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Pecans

The pecan’s history in Texas dates back “65 million years, though it was not until about 16,000 years ago that it began to receive serious attention,” writes James McWilliams in a book excerpt published by Texas Monthly in 2013. “Although the Native American inhabitants of what we now call Texas never established pecan orchards per se, evidence suggests that they dispersed pecan seeds along riverbanks and visited these sites annually, doing their best to corner the market before the squirrels arrived.” McWilliams wrote about the nut in his book The Pecan: A History of America’s Native Nut in part because of China’s growing obsession with the pecan. “In 2000 China was so unfamiliar with pecans that it didn’t have a word for them,” he wrote. “Today it purchases nearly 100 million pounds a year, about a third of the entire United States crop.”

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Recipes|
May 8, 2023

Pecan Pie Bars

While her expertise is cookies, Tiffany Chen (of Tiff’s Treats fame) offers a dessert that brings together cookies and pie so you don’t have to choose.

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Old framed photographs of the Harkey family.
True Crime|
December 9, 2014

A Tree Is Known By Its Fruit

When the 85-year-old matriarch of a prominent pecan-farming clan in San Saba was murdered, her death shook the town—and exposed how obsession and greed can fell a family from within.

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Recipes|
January 20, 2013

Glazed Pecans

1/2 cup water1/2 cup sugar2 dried red chiles1 cup pecan halves1/4 cup molassesPreheat oven to 250 degrees. Combine water, sugar, and chiles in small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add pecans and return to a boil. Lower hear and simmer 10 minutes.Drain pecans, place on cookie sheet,

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Business|
March 1, 1996

Tough Nuts to Crack

Marketing the Texas pecan like the California raisin seems to make good business sense. So why do small Texas growers think it’s a shell game?

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