Pecans are considered to be the most important nut native to North America. They are grown in a wide area from Texas, to Tennessee, North to Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska, with the greatest area of production being the Southeast and Southwest.
For the North American Indians of the Mississippi River pecans were a staple in their daily diet and when the explorers arrived in the area the Native Americans traded pecans for furs, trinkets, and tobacco. Explorers noticed that the Native Americans for months at a time lived on nothing more than pecans. Prior to their arrival in North America the explorers and early settlers had never seen or enjoyed the pecan.
Around 1760, after the French and Indian Wars, fur traders brought the pecan from the Illinois territory to the Atlantic coast and the first shipment of pecans was shipped abroad.
George Washington enjoyed pecans and in 1774 planted several at Mount Vernon and in 1779 Thomas Jefferson planted pecan trees at Monticello. Both men added the trees to their homes, not only for the pecan nut, but viewed the tree as an ornamental plant for their estates.
In 1847, a slave , Antoine, figured out how to graf mature trees to young trees and the hybrid ” Centennial” was created for the 100th anniversary of the United States in 1876.
During the Civil War, Union Soldiers, returning home from the South brought pecans with them which helped spread their popularity.
Texas is the home to more native pecans than an other state and the Pecan is the state tree of Texas. In 1880 the first commercial pecan orchard was planted in Brownwood, Texas.
During the early 1900′s pecan tree planting was promoted as a get rich quick scheme and thousands and thousands of acres. Although the pecans orchards were a success, the quick rich scheme was not, as the pecans trees took ten to twelve years to start production. Many people went broke trying to survive waiting on their investment to mature.
All total it took about 400 years for the pecan to become a viable crop in the United States. The pecan industry takes many years to develop before any real return is experienced. Today, about half of the pecans produced are still of the native plant with the rest being hybrid improved varieties. The newer improved nuts are large, have thinner shells and the nutmeats are darker in color.
Apart from the United States are now grown in Mexico, Brazil, Australia and South Africa and are enjoyed by people throughout the world.
