Blog Post – October 2024
When October finally comes around, I really start thinking pecans. This is the time of year that you begin to see Halloween, Thanksgiving and fall decorations hit the store shelves. Clothing catalogs appear in your mailbox featuring cozy sweaters and corduroy pants. Food magazines begin to showcase the classic pecan pie recipe. It’s my favorite time of the year.
When I was young, this would be the time of the year my father would “leave for the farm.” Our pecan farm was located about two and a half hours from our home in New Iberia, Louisiana. Papa would oversee the harvest and that meant, unless it was raining, he was there in Natchitoches, Louisiana, along the Cane River, making sure tractors, shakers and harvesters were ready to go, the orchard was swept of broken limbs, and his harvesting supplies were at hand. Getting the harvest “in” before the winter rains was the job. And what a job it was. Between managing the labor you needed to haul in the tons of pecans he grew, and keeping up with broken farm equipment and dodging weather, it was real work. But he loved it. He loved his trees, he loved being outdoors, he loved problem solving and he loved seeing his pecans picked, sorted and sacked and ready for the market.
I can still hear my brothers and I running though the dried pecan leaves on the orchard floor. It’s so noisy you can’t dare sneak up on anyone. It was the sound of October, the sound of fall, and the sound of my favorite time of the year.
Jady Regard, CNO – Chief Nut Officer, Cane River Pecan Company