Georgia has a problem. No, not the Georgia we all knew in high school......I mean the state of Georgia. Nutty thieves are running around stealing pecans. Laugh you may, but the pecan supply is in jeopardy due to a southern U.S. drought and the Chinese eating too many of the nuts. (Yes, here is one more American malaise to lay upon the Chinese.) If, between Mother Nature and the People's Republic of China, the pecan supply dwindles too much, how will we be able to eat pecan pies, tortes, and turtle sundaes? Even Grandma's apple-pecan coffee cake may be missing from the Christmas entertaining menu if the pecan purloiners cannot be thwarted.
Actually I do have some empathy for pecan growers. Growing up as a kid and all the way through high school summers, I spent most of my Junes, Julys and Augusts living - either at our summer home or with a neighboring family - on the Traverse Bay (lower Michigan) peninsula, East Bay. Traverse City likes to think of itself as the cherry capitol of the world (other areas around the country argue about this). Back then, life was different, the world was a much safer place and a group of us freely roamed the peninsula roads, on foot, during day-and-night free time. We walked everywhere, either to a destination or simply as a past-time, always past orchard after orchard, teeming with either cherries, apples, pears or plums. No kiwis, star fruit or kumquats in Traverse City. Tree limbs were literally within arms' reach but it was understood that you did not reach up and grab fruit from another person's orchard. Growers' ettiquette demands respect and recognizes ownership of each others' fruit. The fruits of their labors is food on the table for their families. You just do not pick other peoples' stuff unless you have permission or have arranged to pay for it.
The idea of pecan theft at first seemed funny but when I thought about it and read the Associated Press article in full (dated Thursday, November 24, 2011, filed by Russ Bynum) I realized that it is a viable threat to pecan growers to have brazen people bring ten-foot extension ladders into pecan groves just to shake the pecans loose with poles. Pecan grower Bucky Geer estimates that a single five-gallon bucket of pecans is worth about $38.00, with some pecans approaching a value of a nickel a piece. Now that's a lot of turtle sundaes, pecan pies and pecan tarts.
Let me leave you with this thought: During these Holly Daze, if you eat a pecan torte, indulge in a turtle sundae, or have the chutzpah to eat an entire pecan pie, think of the value you are consuming. Remember that those are not just lowly peanuts or walnuts but highly prized pecans.
That is just nuts.
Ancora imparo
