A couple of years ago, while watching 60 Minutes or 20/20, Andy Rooney did a spot on mixed nuts. He purchased several different brands of mixed nuts, then dumped them all out, separated them into types of nuts, and counted them.
The brand made no difference; essentially, every can had roughly the same breakdown of types of nuts. Most of the nuts were peanuts and the rest of the order has slipped my mind, but the thing I remember the most is that the fewest of nuts were pecans.
Andy Rooney said this didn't surprise him, that pecans are the rarest and, therefore, the most expensive nut. It surprised ME. I would've thought walnuts or Brazil nuts (he didn't include Macadamias in his count - they don't put them in cans of mixed nuts) were rarer and more expensive than pecans. But that's probably because I LIVE in pecan country.
Specifically, my house is in a pecan orchard. But we see pecan trees throughout the area when we go on trips. My children can even recognize pecan trees just from the leaves and the way the branches grow. This area of the south really is Pecan Central.
Every Fall, we pick them. The children sell them and make spending/Christmas money. I shell them and pack them away in the freezer for my baking. They're so common for us that I substitute them in recipes that call for peanuts. They taste wonderful and freeze great. You can even thaw them and refreeze over and over again without damaging the nut or the flavor.
We love our pecans. Every kid in the neighborhood knows how to do the pecan stomp - how to position a juicy, ripe nut on the cement and jump on it just right to shatter the shell without mutilating the meat, a fine art in this neck of the woods. We roast them, candy them, butter and salt them, eat them for snacks, bake with them . . . and all free of charge if we get out there and pick each Fall.
On my way home from dropping the kids off at school today, I was sneezing and thinking about the layer of yellow pollen covering EVERYTHING. Car colors have been obliterated. I had to run the windshield wipers this morning to be able to see out of the van window. Last night, while taking Donovan out to tinkle, I made the mistake of laying my palm down on the deck railing. YUCK! It was covered in yellow dust.
Nothing gets by unscathed. It seeps into everything, including our lungs. It's more than a nuisance - it's a health hazard. All the children are feeling puny. Dane came home from baseball practice last night with such a bad headache that when I went into his room to take him a dose of Ibuprofen, his clothes were in a blob next to the bed and he was already halfway to dream land. Daelyn refused dinner last night and breakfast again this morning - he feels bad. Deanna's dragging around like the walking dead. I can't stop sneezing and, generally, am just sluggish. We all feel crumby and I'm sure the yellow sludge everywhere is playing a big part.
Then it hit me: this is the price we pay for those lovely pecans. The yellow pollen is pecan dust. I'm sure, in other areas void of pecan trees, they don't run into the Yellow Haze every spring like us. We have to suffer through the spring pollen to be able to enjoy pecans throughout the year.
It's a trade-off. Is it worth it? I guess it depends on which day you ask me. But, the bottom line is this: it is what it is. This is where I live, and I'm not moving because of pecan pollen. This is what the trees do, and I'm certainly not going to change them. It is what it is.
Time to pull out that extra dose of allergy meds.
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