Harvest season

as some may know, i work on a pecan orchard. keny runs it. we are about four weeks into the harvest season now. i have been photo documenting the work we do and collecting various thoughts about it. this is the hardest work i have ever done but it has been one of the best experiences of my life. once i get my thoughts collected, i will elaborate more about it.

tree shaking

keny shakes the pecans loose from the trees and they are picked up with the harvester

dumping the hopper

after the pecans have been harvested, they are emptied into large boxes.

the "nut hustler"

once brought from the field, the nuts are then loaded into the nut hustler where they begin the cleaning process

cleaning

the pecans run through the hustler and most of the bad ones are blown out. depending on the weight, some bad nuts still get through. they are run through the hustler up to three times to remove the bad nuts.

bagged or boxed

if they are going to be sold wholesale, the nuts are weighed into 100 pound sacks directly from the hustler.

storing the nuts

the pecans are stored in boxes or bags until they are ready to be cleaned one more time and sold.

cracking

the final step before selling the pecans is to clean them one last time. they are run through the cracker and the last of the bad ones are picked out. the pecans are then weighed into ten pound sacks and shelved until sold.