Texas Pecans, A Thirsty Nut to Crack

In “Texas Pecans, A Thirsty Nut to Crack,” Gravy producer Avery Thompson explores how a changing climate is impacting pecans in Texas, and introduces listeners to the innovative Texans using both age-old techniques and twenty-first-century adaptations to ensure Texas pecans make it to the grocery shelves—and into a Thanksgiving pie near you.

For about as long as there have been humans in what we now know as Texas, they have likely found sustenance in the land’s native pecans. For many years, Texas supplied the world with the bulk of its pecans—but in recent years, the state has seen unprecedented heat waves and droughts, which have stressed not only its residents, but one of its most vital and revered crops. Exacerbating the climate problem is an explosion in population across the state, particularly in central Texas, where urban sprawl from the growing cities of Austin and San Antonio not only puts pressure on the water table, but also offers a tempting cash-out for struggling pecan farmers.

Between drought-affected trees and the sale of farms, Texas is seeing a statewide decline in annual pecan yields. And climate scientists predict that these rough recent years are likely not an exception, but a new normal. Still, Texans are finding creative ways to adapt and preserve their trees and a way of life.

For this episode, Thompson talks to pecan growers, including Troy Swift of Swift River Pecans, who has turned to regenerative agriculture and biodiversity. She also speaks to Mark Walls of 38 Pecans, who has invented creative new pecan products to boost his business. Jennifer Wammack of Berdolls, a commercial bakery, tells how her family ships pies all over the world and distributes them through vending machines. And Thompson also visits the Lamar Senior Center in Austin, one of the last remaining nut-cracking facilities open to the public, where people come after gathering pecans on their own property each autumn. Hopefully, for many holidays to come, we can all enjoy a big slice of Texas’s state dessert.

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