Name: _________________________ Date: ________

In a Nutshell!

A portfolio of the history, production, and nutrition of pecans.

Name _______________________________ Date ___________

Pecan History

1. Pecans trees are native to Northern America and their history can be traced back to the 16th century. These native trees were wild trees that grew along rivers, lakes, or any large source of water.

2. Pecan is an Algonquin word, the Native American Tribe, meaning nut requiring a stone to crack. Because pecans were close at hand many tribes used wild pecans as a major food source. Also it is believed that the Native Americans were the first to cultivate or plant and grow pecan trees. If you look at the map on the next page you will see a small patch of pecan trees in Mexico that are believed to be cultivated by the Apache. Not only did Native American tribes eat the pecans, they used the wood to make bows and made oil by boiling pecan pieces in water and straining the mixture.

3. Through trade pecans became very popular in the U.S. and the world. They were dispersed up through Illinois and through the New Orleans and San Antonio ports. In the 1770’s pecans even made their way to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both planted pecan trees on their plantation. Those trees are still standing today!

4. Back in the 1700’s pecans were actually called the Illinois nut because of the trade through Illinois. Later the pecan’s scientific name became Carya illinoinensis.

5. It wasn’t until the late 1800’s farmers began cultivating pecans in orchards. In 1914 Dr. Fabian Garcia, the first director of the New Mexico State University Agricultural Experiment Station, planted a small orchard with about 18 different varieties of pecans. About 18 years, later Deane Stahmann created Stahmann Farms Inc. where he and his family planted more than 100,000 pecan trees.

2

Name _______________________________ Date ___________

Fill in the timeline blanks and answer the questions below to summarize the history of pecans.

1. Deane Stahmann planted _________________ acres of pecan trees in 1932.

a. 100 b. 1,000 c. 50,000 d. 100,000

2. What Native American Tribe does the word ‘pecan’ come from? _________________

a. Apache b. Navajo c. Algonquin d. Comanche

3. Looking at the map list 3 places that pecan tree originally came from.

1500's Native Americans used and ______________ wild pecans

1600's - _______s English settlers planted pecan trees (1700's) George Washington planted ________ trees (1775) Thomas ____________ planted pecan trees (1779)

1800's - 1900's Pecan orchards are farmed (1880's) Dr. _____________ Garcia plants ________varieties of pecans (1914) Deane Stahmann creates Stahmann Farms Inc. (19______)

3

Name _______________________________ Date ___________

Write a creative story to describe how the Native Americans traded the pecans to our Founding Fathers (George Washington and Thomas Jefferson). Draw a picture to illustrate.

4

Name _______________________________ Date ___________

Pecan Production

Farm to Table

Put the steps of how a pecan gets from the orchard to your table.

1. _______

2. _______

3. _______

4. _______

5. _______

6. _______

7. _______

8 _______

A. After buying them they are ready to eat or baked into a pie!

B. The farmer will sweep the pecans into

a windrow.

C. A grafted pecan tree is planted in an orchard.

D. During the harvest a farmer will shake the trees to knock the pecans off the branches.

E. The pecans are packaged and ready to be sold.

F. The pecans are taken to a cleaning and shelling plant.

G. The harvester picks up the pecans and blows the sticks and leaves out of the way.

H. After 7 years, the pecan tree starts producing nuts.

5

Name _______________________________ Date ___________

Grafting a Pecan TreeGrafting: There are certain tree varieties with high quality nuts that often have weak roots. Varieties with strong roots have poor quality nuts. To get high quality nuts on strong roots, pecan farmers insert a scion from a high quality nut variety into a strong rootstock variety. This procedure is called grafting.

Definitions: Scion – a young shoot or twig of a plant that will be inserted into a planted tree or stem. Rootstock – the bottom plant that is in the ground and that the scion is inserted into. Graft – where the scion is inserted and heals to the rootstock to become 1 plant.

Draw and label the finished graft using the vocabulary words from the box.

Rootstock Scion Thumbtack Tape Graft

6

Name _______________________________ Date ___________

Pecan Nutrition

This or That?

Pick which snack is healthier and explain why?

1. Nutrition FactsServing Size ¼ cup (22 units)

2. Nutrition FactsServing Size 1 units

Amount Per Serving Amount Per ServingCalories 188 Calories 178 Total Fat 19.6 g Total Fat 5.26 g Saturated Fat 1.7 g Saturated Fat 1.3 g Trans Fat 0 g Trans Fat 3.6 gCholesterol 0 mg Cholesterol 10 mg Sodium 0 mg Sodium 153 mg Total Carbohydrate 3.8 g Total Carbohydrate 32.5 g Dietary Fiber 2.6 g Dietary Fiber 0.5 g Sugars 1.1 g Sugars 25.7 gProtein 2.5 g Protein 1.37 g

I chose number ________ because . . .

7

Name _______________________________ Date ___________

Making Trail Mix!!

Write out the recipe of your trail mix. In the box below there are different measurements that can be used.

Ex. ½ cup of pecans 1 tsp. of raisins

/ ________ of _____________

/ ________ of _____________

/ ________ of _____________

/ ________ of _____________

/ ________ of _____________

Tsp Tbsp Cups

8