National Pecan Month

Markus Brunner, Germany

April is National Pecan Month in the United States.

Pecans are a type of hickory tree that is found in the southern U.S. and northern Mexico, and the fruit harvested from them is also called the pecan. Pecan trees are cultivated, primarily in Georgia, Texas and Mexico, and are one of the most recent domesticated crops, with commercial growing only starting in the late 19th century. Pecans were eaten for hundreds of years prior to that, of course, but these were wild pecans rather than domesticated.

Pecans, like many things called nuts, are not botanical nuts but actually a type of seed. They are a popular snack food and are also used in pecan pies, a traditional dish of the southern U.S. Like many nuts, both culinary and botanical, pecans contain a lot of useful nutrients.

National Pecan Cookie Day

National Pecan Cookie Day is on September 21st in the United States.

Like so many nuts, whether culinary nuts or true nuts, pecans can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. Pecans themselves are culinary nuts, not true nuts, as the fruit is a drupe, or a fruit with a single stone or pit that is surrounded by a husk.

The pecan tree is native to Mexico and the United States, and the nut is a common ingredient in dishes from the Southern US.

The pecan cookie, or biscuit in other countries, is a small baked treat, usually flat, made from eggs, flour, sugar and a type of fat, whether butter or cooking oil, with other ingredients perhaps mixed in. In the pecan cookie, the other ingredients are, naturally, pecans, which are a good source of various nutrients, and have a buttery taste.