Fudge Dipped Strawberries are BACK!

Starting today...February 1st...Fudge Dipped Strawberries are back at the Pecan Shed!!! These little bites of heaven are perfect for Valentine's Day. Place your order soon!

One dozen is $24.95
Half dozen is $13.50

Call us at 940-322-0756 to place an order. We are open Monday - Saturday 9am until 5pm.

Make sure you take advantage of our fabulous Fudge Dipped Strawberries. They are only available now until May 12th (Mother's Day weekend).

Hedging Pecan Trees January 2012

It is time to hedge your pecan trees. Jake and the crew out in Charlie have been busy hedging all the trees in the Home Orchard. This orchard is about 220 acres with about 8,000 pecan trees on it.

As you can see in the you tube video link below, we have come along way from hand clippers and ladders. We now have a 48,000 pound tree trimmer. This machine has six blades that are each 42 inches in diameter. The tree trimmer keeps all our trees cut about 35 feet in height. We also trim all the sides of the trees as well.

In order to have good pecan crop production, pecan trees need sunlight to penetrate the entire tree. Overcrowding and shading out cause reductions in crop sizes. For these reasons we prune and hedge our trees each year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSIghzOIlzE

Time to Plant

It is time to plant replacement or new pecan trees if you have a mind to do so. This time of year is when Jake and the guys plant all our trees. We buy our trees from Womack Nursery (www.womacknursery.com). This year we are planting about 2500 new trees to start another orchard located on some more land we bought in Charlie, TX.

We are mostly planting Pawnee trees but we will be trying other varieties as well such as the Waco, Kanza, and Oconee. One new such variety is called the Lakota. According to the Womack website, the Lakota is the "newest USDA release. A cross between Mahan and Major. Lakota is very resistant to scab disease with medium susceptibility to yellow and black aphids. Lakota has performed well in tests in northern production areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. Bears quick and heavily. Kernel is cream to gold in color. Shells easily to full halves. Nut is oblong oval with and acute point and rounded base (59 nuts per lb.) and 62% kernel. Vigorous tree, upright growth habit. Wind resistant tree with strong limb angles."

All our trees are approximately 5 feet tall and we use bare root for planting. Because pecan tree roots can dry out quickly and suffer from damage, we have a small window to get all our planting done. The guys out at the orchard are putting in long days to get all the planting done. These trees should be in production in about 8 years.

Freezing Fudge

Did you know you can freeze fudge?!?! Our homemade fudge can be frozen up to one year and then thawed and still taste just as delicious!

Here is the process...

Take fresh fudge (either by the piece or by the pan) and wrap it with an airtight material. Aluminum foil (heavy duty is best) or Saran brand plastic wrap. Other plastic wraps are actually not airtight like the Saran brand is due the the fact that the other brands have very poor moisture and vapor barrier properties.

Place the wrapped fudge in a plastic freezer bag and then remove as much as possible. Seal the bag and store it in the freezer until it is needed. The amount of fudge you place in each freezer bag should be the amount you would want to defrost at any one time. It is not recommended to freeze, thaw, and refreeze fudge multiple times.

The secret to successfully freezing fudge is in the thawing process. When you are ready to consume the fudge, remove it from the freezer. KEEP THE FUDGE IN THE PLASTIC BAG AND LET IT SIT AT ROOM TEMPERATURE UNTIL IT IS THAWED. For an entire pan of fudge, this process may take up to 24 hours. After the fudge has thawed, remove the it from the plastic bag and remove the foil or Saran wrap from the fudge.

If the fudge is removed from the plastic bag before it has come back to room temperature, moisture in the air will condense on the cold fudge and will thus make the top of the fudge sticky.

So now you can enjoy your favorite homemade fudge flavor year round! I know some of you love our Fudge Flavors of the Month and are sad to see them go. With the ability to freeze fudge you can enjoy any fudge flavor for many, many months!

Running Out of Pawnee Pecans

If you love the Pawnee pecan, then you need to hurry in and get them while they last! This is our most popular pecan due to its size and flavor. Because of the drought causing us to have a reduced crop size, we are almost sold out of the Pawnee pecans.

We still Pawnee available in the shell and cracked, but if you want shelled Pawnee pecans we only have a few 4 pound and 3 pound bags left. We are totally out of 1 pound bags. When this supply is gone, we will be out of Pawnee until next October.

We still have Cheyenne, Wichita, and Choctaw pecans available. The Cheyenne is a great pecan for baking...the Wichita has the most oil...and the Choctaw is our largest pecan and it is the easiest one to shell out.