Anyone else here have...

Do any of you have Pecan Tree's?? We have 4 full grown tree's and needless to say I have pecans coming out of my nose!!!! I have been shelling them out now for about a week and I still ain't done! Matter a fact they are still falling off the tree's,and the tree's are still loaded! Other than a hand held nut cracker or a hammer, what other ways do you shell them out?? My finger's are screamming for me to quit shelling, but the pile keep's on growing. Any advise on other ways of shelling them out??
TIA
Mollybee*Ü*

YES MA'AM. Bring them here;)

Mollybee, my mom has a couple of pecan trees. I picked up some and brought them to a place we have down here that cracks the pecans for 30 cents a pound. It is well worth it.
Have you checked around at any of the feed stores there? Maybe they have a cracker.

If you get real sick of it, you can send to me, too!!!!hehehe

no, no send them to me.
Mollybee, if you don't want to shell them all right away. Just bag them up and put in freezer....shell and all and they will keep and then shell them as you need them.If you have that many,get some sandwich size ziplock bags and sell em. Wish I lived closer, I would help pick up and shell for you. I bought a bag of shelled pecans in the store the other day and paid $6.99. Why is it,pecans always go up around the holiday season. I use alot of pecans and walnuts when I bake. Always running out of one or the other and sometimes both.

My 83-year-old dad cracks nuts every day - then sells most of them at the Farmer's Market. He uses a super-duper nut cracker - I've seen some on ebay. You might want to look there. He cracks a bunch in the afternoon, then picks out the nutmeats in the morning when everyone else is still sleeping. Here's a picture of my parents at the Farmer's Market:
http://davesgarden.com/showthread/52718.html

Lucky Lady having pecans but what work too' I remember as a child this time of year goin',as granny called it "Nuttin'"
We'd go down by the river and carry buckets to gather the pecans and walnuts' My favorite time of year too,fall' I can also remember setting on the porch in the evening with a hammer crackin'them too' Slow work but ooh so good,eatin' as ya crack,lol'
Mollybee,I would invest in a good nutcracker and save your hands and time,worth the $'
We have a old walnut tree but the squirrels own it,so seldom can beat them gathering,lol' Good luck' Sis'

No ideas on the shelling, but I saw a wonderful wreath made out of pecans in some magazine the other day. Hotglue some of those puppies to a straw wreath. You could even seasonalize (is that a word?) it throughout the year by poking other stuff in there....boxwood and berries for winter, sunflowers for summer and fall...ect (no ideas for spring, sorry).

Trish

I wish all of you did live closer to me and that way we could all get out there and pick up pecans and then sit and have a shelling out chat! Now that would be fun huh?! I would be more than happy to share them all with you, as you could carry home all you could pick up and shell out LOL

I think I will do some calling around here in town and see if there is a place that cracks them by the pound, I'd gladly pay 30cents a pound to have them cracked! The only investment I have made towards the pecan crop is the "pecan picker upper" that I bought about 3 years ago..that thing has really saved my back form having to bend over and pick them up, It looks like a slinkie on a metel rod(except it's thicker than a regular slinkie)and it does a wonderful job. We have lived here for about 8 years now and have had a few years that didn't produce as well as this year.
I have already picked up about 3-4 gallons so far, but like I said there are still waaayyyyy more than that still on the tree!
Wish I could send you all some! But with postage...it'd be pretty expensive don't cha think?

Mollybee - a pecan gathering and shelling party would be WONDERFUL!

But since we can't make it this year, see if you can find someone to crack them, and then sell some of your surplus to cover the cost of cracking the whole lot. I've bought lots of cracked pecans over the years, and was glad for individuals and farmers who were willing to share their surplus :)

Molly would you give an old man some pecans. Please hehe

Ok GRC, maybe a couple LOL

Molly, when I was growing up we rented from a man that owned about 30-40 houses all in the same neighborhood. He also had about 50-60 pecan trees. He would pay all the kids in the neighborhood 3 cents a lb. to pick up pecans. I used to put in a hand full of pecans and two hands full of rocks. The fun was to do it and get by with it. If any one got caught he wouldn't let you pick up any more. I never got caught. He must have liked me. He built a new house for me and my wife after we got married. Not mine of course just for us to rent. It did have a pecan tree in the yard.
When halloween would roll around each year and we went trick or treating people would get tricks because they would give us pecans. We had all the pecans we wanted from stealing them from the orchard that they stold they're from. I finally gave up trick or treating after I got married. I just didn't have time with holding down a job (back in those days 48 hrs) cleaning and cooking and raising the kids. I hated ironing and still do. Wish we would get a washer and dryer and some of those new clothes. I think they call them pressed permantly or wash and wear. I think you put them in the dryer and they come out already ironed.
Now the man that lived down next to the rail road tracks owned a pear orchard. It was fenced in. He also owned the biggest, meanest bull in any known part of the world and kept it in the orchard. Many would get treed by the bull. Not me. I figured out a way to them pears. My cousin and I teamed up. One of us would run along the outside of the fence and get the bull chasing us and the other would slip in from the other side and get the pears. I was the one running by the fence because he liked pears better than me. I can still hear my mother saying as I would go out to play 'NOW DON'T GO TO TIM'S ORCHARD THAT BULL WILL KILL YOU.'
Another memory is the muscadines that grew wild. Girl they were ever so good. Now we weren't stealing these they were over in some woods where we played. We would climb the trees that the vines had run up on and eat until out mouths was raw. Cram our pockets full and eat more after we got home.

What a wonderful story Jim! You are too funny, I can just picture you running along that fence with that bull hot on your tail.That is just soo funny, It's a good thing there wasn't a hole in the fence or else he would have treed you also LOL Thanks for the great story, you really had me LOL! your a hoot!!