Pecans, and other nuts

“The morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry’s cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.”

So wrote Emily Dickinson in her poem, “Nature.”

We’re in the midst of Fall. People are going “nutting,” hunting for hickory nuts, picking up pecans, waiting for walnuts to fall. Acorns are in ample supply. And we can almost hear the voice of God saying, again: “I have given you every plant yielding seed…and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” God, through the world of nature, supplies for the needs of all his creatures, animal and mankind alike!

HICKORY NUTS. The use of hickory nuts dates back to the Early Archaic Period (c. 8900BC); hickory nut residue being found at the Modoc Rock Shelter in Illinois. When Europeans arrived in America, they found Hickory nuts in common use among the Indian tribes. Hernando DeSoto reported finding large store of nut oil. Oil from hickory nuts was used as food, as a drink (hickory milk), and as medicine. Our word “hickory” derives from the Powhattan Indian word “pokahichary.”

According to a Powhattan myth, when a person died, they were met by a goddess who guided them from the grave to the rising sun; along the way she served the person a drink made from hominy corn and hickory milk.

In the 1770s, large fields of cultivated hickory nut trees were observed near Augusta, Georgia. Today, there are 13 varieties of hickory nuts found throughout the United States; in Missouri, the shagbark hickory and the shellbark hickory produce nuts delicious to the taste.

PECANS. The pecan tree belongs to the hickory-tree-family. Pecans, Like hickories, date back to pre-historic times. Our word pecan comes from the Indian word “pacane”, which means “nut to be cracked by a rock.”

The first we hear of pecans is in the diary of a Spaniard shipwrecked on Galveston Island in 1540. Hernando DeSoto, in his travels in the 1700s, notes the importance of pecans in the Indian’s diet. Later in history, the French settled New Orleans. It was the French who gave us Pecan Pie and Pecan Pralines. In the late 1770s, both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had pecan orchards.

In modern times, southern orchards produce some 250 million pounds of pecans each year. Pecans are the only nut tree native to North America.

WALNUTS. Walnuts, too, have a lengthy history, dating back some 8,000 years. Petrified shells of roasted walnuts where found in excavations in southwestern France, dating from the Neolithic Period. The Chaldeans, around 4,000 years ago, had walnut trees in the famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon. In Greek mythology, Dionysus fell in love with Carya; when she died, Dionysus transformed her into a walnut. The Romans called the walnut the “Royal Nut of Jove (king of the gods).” Walnuts have long been used for food; their juice used as a dye.

Joseph Sexton, in 1867, planted some walnut groves in southern California. Today, California produces 99% of all walnuts produced.

ACORNS. Acorns are the basic food for deer, for squirrels, and for other wildlife.

As we gather for holiday feasts, we might partake of hickory-nut-bars, pecan pie, or enjoy walnuts in a salad. Give thanks to God, who in His wisdom provides so well for all of us, and for all His creatures.

Dr. Don Kuehle, United Methodist, Retired