Night Elf Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 I have a pecan tree next to the house. When we do get the pecans out of the husk, they don't look like the kind of pecans I can buy at the store. These have a stem. The problem is that they are super hard to crack. I have to beat them with a hammer and it's still hard to pick out the meat. I'm assuming the squirrels are getting these nuts. How on earth do they open them? They are so tough to crack! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 We had them in Tx--great fun! We whacked them with hammers and actually gathered enough for a fabulous pie--it's one of my boys' favorite memories of living there. I wonder if the squirrels drop them from the trees to crack them, like seabirds with clams! lol Watch out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Sounds like a similar problem to the black walnuts my grandmother had. Not only would the husks stain everything they touched dark brown, once you got them out they were almost impossible to crack. I actually knew people who would run over them in the driveway with their cars! Tasted great, though. :) For pecans, I seem to remember her using an inertia nutcracker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plansrme Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Could they still be green? Does the husk pretty much fall off, or are you having to essentially peel them? If you have a variety not suited for your location, they could be falling off of the tree before they are ready, I suppose. I dunno--I grew up with pecan trees, and we never had problems cracking them. We could always put two of them in the palm of our hand and squeeze them together to crack both nuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*lifeoftheparty* Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Growing up in Louisiana, we had pecan trees everywhere.... Everyone (we knew anyways) had these benches that opened up to store the nuts, and at the front was a nutcracker with a lever. You sat on the bench, put the pecan in the spot, pulled the lever, and voila! perfectly cracked pecan. Every household also had a small hand cracker. I have fond memories of playing all day and just snacking on pecans we picked up off the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*lifeoftheparty* Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Could they still be green? Does the husk pretty much fall off, or are you having to essentially peel them? If you have a variety not suited for your location, they could be falling off of the tree before they are ready, I suppose. I dunno--I grew up with pecan trees, and we never had problems cracking them. We could always put two of them in the palm of our hand and squeeze them together to crack both nuts. Yep. That's what the "older boys" did. When we picked them up off the ground, it was the brown shell- no green husk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Yup our tree pecans are the same. I brush off the "skeleton" and soak the nut over night before baking it on low in the oven. This makes crispy pecans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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