Easiest time to identify: Late summer when nuts are developing on tree
Harvest/forage: Early to mid-fall.
Identifying pecans and other hickories is pretty easy. The easiest time to identify the pecan tree is when the nuts are ripening on the tree. The green clusters are distinct and numerous. Once the nuts are ripe they will be their characteristic brown. During the winter though early summer months pecan trees can be identified by the pecan shell litter around the base of the tree. This is also a way to identify many other nut trees like oak.
Pecans are one of the most important wild foods. They can be gathered in large quantities with relatively low effort. The nut meat has the highest amounts of calories of any wild plant that I know of with 197 calories per oz. This is why many hunter gatherer groups we dedicate many weeks and months to collecting, processing and storing nut meat. They acted as important buffers for times when animal protein was unpredictable or unavailable. Not to mention that the meat is delicious and is a treat when all that is available is bitter greens or roots.
In Denton it is always a race to get the nuts before the squirrels do. Denton and the UNT campus are notorious for its squirrel population. I believe this population would not exist, at its current size, historically. Any long term settlers would have eaten the squirrels. I read in historical accounts that squirrels were responsible for significant crop loss and even guns could not kill all the squirrels.
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