Published: December 02, 2008 01:40 pm      

Pecans less plentiful, but tastier, this year

If the pecans in that Thanksgiving pie seemed extra tasty this year, they probably should.

But if there seemed to be fewer of them than usual in the pie, that shouldn’t be surprising, said Texas AgriLife Extension agent Chris Schneider.

Pecan crop quantity is down, he said, in part because of subnormal rainfall and because pecan trees bear most bountifully in alternate years. Last year was a good year for pecans.

But with decreasing quantity should come increasing quality.

“The quality is usually better when there are fewer pecans, because the meat of the pecan can fill out better,” Schneider said. “There are fewer pecans to feed on the trees. The quality should be good this year.”

Expect 40 percent to 60 percent fewer pecans this year, Schneider said.

Last year’s Texas pecan production was 70 million pounds. That was part of a near-record national harvest of 385 million pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This year in Texas production forecast is 32 million pounds.

Johnson County has few professional pecan orchards. The largest is the Johnson County portion of Pecan Plantation, one of the largest orchards in Texas.

“There are orchards between Cleburne and Hillsboro around the Hill County line. Other than that, the trees belong to the home owners,” Schneider said. “There’s no really large commercial pecan production here.”

Some pecan varieties do better than others in Johnson County, Schneider said. Typically, the Sioux fares well in pecan shows.

“The non-natives have Indian names. The native pecans do fairly well, too, but the non-natives are larger and of better quality.”

In Hood County, according to Granbury Extension agent Marty Vahlenkamp, another factor has hurt this year’s pecan crop.

“Some of the storms last spring blew the little pecans off the trees,” he said.

A bigger factor, Vahlenkamp said, is the drought.

“We’ve been in pretty dry conditions since last fall. Even the orchards with 24-7 irrigation aren’t getting all the water during a drought that they need.”