History of pecans
From native to the North America, pecans are the member of hickory family and very close to walnuts. In early times, people used to consider them walnuts and mistake the difference. In seventeenth century the name Hicoria pecan was changed and made Carya illinoinensis. In latin they call it illinoinensis because they used to trade these nuts from Illinois to Atlantic coast.
The exact word pecan comes from Algonquin Indian word paccan which literally means a very hard nut which can be only cracked by stone. That is why they used to relate pecans with walnuts.
This term was first printed in 1773. Thomas Jefferson was the one who gave these nuts their due popularity and importance in United States. George Washington then planted these pecan trees at Mount Vernon as a tribute to Thomas Jefferson.
The Europeans had never seen a pecan tree till sixteenth century. This is because pecans were not made commercial until nineteenth century. In 1864 a Gardener named Antoine planted the tree after which the trees came became somewhat commercial.
Pecan trees have a life of thousand years and can be 100 feet tall. These trees are native to Mississippi and Indiana and southward to Mexico. There are literally thousands of kinds and variety of pecan trees and they can grow only in certain climates. In so many varieties, one type of it grows in Canada’s cold climate.
In Australia, the harvesting of these beautiful pecan trees started in 1960s. And the production in Israel was increased in 1970s. It takes more than ten years for a pecan tree to produce a fruit which can be commercially sold. Only one tree alone can gift you four hundred pounds of nuts in one year. So the time they take is worth it.