By Kerrie Lush
Growing pecans is not recommended for the impatient – it’s taken Dave Otto de Grancy 11 years just to get to the point where he thinks he might actually break-even on a crop.
But he’s in it for the long haul on his block at Monash in the Riverland.
“My wife’s cousin is a pecan grower in Illinois and he’s got trees that are producing that are more than 150 years old,” Dave says.
“I think the oldest producing pecan tree is around the 450 year mark.
“We’re in our 40s so we’re kind of looking at our son to be the one to benefit the most out of what we’re doing.”
Dave and Stacy’s Pecan trees at Monash in the Riverland
This year, Dave and his wife Stacy expect to pick about one tonne of nuts off their nine acres of pecan trees (about 355 in total with about 200 in production).
“We’ve just really hit our first commercial crop – they’re not in full production by any means at this point but we should pick a bit over a tonne, we’re half way through harvest now and we’ve got 670 kilograms,” he says.
“We’re really excited because last year we had a 430kilogram crop in total, so the crop is expanding dramatically.”
Dave expects his trees to hit full production of about 15 tonne in about four or five years.
Until this season, the Otto de Grancys were cracking and shelling their crop by hand under their outdoor pergola at the cracking pace of about one kilogram an hour.
Thanks to a grant through the South Australian River Murray Sustainability program, Dave says he’s been able to fast track his business by about 10 years – and maybe prevent RSI in his hands.
A new shed and processing facility has meant they have been able to increase that output by about 500kg an hour.
“We’re still hand picking, we’re just knocking them down with PVC pipe,” Dave says.
“But next year I think I might have to get a shaker in – it’s a lot of work for my parents. I still work full-time so poor old Mum and Dad have been out there picking away every day.
“Dad’s out there on an elevated work platform or a cherry picker whacking the trees – it’s a lot of work.”
After cracking and shelling, the pecans are packaged and sold under the Southern Sky Pecans brand – Dave also sources pecans through two other local growers and is working on setting up another five Riverland growers.
The nuts are sold to six outlets in the Riverland and Dave is hopeful this year’s crop will be large enough to be able to sell at the Riverland and Mount Pleasant Farmers Markets on a couple of occasions.
He’ll also sell at his shed where he’s developed a themed shop-front, straight from the mid to late 1800s.
Dave’s shed where he’s built a themed shop-front, straight from the mid to late 1800s, to sell his families pecans.
“We’ve got no interest in exporting our product. We feel that the best produce in Australia generally heads overseas so we want our products to stay on the shelves for the Australian consumer – that’s a promise that my wife and I have made to ourselves,” he says.
“We may not be able to grow the big commercial crops like they do on the East Coast but the quality of our pecans are sensational.
“The flavour, the size, the colour – we know we can grow very high quality pecans here so that’s excellent.”
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