Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 Cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 Cup buttermilk
• 1/4 Cup milk
• 6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg, separated
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Cup roasted & chopped Royalty Pecans*
• 1/2 Cup cinnamon chips

Directions

Preheat waffle iron according to desired setting.

Sift together all-purpose flour, corn starch, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, milk, oil, egg yolk, vanilla, and almond extract until well combined.

Using a mixer, beat the egg white until light and fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating until it’s thick and glossy, with stiff peaks.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the egg whites until no visible egg is remaining. Stir in the cinnamon chips and 1/2 Cup chopped pecans. Pour batter into the waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Sprinkle the waffles with the remaining pecans and serve with fresh berries and your favorite syrup!

This recipe was adapted from www.thekitchn.com.

*TIP: For an extra dose of buttery cinnamon crunch, use some of our delicious Cinnapecans instead of regular pecans!

What’s Happening on the Farm

• Tiny pecan flowers emerge from the growing tips of the shoots
• Pollination occurs
• Foliage is growing rapidly and nutlets are very slowly increasing in size
• Continue feeding and monitoring the trees
• Irrigate if necessary

May is usually the month when pollination occurs, but this year things started a little early. By the end of April, our pecan trees were pollinated. Now, as the growing season continues, we continue to monitor the orchard, mow, irrigate, and provide the trees with any nutrients they might need.

Pecans are pollinated exclusively by the wind, which means no insects are necessary. Since they don’t need to attract bees or other insects, pecan flowers are very nondescript and have no aroma.

On pecan trees, both male and female flowers are on the same tree. This is not at all unusual in the plant kingdom.

However, pecans are not efficient self-pollinators. For example, in some varieties the pollen from a tree is shed before the flowers on that same tree are receptive. In other varieties, the flowers are receptive before pollen on the same tree is shed.

So in an orchard situation, it is best to plant complementary varieties within three or four hundred feet of one another.

Since our farm is just outside of Bryan/College Station, we’re partial to this Texas-based team. The All Things Wedding blog displays a personal touch and a simple charm with an elegant setup. This blog belongs to All Things Planned, which provides full wedding planning and coordination services. If your event is in Central Texas, maybe you should make this the first site you visit! If you don’t need professional services, check out these next four sites for some unique ideas and helpful content.

2. DIY Wedding

This site aims to help you create “your dream wedding on a budget.” There are plenty of photos, tips, and ideas, but there are also helpful articles about planning a wedding and a budget. You can simply browse the site or create an account and participate in the forum. One of the best parts of this website is the “FREE Downloads” section. Not only do you get tutorials with photos, you also get to download templates for free!

3. Style Me Pretty

After browsing through this stylish blog, be sure to check out their new magazine. This site also features many inspiring photo shoots to spark your imagination, including a particularly romantic outdoor wedding shoot staged right here in our pecan orchard! (click here to see the post)

4. Snippet & Ink

This website’s tagline is “daily wedding inspiration.” There are many creative photo collages (called “inspiration boards”), photos of real weddings, and DIY ideas to show you how to think outside of the traditional-wedding-etiquette-box. This site would appeal to anyone who wants to create a unique and personal event.

5. Wedding Wire

This site features a comprehensive collection of vendors for various wedding services, along with reviews and ratings by other brides. While you may not find tons of inspiration here, you will find a helpful database that you can easily filter by location, size, price range, etc.  Plus, you can create checklists and get email reminders. This site is especially helpful to the bride who knows what she wants and is ready to start finalizing her plans. (check out our profile and reviews here)

Pottery Demo at Royalty Pecan Farms

Last weekend we welcomed local artist Marian Eide out to the pecan farm to do a free pottery demo on our back porch. Luckily the weather was beautiful! An overcast sky kept the sun from glaring down on us, and the gusty Spring wind kept the bugs away.

Our special guest brought her pottery wheel and plenty of clay. She also brought some of her own finished pottery. Several people took turns on the wheel, from adults to children.

