Dusty Job...But someone has to do it!

Harvest season is in full swing here at the orchard, and there’s nothing quite like the rhythm of these November days. We’ve already made our first pass over most of our Pawnee trees, and now we’re circling back for round two. Even though it’s late fall, the weather has been so warm that the trees are still hanging onto their leaves. That means when the shakers move through, they’re not just knocking down pecans...they’re shaking loose a whole cloud of foliage too.

Once the shaker finishes its job, the sweepers take over. They crawl down each row, gathering leaves, limbs, and pecans into one long tidy windrow. It usually takes a couple of passes, but eventually everything ends up in a single line down the middle of the row...providing a clear path for the harvester to follow.

Once the harvester has passed, the row behind it looks almost swept clean, like a fresh start.  From there, everything heads back to the cleaning plant. That’s where we separate leaves and debris from the actual pecans and run the nuts through a series of sorting and sizing steps. By the end, those dusty, orchard-fresh pecans are clean, uniform, and ready for the next stage..

It’s not a glamorous process...shaking, sweeping, and harvesting kicks up plenty of dirt (that haze in your picture isn’t fog…it’s pure Texas dust!). But it’s one of the most important and satisfying parts of our year. Every pass through the orchard brings us one step closer to sharing another season’s harvest with all of you.