Pecan harvest begins at Lane Southern Orchards in Fort Valley

Farmers say favorable weather is helping produce a strong harvest ahead of this weekend’s fall festival.

FORT VALLEY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Pecan season is officially here!

Lane Southern Orchards is preparing pecans for their customers, providing 15 different varieties of pecans and looking for the best tasting and best quality.

A strong crop is expected this year due to a lack of severe weather damage.

The pecan harvesting process starts with shaking the pecans from the trees, gathering them and taking them to a processing plant.

Farm manger Tyler Wainwright says the harvesting process lasts from the beginning of October through late December. He says to prepare pecans for customers, they shake their trees twice per season to get at least 70% of volume per shake. 

“They come off based on variety,” he said. “And when you see them start cracking and you can pull them apart, you know they’re getting close to ready. Then a few days after that, a few will start dropping, and we’ll come in and shake them with a machine called a shaker, then blow them out into the middle of the field. Then we use a machine called a harvester with a sweeper on the front and it picks them up.”

Wainwright says they process all their nuts before serving them to customers. 

“We’ll take them to a cleaning plant,” he said. “First steps there… separate the good nuts from sticks, rocks and anything extra that might be coming in. Then we’ll dry those nuts down to a lower percentage of moisture where they will store better and taste better. Then we’ll put them in big sacks, and from there they’ll be shipped all over.”

He explains that while they have a great harvest now, weather damage can always change that. 

“There’s always the threat of a hurricane, and then you worry about knocking trees over, not just this year’s crop,” he said. “Also rain can delay harvesting.”

Lane Southern Orchards will host its fall festival this Saturday, October 18 from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., providing a corn maze, hayrides, arts & crafts and of course, pecans.