 percent, according to industry officials. In Georgia, the nation’s leading pecan-producing state, the crop is expected to be about half of what it was last year. In South Carolina, some orchards succumbed completely.
The problem began with record rainfall last spring and summer. Pollination became difficult, and the moisture encouraged disease. Pecan growers sprayed their fields in record amounts, but it was not enough to fight off a disease called scab.
In Texas and Oklahoma, it was a summer drought that hurt the trees. Then came autumn’s heavy rain, which made the ground too wet to hold the heavy equipment that shakes nuts from trees and sweeps them up.
As a result, harvesting was sporadic, and the pecan supply was left wide open for feral pigs, which have become quite a problem in Texas, and for squirrels, which are always looking for a free nut.
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