1. Growing
You have the land, you have the pecan trees, they’re irrigated, fed, and left in the sun to grow to their full potential.
2. Harvesting
Pecans trees are shaken to drop all the ripe nuts to the ground, then they’re gathered together with a lot of work and dusty effort, and brought to a processing facility.
3. Sorting
There are a few sizes of pecan nut varieties that can be processed separately. It’s important to remove any debris, then they are properly sorted by machines along with trained watchful workers.
4. Cleaning
Washing all the sorted nuts is important, and then creating the optimum moisture content for cracking is equally so. They are either lightly dried, or soaked for the best result.
5. Shelling
The shelling process cracks the shell from the inner pieces, leaving two pecan halves ready to go. Mosture at this stage is critical, and more watchful eyes remove any nuts that aren’t perfect.
6. Fulfillment
Packaging and shipping pecans is a big job alone. In the Southern US there are many shelling facilities that buy bulk pecans from trees nationwide, then process them and distribute themselves.