by Boone Holladay, CEA – Horticulture Fort Bend County

Move over pumpkin-spiced products! Pecan flavored coffee and beers, pies and pastries, and a huge range of other pecan themed products are about to make it to the shelves. It’s pecan season in Fort Bend County and across the State. We’ve got big news to share with you concerning pecans in the county.

First off, we would like to spend a minute to congratulate local producers for their State award winning pecans! The 2014 Texas State Pecan Show, held in conjunction with the Texas Pecan Growers Association Conference & Trade Show was hosted this year in Frisco, Texas from July 12th through the 15th, 2015. State award winners from Fort Bend County included Pete Pavlovsky (3rd place Cape Fear), Bill Archer (2nd place GraCross and 3rd place Maramec), Reggie Ware (3rd place Shoshoni), Michael Weston (3rd place Podsednik), and Bill Birdwell (3rd place Success). To add clarity, samples from the 2014 county and regional pecan shows were held until the 2015 State pecan conference, thus it is entitled the “2014 State Pecan Show”, actually held in 2015.

Second off, we will be moving our 2015 program site away from the Bud O’Shieles Community Center in Rosenberg. The 2015 Fort Bend County & East Region Pecan Shows will be held at the Jones Creek Ranch Park Complex on FM 359 between Pecan Grove and Fulshear. This complex was formerly known as privately owned Gordon Ranch Event Center. It is now a Fort Bend County managed park space and event center and due to the geographic locale of many of our pecan orchards in the county, we think this site will be a great location for a pecan show. Contact our office or view our website for information on and directions to the Jones Creek Park facility.
The 2015 Fort Bend County and East Region Pecan Show will be held on Saturday, December 5th, 2015 from 9:30 to 11:00 am. Judged entries will be out for viewing and we will have an educational program on pecan production across Texas. As well, we will have a large assortment of pecan themed snacks and coffee provided by the Fort Bend County Master Gardeners and Fort Bend Farm Bureau. The event is free of charge, but bring your wallet as we will have pecan-themed gifts and new season local pecans for sale. The event flier is available at http://fortbend.agrilife.org.

Though this hasn’t been a bumper year for pecans in the county, we hope that you’ll enter your pecans in to the show. You may be our next big winner! Please keep in mind these shows are for everyone, large acreage to residential. One recent winner had only one tree! We’ll start taking entries on November 16th up until December 1st. For guidelines, rules, and regulations on the show, please visit our website at http://fortbend.agrilife.org or call Brandy Rader at (281) 342-3034. See you in December.