Pecans offer more than great taste.
Pecans. So Good. So Good for You.
Pecans are an excellence source of the monosatured fat that's recommended by heart-health experts.
Fun Facts
- The State of Georgia is the largest pecan producing state within the United States. We produces an average of 75 million pounds a year!
- The State of Georgia began producing pecans in the 1800's. Most Georgia pecan are grow in Middle and Southwest Georgia.
- Albany, Georgia, which boasts more than 600,000 pecan trees, is the pecan capital of the United States. Albany hosts the annual National Pecan Festival, which included a race, parade, pecan cooking contest, the crowning of the National Pecan Queen and many other activities.
- The pecan is native to the Mississippi Valley region in the U.S. The North American Indians discovered the in North America. the word pecan means "to crack with a stone".
- Can you imagine a pecan skyscraper? It would take 11,624 pecans, stacked end to end, to reach the top of the Empire State Building in New York City.
- Texas adopted the pecan tree as its state tree in 1919. In fact, Texas Governor James Hogg liked pecan trees so much that he asked if a pecan tree could be planted at his grave site when he died.
- It takes a magnificent tree to produce a great tasting nut. Pecan trees usually range in height from 70 to 100 feet, but some grow as tall as 150 feet or higher. Native pecan trees - those over 150 years old - have trunks more than three in diameter.
- Pecans came in a variety of sizes - mammoth, extra large, large, medium, small and midget. They also come in several forms including whole pecans, pecan halves, pieces, granules and meal.
- There are over 1,000 varieties of pecans. Many are named for Native American Indian tribes, including Cheyenne, Mohawk, Sioux, Choctaw and Shawnee.
- The United States produces 80 percent of the world's pecan crop.