One group brought blankets and enjoyed a picnic lunch on our lawn. After lunch, they enjoyed a wagon ride and guided tour through the orchard.

The event went very well, and we’d love to do it again! If you missed this event, just keep an eye on our event calendar for the next one or sign up to be on our mailing list.

Ingredients:

4 salmon filets (4 to 6 ounces each)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons chopped Royalty Pecans
1 teaspoon dried parsley (or 2 teaspoons fresh)
Wedges of fresh lemon

Directions:

Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper. Place skin side down on an oil-sprayed baking sheet. Combine mustard and honey, then brush on top of salmon. Mix topping of bread crumbs, nuts, and parsley and sprinkle over salmon. Bake at 400°F for 10 to 15 minutes or until flaky. Serve with fresh lemon wedges.

Per serving: 265 calories, 29 g protein, 9 g carbohydrate, 12 g fat (1.6 g saturated fat, 4.7 g monounsaturated fat, 4.3 g polyunsaturated fat), 78 mg cholesterol, 0.4 g fiber, 282 g sodium. Calories from fat: 42%.

Originally published in the November/December 2007 issue of WebMD the Magazine.

We invite you to send us your favorite original recipe that features pecans. You’re welcome to enter multiple recipes. We’ll choose winners in three categories: Healthiest Recipe, Best Dessert Recipe, and Most Creative Use of Pecans. The three winning recipes will be announced on April 28, 2012.

Prizes

Each winner will receive a $50 Royalty Pecan Farms gift card.

Deadline to enter

April 22, 2012

Contest Terms: To be valid, your entry MUST include your name, email address or mailing address, and a recipe that includes pecans. Photos are not required, but they are encouraged. Entries can be submitted on our website, by email, by mail, or in person at our gift shop on Highway 21. Entries must be received by midnight (CST) on Sunday, April 22, 2012. By submitting an entry, you agree to let us use your recipe in any way we choose and add your contact information to our database. We will not share your personal information without your consent. Click here to view our Privacy Policy.

• Budbreak occurs.
• The growing season begins.
• We’re feeding the trees and irrigating if needed.
• Pollen-bearing catkins will soon cover the trees.

It’s appropriate that April is National Pecan Month, since this is the month that typically signals the beginning of the pecan growing season. In our pecan orchard, budbreak has occurred and the leaves are emerging.

Later this month, the pecan trees will be covered in tassels called catkins. Each tassel contains hundreds of pollen-bearing flowers, which will be pollinated by the wind.

If you think eating a heart-healthy diet means you have to restrict yourself to bland, flavorless foods, think again. Delicious, satisfying foods like pecans may be just what the doctor (and your taste buds) ordered. A new research study conducted at Loma Linda University and published in the September 2001 issue of the Journal of Nutrition has confirmed what many pecan lovers have known all along.

The Loma Linda researchers, led by Dr. Joan Sabaté and Dr. Sujatha Rajaram, found that adding just a handful of pecans to a traditional low-fat, cholesterol-lowering diet can have a dramatic impact on the diet’s effectiveness.

When the Loma Linda study participants were on the pecan-enriched diet, they lowered their total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol twice as much as they did when they ate the American Heart Association (AHA) Step I diet. Just as importantly, the pecan-enriched diet lowered blood triglyceride levels and helped maintain desirable levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol compared to the Step I diet, which often unfavorably raises triglycerides and usually lowers HDL levels.

The study participants (a total of 23 men and women between the ages of 25 and 55, with normal to mildly elevated cholesterol levels) were randomly placed on either the Step I diet, recommended by AHA as the first line of therapy for individuals with elevated cholesterol levels, or a pecan-enriched version of the Step I diet. After staying on their initially assigned diet for four weeks, they then switched to the other diet.

