When we lived near Havana (pronounced Hay-Vanna), Florida, surrounded by acres of pecan groves, I never gave much thought to what happens to those shells that pecans (pronounced Pee-Cans) give up for the sake of pecan pie eaters and fanciers of other sweet Southern delights like pralines. Now I know.
They become mulch for consumers of another sort--the gardening kind. We had a couple of pickup truckloads delivered right to our yard a few weeks ago. The guy selling the stuff had an ad on the Pensacola Craigslist site. He said he has a contract with the Renfroe Pecan Company to pick up all of their spent shells. Way to go, pecan-shell guy! That's using your noggin. Find a company with a useful waste product, help them dispose of it, and make some money on the deal. He told us that we got the last two loads of the stuff. His girlfriend was real happy to see it go away as she can park her car once again in their driveway. I'm happy, she's happy, pecan-shell guy must be happy now that she's happy, and (best of all) the plants are happy. It's just a happy ending all around.
