2019-11-01 Southern Living

My family and I were in Big Level,

Mississippi, to spend the holidays with

my husband Patrick’s relatives, and

that always meant one thing: pecan

time! Shortly after we arrived, my

brother-in-law Jamie pointed to a table

completely covered in shelled nuts.

“Well, do you think we have enough?”

he joked. ¶With help from his wife,

Bethany, and their three kids, he had

scooped up 90 pounds of pecans from

beneath the huge tree at Uncle Kendell

and Aunt Betty’s place next door. Then

they’d taken them to get “cracked and

blown,” which meant most of the shell had been removed, but the nuts still needed a

final cleaning to take out any lingering pieces and those bitter, corky parts. ¶Over the

course of our visit, we made memories around that table—gathering to tell stories,

laugh, and sip bourbon, all while painstakingly picking through (and nibbling on)

pecans. The little kids would sit in our laps and join in every now and then, filling

their cheeks like chipmunks. ¶I’ve always loved local pecans. When I was growing

up in small Mississippi towns, a wooden bowl of mixed shell-on nuts usually topped

our coffee table in the winter. Sometimes there would just be pecans—I knew they

were a gift from a kind friend or neighbor with a prolific tree. ¶Later, when Patrick

and I lived near downtown Birmingham about 12 years ago, we had a pecan tree in

our yard that proved fruitful around every other year. We’d sometimes notice people

stopping on the sidewalk to gather nuts, and it made us happy to see others appreci-

ate their worth too. These pecans might be longer and skinnier than the grocery

store ones, but those idiosyncrasies speak to terroir, to being a natural, untouched

product of your locale. And cracking them is part of what makes them special—like

opening a present someone gives you, as opposed to buying one for yourself.

The

Giving

Tree

If you’re lucky enough to live

near pecan trees, they will

bestow upon you a mighty

precious—and delicious—bounty

TEXT AND RECIPES BY Ann Taylor Pittman

PHOTOGRAPHS BY Antonis Achilleos

PROP STYLING BY Kathleen Varner

FOOD STYLING BY Emily Nabors Hall

SOUTHERNLIVING.COM / NOVEMBER 2019

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