Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Oct.
17, 1931, Turf Play, p. 7.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce , a hit song from 1937.
Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Texas declared the pecan as the official state tree in 1919. Many areas of Texas and Oklahoma have competed for the title of Pecan Capital. San Saba has been called the Pecan Capital of the World since at least 1965.
Edmund Reisen pioneered the scientific growing of pecans in the area in the late 19th century. Sequin declared itself Home of the World s Largest Pecan since 1962 and also Pecan Capital of Texas, but a sculpture in Brunswick, Missouri is now the world s largest pecan. Evidence suggests that pecans may have originated in Texas along the San Saba River.
Fossilized nuts have been found in the area. Native Americans called the San Saba the river of nuts, and it had nothing to do with the local residents. Pecan trees grow in just about every corner of the state, with 70% of the state s counties claiming at least one commercial orchard.
When settlers came to Texas, pecan trees were so plentiful that they were chopped down for wood and land to plant cotton. By 1900, the pecan tree was in trouble across the state. If it hadn t been for a couple of horticulturists working independently to increase the commercial viability of the tree, it might have gone the way of the horned toad.
In northern Central Texas, J.H. Burkett s sons found a pecan that was bigger and thinner than the usual nuts.
After a search, they found the tree and grafted buds to seedlings. By the 1930s the Burkett papershell pecan was highly prized. The original tree still stands on the north side of I-20, one-half mile east of FM880, near the Eastland-Callahan county line.
About the same time, an Englishman named Edward Risien was traveling through Texas on his way to California. Along the river in San Saba he noticed the difference in the fruit between pecan trees. Risien stayed a while and experimented with different trees.
The result was the San Saba Desirable, and San Saba now claims title to the Pecan Capital of the World. Both trees led to the development of even better varieties of pecan trees. Proclaimed the state tree by the Legislature in 1919, the pecan tree produces a bumper crop every other year.
Even though Texas produced 70 million pounds of pecans in 2001, it still lags behind Georgia. Larry Newkirk says that the 2002 harvest won t be as big as last year, but it will be excellent quality. Far to the southwest, in Seguin, Texas, another nut claims to be World s Largest Pecan.
The giant pecan that sits in front of the Seguin, TX, city hall was the brainchild of a dentist, who wanted to put his plastering skills to civic use. Erected in 1962, the pecan is five feet long and 2 1/2 feet wide, and weighs approximately 1000 pounds. It was dedicated to Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer who was held captive on the Guadalupe, known then as the River of Nuts, for ten years.
He thrived on a diet of local pecans. Seguin began billing itself as Home of the World s Largest Pecan, a title it held for twenty years. So Brunswick s mighty goober clenches the official title, but for how long?
Seguin s puny replica has the backing of an entire town with apparently little else going for it: the city motto has remained Home of the World s Largest Pecan, regardless of how many postcards are mailed from Brunswick to Seguin s Chamber of Commerce. Brunswick s Pecan, hefty though it may be, is in a lightly traveled part of north-central Missouri, outside of town and off by itself. It s time for Seguin to build a bigger Pecan or for Brunswick to adopt Mad Hammer as the school mascot and kick Seguin in the .
...
well, you know. Life is simple in Seguin. The streets are perpendicular.
The people are friendly. A blackboard outside a restaurant reads simply, Special: Fish. Where else would one expect to find the largest monument to such an unassuming food as the pecan?
Well, in Missouri, actually, where a nut more than twice as large as Seguin s reigns as truly the world s largest. But, Seguin s pecan held the title for twenty years. Can t knock that.
The Seguin pecan measures approximately 5 feet, 2 inches long by 2 feet, 2 inches wide. It s dedicated to Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish explorer who was held prisoner on the nearby Guadalupe River in the early 1500s and, incidentally, whose name means cow s head. A plaque below the pecan, erected in commemoration to the first recorded contribution to the pecan literature, reads: Pecan Capital Of Texas Located on IH10, 30 miles east of San Antonio, Seguin is noted for its pecan harvest and home to True Women author Janice Woods-Windle.
Seguin, Tejas: the town famed author Sandra Cisneros (who lives in San Antonio) describes as having [a] nice sterling ring to it, like [t]he tinkle of money has quite a unique downtown tourist attraction. Poised atop a concrete pedestal in the middle of the courthouse s lawn rests a larger-than-life sculpture celebrating one of the town s native crops: the pecan. Mmmm-hmmmm.
That s right. Pecan are very much a staple fare of Texan cuisine. From pecan pancakes to pecan pies, pecan patties to pecan-crusted catfish, pecans reign supreme as a hearty native addition to any dish.
Texas 36th legislature proclaimed in 1919 that the pecan tree be the official state tree of Texas. And the 77th legislature (2001) continued the praise by declaring the pecan the official health nut of the state. SAN SABA COUNTY.
San Saba County (H-14, H-15) is in Central Texas in the Llano Basin region. Its largest city and county seat, San Saba, is ninety miles northwest of Austin and 110 miles southwest of Waco.
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