We drove to San Simon this morning. We arrived at our friends, Penny and Brian's house by 11:30. Penny had chili and corn bread ready for lunch. Then we set off for the 3100 acre pecan orchard that Brian manages for FICO. He drove us through the orchard to see the various stages of harvest. There were big machines pushing leaves away from the plants into piles, then machines that came along to grind up the leaves and twigs, machines to shake the trees as the pecans fall off, and machines to scoop up the pecans. Finally, the pecans were poured into semi trucks and taken to the sorting building.
We put on ear plugs and I wore a mask in the sorting building. Semi trucks opened a bottom gate and dumped the pecans into an underground shaft. The pecans were fed onto a conveyor belt and began the sorting process, with sticks, leaves, and pebbles removed. The sorting continued so that the best pecans come out at the end, and are poured into large containers to be shipped to the Sahaurita plant of Green Valley Pecan Company (FICO) for shelling and shipping to customers. Brian was pleased that his yield this year at the San Simon Orchard is higher than last year. He is running a very well oiled operation of pecan harvesting. And they are delicious!
We got home about 5:15, with the sun setting and casting a glow across the Catalinas. Beautiful!
We put on ear plugs and I wore a mask in the sorting building. Semi trucks opened a bottom gate and dumped the pecans into an underground shaft. The pecans were fed onto a conveyor belt and began the sorting process, with sticks, leaves, and pebbles removed. The sorting continued so that the best pecans come out at the end, and are poured into large containers to be shipped to the Sahaurita plant of Green Valley Pecan Company (FICO) for shelling and shipping to customers. Brian was pleased that his yield this year at the San Simon Orchard is higher than last year. He is running a very well oiled operation of pecan harvesting. And they are delicious!
