Why is that nuts are almost universally derided? “Nuttier than a vegetarian’s cutlet,” claimed Richard Gordon, popular author and physician. “Health nuts are going to feel stupid some day, lying in hospital and dying of nothing,” opined comedian Tommy Cooper. In popular parlance, somebody may be described as, “Nuttier than a squirrels nest.” All of which – and there are plenty more – are a gross insult to a permanently producing and valuable food crop and pecans in particular.
The 14th April is National Pecan Day in the U.S. of A. to delight of Texans in particular for
Carya illinoensis. It has been claimed by a food analyst that Texans will buy anything with pecans in it. Cookies, candy, ice cream, fresh and salted nuts – all are important edibles while the oil finds use in cooking and cosmetics.
Although a more familiar native of the southeastern U.S. Mexico and even parts of South America the pecan, as its botanical name indicates, grow far further north. However, while surviving they have rarely matured nuts – until recently. Stock obtained from Iowa have been grafted at the Grimo Nut Nursery in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsular and found to produce crops. More than a half-dozen such varieties are presently available.
Further south, they claim anywhere up to 1,000 different varieties but none exactly speed to maturity. Those prepared to wait after planting at least two varieties – like apples and pears they require cross-pollination – will be rewarded with up to a quarter-tonne of nuts per tree. And they can continue to produce crops for a thousand years.
The problem is that it is not only humans that appreciate pecans. Texas and Georgia produce 100 million pounds between them in an average year but squirrels nosh on 10 million pounds nuts, and crows, jays, deer and possums to twice that. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto observed the trees in 1541 during his perambulations through what is now Arkansas. Millennia prior to that Native Americans had appreciated the tasty kernels, called in Algonquian
pakan or
pagan.
Northern gardeners looking for something perhaps safer and faster producing might turn to ‘Hican,’ a hybrid obtained by crossing
Carya illinoensis with shagbark hickory,
C. ovata. The latter, native to eastern and central North America may have nuts difficult to crack but as Grimo assures us, “its rich butter flavour is king.” Native Americans created milk from the kernels that was utilized in cooking. Hickory is derived from their designation:
pohickery.
Alas, early colonists appreciated the felled trees more than for their nuts. Burnt, it was unexcelled in heat produced. It was equally valued as a source wherever tough, sturdy wood was required. Such uses included tool handles, household goods, barrels and their hoops, even the main beam of barns and houses. Split into splints, it would then be woven into baskets and chair seats. Rods of hickory were valued as dependable walking sticks, hence former soldier later president Andrew Jackson’s nickname of “Old Hickory.”
In total, there are some 20 species of Carya, the majority from eastern North America. Apart from the foregoing however, few have found favour for their ‘nuts’ which since they are buried in a fleshy fruit as are plums, peaches and apricots, strictly speaking are not nuts at all but ‘drupes.’ Swamp hickory, C.
cordiformis, is hardy enough to grow in Quebec but the kernels are so bitter that only squirrels sample them. Early colonists used their oil for lamps and to cure their rheumatism.
Most disappointing of all is another native to eastern North America, C.
tomentosa. While the bark was used to produce a yellow dye, it took an incredibly effort to crack the shells. Upon succeeding, very little meat was to be discovered inside, hence the appropriate name to this day of ‘mockernut.’
