The weather was so beautiful over the weekend.  At one point I went looking for Mike, who was outside.  I found him  by the fence to the pasture making a new friend.  She was a lovely black cow who had a runny nose and an eye for Mike!

While approaching Mike and the cow, I found a pecan on the ground.  We started looking for more, and before we knew it, we had a bag full.

This brought back so many memories of my childhood.  Many fall weekends were spent picking up pecans or shelling them.  The entire family (all four of us!) would load up into the truck and head to a pecan tree in the pasture.  Sometimes we would have a picnic or stop by the pasture with the pomegranate tree (my sister and I would sell them for 10 cents each).

After picking up the fall harvest of pecans, my mom would spend months picking them out.  Her fingers would darken from the shells.  She would freeze them so we had plenty of pecans for recipes during the coming year.

I don’t think we picked enough pecans today to freeze or sell, but I do think I have enough for a pecan pie (using my mom’s recipe) and some chocolate chip cookies.  It is the task of shelling them that seems daunting to me now.

My Aunt Pinkie, who lived in Midland, had a huge pecan tree in her backyard and would always send me pecans.  I believe hers were papershells.  What a treat it was to always have pecans on hand for recipes and snacks.

Next weekend I hope we can gather more pecans for the freezer.  I will need some for Aunt Pinkie’s pumpkin log recipe and for her spiced pecan recipe.  Don’t you just love fall?