Fall Is The Season For Nuts
Kevin Felts 11.08.17
Not hose kinds of nuts, so get your mind out of the gutter. Early fall around late October and into mid-November is when nut bearing trees drop their fruit. This is an excellent time to gather those nuts for the winter.
Before the days of modern refrigeration, nuts such as pecans, walnuts and hickory provided important snack food and nutrients during the winter months. If you have ever been driving through the countryside and saw some pecan trees in the middle of nowhere, chances are there was an old homestead there. The house is long gone, but the pecan trees remain.
These fresh pecans give Thanksgiving and Christmas pecan pies an excellent taste. Store bought shelled pecans taste like they have some kind of wax coating on them. Pecan pies made with store bought shelled pecans fail miserably to fresh pecans shelled at home.
Gathering pecan and hickory nuts is a good way to teach children foraging skills. Take time and teach the children food does not come from the grocery store.
If someone would rather hunt than gather, these nut trees are going to be a favorite place for squirrels to hang out. So wild hickory trees should be an excellent place to hunt squirrels. Without doubt, every fall the pecan trees here on the farm have squirrels running through them. My granny had a rule never to shoot squirrels around her house, and that tradition is still carried on today.
After the trees drop their nuts, the squirrels will be on the ground rummaging through the leaves. If someone is slow and quiet, they may be able to sneak up on those squirrels when they have their head down.
Fall is a great time of year. The weather is cooling off, leaves are changing colors, squirrels are jumping through the trees and birds are migrating.
So get outside and enjoy yourself.
