Yep, an excellent way to spend time in the backyard. Still is.
Good way to spend time watching a football game.
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Cabeza de Vaca’s men were damn near starved to death by the time they made it to the native Texan pecan groves.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer shipwrecked on the Texas coast in 1528, encountered pecan trees during his four-year journey among Native American tribes, which he described as a significant part of their diet and a defining feature of the landscape. He referred to the Guadalupe River as the “river of nuts” due to the abundance of pecan trees lining its banks, a name that reflects the region’s rich pecan resources.
- Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, including Andrés Dorantes, Estevanico, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonaldo, lived among the Mariames and other tribes who gathered and processed pecans, likely using tools such as ground stone manos and metates or wooden mortars and pestles.*
- The pecans were a vital food source, and their consumption was central to the survival of the castaways during their time in captivity and subsequent journey.*
- The area around the Guadalupe River, particularly near Victoria and Seadrift, is now associated with this legacy, with modern-day sites like Riverside Park in Victoria evoking the scene of Cabeza de Vaca’s reunion with his companions, where they likely gorged on pecans.*
- The pecan’s significance is further commemorated in Seguin, Texas, known as the “Pecan Capital of Texas,” where a monument named in honor of Cabeza de Vaca stands as a tribute to his description of the region as a land of abundant nuts.*
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I wonder how many towns claim to be the “Pecan Capital of Texas”?
All of them.
All except Vernon.
I’ve got a huge beautiful native pecan in the yard at the Marble Falls place that’s loaded with nuts almost every year. But man, you talk about a lot of work for little reward trying to shell those things.
#2 is mine
So the internet says that Seguin lays claim to “Pecan Capital of Texas”, and boasts the World’s Largest Pecan Statue(?)
San Saba claims to be the “Pecan Capital of the World”, and has a sign leading into town to prove it.
2 is the way.
For me, it was picking and snapping green beans from the garden. That was always a kid’s job.
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Yes, that too.
and shucking corn
We did a lot of that too.
Both my grandparents raised their own veggies.
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Both of my grandparents had nice vegetable gardens. And they grew from seeds. They didn’t fuck around.
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I didn’t mind picking and snapping beans or shelling peas. It was picking strawberries that sucked donkey balls, even though it allegedly “built character”.
Back in the 60s there used to be a strawberry farm just south of Houston. They would supply you with a gallon bucket and let you pick your own. My dad would haul us out there and we’d each pick a gallon. I would probably eat one for everyone that I put in the bucket. I don’t remember it being unpleasant in any way. I do remember us making strawberry preserves out of the pickings.
I don’t know what prompted us to make the trip from San Antonio so often, but the Poteet Strawberry Festival was a common childhood day trip. I don’t have any particularly specific memories, but I do have a general nostalgic fondness.
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There used to be strawberry fields all over Pasadena. They’re long gone now though. Strawberries grow on the ground, which means you’re either bending over or on your hands and knees all day. And I guess picking a gallon occasionally for fun would be one thing, but we’d be out there all day in the sun, with my grandmother barking at us. It was like a job. I hated it.
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My Grandmother had a little 2 acre garden. She broke me from ever wanting to be a farmer. Hoeing peas in late June, no thank you.
The only thing I hated about picking green beans is that Mother would always wake me up so damned early. “Get out these and pick those beans before it gets hot.” Ma, it’s 7 a.m. and it’s already 90°. Waiting another hour ain’t gonna hurt. (I said inside my head, never out loud.)
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