FLORESVILLE, Texas -- Pecans are a tasty Texas tradition, but producers News 4 WOAI talked with say the brutal summer heat this year took its toll.
Frank Rhew owns Rhew Orchards. It contains some 2,000 pecan trees. Rhew says his irrigation system got him through the drought, but the number of triple-digit heat days changed everything.
“The leaves just shut down and nothing happens,” Rhew notes. “They can't breath, they don't transmit the nutrients to the nuts.”
This day he is wrapping up his harvest. A harvest size he says is nothing to boast about, but he says he'll still have a good number of pecans for stores.
His trees supply H-E-B and he says customers can still expect good quality at the store, but prime pecans may be higher.
“Good-quality pecans, top-quality pecans may be a little more expensive, probably will be. They're in shorter supply,” he says.
Those top-quality pecans that are on the way to stores may go quickly. That's why this woman has come straight to the orchard to buy her's
Jan Schellhase came straight to the source to buy her pecans.
“This is probably my eighth, ninth or tenth bag that I have gotten this year,” she says.
Even though quality and quantity may not be what we're used to seeing in years past, growers say there will still be plenty of pecans in the stores for baking.
