September 1, 2013
McWilliams (Just Food; A Revolution in Eating) offers another entry in a growing field of books that trace the historical and cultural paths of a single food. Whereas these works were once the domain of academics, recent titles, including this one, are written in a style accessible to general readers. The author does an admirable job of telling the very American story of the pecan, starting with pre-Columbian times and arriving at the sophisticated and improved pecan that is produced today. According to the author, the scrappy pecan tree managed to survive and thrive despite early periods of harvest methods that thinned groves, a cotton industry that had landowners clearing forest for crops, and spring flooding. McWilliams weaves American history, agricultural history, and science into the story of the wild pecan groves and their transformation into an industrialized crop that some believe was saved by rising exports to China. While the author ends with some concerns about the future of the pecan, readers will be left with hope that the tree will persevere. VERDICT This excellent and charming story describes a tree that endured numerous hardships to become not only a staple of Southern cuisine but an American treasure.--Ann Wilberton, Pace Univ. Lib., New York
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 1, 2013
Pecans are America's native nut, one rarely seen outside North American kitchens. Although the New World readily exported tobacco, tomatoes, chili peppers, and potatoes to Europe, there was simply no market for pecans, perhaps because they seemed too similar to Europe's walnuts and because pecan wood is not generally desirable for lumber. From the beginning, pecans were harvested from the wild, but growing demand soon rendered such foraging obsolete. By the turn of the twentieth century, advances in grafting made pecan orchards possible, and the number of pecan trees increased exponentially, especially in Georgia. The invention of corn syrup gave birth to pecan pie, and the pecan became indissolubly linked with Southern cuisine. Recent years have witnessed a remarkable and hugely profitable resurgence in pecan cultivation due to explosive demand for the nut from China, where pecans' exotic novelty has transformed the humble nut into a coveted status symbol.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)