What was in the pecan-enriched diet? The Loma Linda researchers actually replaced 20 percent of the Step I diet calories with pecans. Pecans were used in a variety of ways, from adding them to cereals and salads to using pecans as a savory filling for pasta dishes and other entrees. For the average participant, this amounted to about a handful of pecans each day, depending on the person’s total caloric needs.

After the study was completed and all of the results were in, the researchers discovered that the pecan-enriched diet lowered LDL cholesterol levels by 16.5 percent, more than twice as much as the Step I diet (which was down only 6.7 percent from the participants’ baseline levels). Similarly, the pecan-enriched diet lowered total cholesterol levels 11.3 percent, twice as much as the Step I diet (down just 5.2 percent). Triglyceride levels went down for participants on the pecan-enriched diet (by 5.7 percent) whereas they went up for those on the Step I diet (4.8 percent).

“We found that the pecan diet actually lowered bad cholesterol about twice that of the heart-healthy diet,” said Dr. Rajaram. Dr. Rajaram added that the findings related to HDL levels were significant as well. The Step I diet actually lowered “good” cholesterol levels (clearly an undesirable result), while the pecan-enriched diet showed a positive increase in these levels by 5.6 percent. Dr. Rajaram points out that pecans contain heart-healthy fats that help keep HDL levels from falling.

The government’s National Cholesterol Education Program notes that for every one percent reduction in LDL cholesterol, there is a 1.5 percent reduction in the incidence of coronary heart disease. Hence, the cholesterol-lowering effect produced by the pecan-enriched diet would correspond with a 25 percent decreased risk of heart disease, a disease that is currently the #1 killer of American men and women.

Pecans may help lower cholesterol while adding flavor, but what about the fat? Loma Linda researchers reported that although the Step I diet contained approximately 28 percent fat and the pecan-enriched diet contained 39.6 percent fat, study participants on the higher-fat pecan diet did not gain weight.  “It’s true that the pecan-enriched diet contained a higher percentage of fat; however, in our study, we did not see any weight gain in those consuming pecans,” Dr. Rajaram noted.

This is encouraging news for the millions of Americans trying (and in many cases, failing) to eat a heart-healthy diet. “Many consumers find low-fat, heart-healthy diets unpalatable and difficult to adhere to,” Dr. Sabaté said. “This study reveals that the addition of pecans to a basic heart-healthy diet can help lower total and LDL cholesterol levels, while maintaining the levels of HDL cholesterol. The pecans also add taste, palatability, and satiety, which can help people stick to a heart-healthy dietary regimen.”

Regarding fat content in the diet, the Loma Linda researchers are proponents of the so-called “Mediterranean diet,” in which foods that are high in unsaturated fats (such as pecans) play an important role in promoting and maintaining good health.

“The take-away message from this encouraging study is that a heart-healthy diet does not have to be bland and tasteless, and that simply adding pecans to such a diet can improve flavor and cholesterol levels at the same time,” said Mike Adams, the owner of Royalty Pecan Farms near Caldwell, TX, and Member of the Texas Pecan Board. “Everyone knows that pecans taste great, but scientific research is helping to uncover the incredible health benefits they offer as well.”

“Eating a handful of pecans will also provide you with nutrients such as vitamin A, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and several B vitamins,” Adams says. Pecans also contain a significant amount of gamma tocopherol, a unique form of vitamin E that can benefit intestinal health and have a protective effect for prostate cancer, according to research studies.

As Americans look for simple ways to improve their health, this new research offers hope. Adding a handful of pecans a day may lower cholesterol quite dramatically. So, add pecans to cereal, use them in salads and entrees, sprinkle them over fat-free yogurt or even eat them plain as a snack. Enjoy not only their delicious taste, but also the added health benefits!

Pecans have many health benefits. Not only can heart-healthy pecans lower your cholesterol, pecans are also a great source of antioxidants, fiber, protein, vitamins & more!

Other Resources: www.ilovepecans.org/nutrition.html www.tpga.org/nutritionupdates.html www.texaspecans.org/health.html