Farmer Theresa Jereys Bright stands next to a piece of equipment used to sweep harvested pecans in a pile along the orchard floor, after which a harvester collects the nuts.
During harvest, a tree shaker, above, clamps onto the trunk and shakes the tree, showering the ground with pecans. As with other tree nuts, pecans have an outer hull or husk, right, that is removed shortly after harvest.
Pecans also show up in the store’s chocolate-covered pecan clusters, chocolate pecan bark and pecan chews, another concoction consisting of chocolate and caramel. Though Zwolski uses the original recipes developed by founders Irene and Floyd McIntosh when they opened the candy store in 1954, it was not until recent years that some of the candies began to feature California-grown pecans. According to Jeffreys Bright, it was the store’s second owner, Ethel Padgett, who first noticed Jeffreys Bright’s pecans at the Sunsweet Growers store in Yuba City and later connected with her about buying her pecans. Zwolski, who has been operating The Candy Box since 2018 as the third owner, said he’s only ever used Jeffreys Bright’s pecans, which are also sold at farmers markets and through her website. “Obviously, her pecans are fresh from her farm,” he said. “With her product, I know I’m getting this year’s crop.” Seeds of history Jeffreys Bright planted her first pecan orchard in 2006, after inheriting a farm that’s been in her family since 1876 ; s he adde d mor e p l a nt i ng s i n 20 08 . She
acknowledged her decision to grow pecans went against the norm, considering her region’s top crops are almonds, rice and walnuts. “I can remember somebody asking me, ‘Why pecans?’” she said. “And it’s like, well, if you can be on the leading edge of a trend, you have the ability to make a lot more money than if you’re on the trailing end.” Compared to the state’s more than 1.5 million acres of almond trees and the hundreds of thousands of acres devoted to walnuts and pistachios, California pecan plantings remain relatively small, with an estimated 3,500 to 5,000 acres , concent rated most ly in the nor thern Sacramento Va l ley and the southern San Joaquin Valley. Yet the pecan has a long history in North America and is the only commercial tree nut native to the United States. Archaeologists estimate fossils of pecan seeds and leaves formed near the banks of the Rio Grande date back to 6100 B.C. Wild pecans were a staple in the diets of Native Americans, who first cultivated pecan trees and introduced the nut to European explorers, according to the American Pecan Council.
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