- [Narrator] Oklahoma Gardening is a production of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the land grant mission of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

Dedicated to improving the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma through research based information.

(air whooshing) Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

While the garden is shutting down, we can't help but continue to talk about plants.

Today, we finish out our season as we see how those must-have holiday Oklahoma pecans are processed.

Shelley Mitchell has another plant kit that might be the perfect gift for kids.

David Hillock has one more plant to consider adding next season.

Jessica Riggin shows us how to incorporate pecans into more than just dessert.

And finally, I give you a sneak peek of what we will be working on for next season.

(relaxing music) - Almost like an ombre of sunset colors.

(relaxing music) - All season long we've been following the Oklahoma pecan crop and today we are here to see how that pecan goes from the tree to our store shelves.

As we enter the holiday season, I know a lot of people are gonna be looking for pecans.

And joining me today is Jared Miller with Miller Pecan Company.

Jared, thanks so much for having us today.

- Oh, Thank you for coming.

- Yeah.

So we're here up in Afton, - Yes.

- At your storefront, but you guys have a lot of product that you sell.

Tell us a little bit about how those pecans get from the tree to you guys.

- So we have to, we have relationships with growers and everything, and we'll go out to the growers and purchase pecans there and bring them into here.

And that's where the real process starts of trying to get 'em put into the bag.

- (Casey) And so they come in in these giant super sacks right?

- (Jared) Yes, yes.

So when we bring the super sacks in, the first thing we'll do, we'll size them.

We'll size them down to 1/16th of an inch diameter so we can get the optimal crack.

We're trying to make as many halves as we can because halves are sought after more than pieces.

Once we size them, they'll go to a sanitizer, which kill any kind of bacteria, E. Coli, anything.

- (Casey) And so that's just a large vat that they get cooked in?

- (Jared) Yeah, it's just a large hot water bin.

And we submerse 'em down in there for a period of time and to make sure everything is killed.

- (Casey) Okay.

- (Jared) And when we bring 'em out of there, they'll go straight to the crackers and start the cracking process.

- Well, I know a lot of times pecans have to be dried down, so let's talk a little bit about the moisture, and if you're dipping them in water, how does that affect them?

- So, when we do submerse 'em in the water, that will increase the moisture which we want to increase a little bit to crack 'em to try to get more halves.

And afterwards, after they, before they go to the inspection room for final inspection, we have to dry them on down and get 'em down to 4% so they don't mold in a box or a bag or on a shelf.

- (Casey) Okay.

All right.

So then it's off to cracking.

Tell me a little bit about what that process is.

- (Jared) So the cracking is really cool machines, they run off air and electricity, both.

And the air is actually what cracks the pecans.

- (Casey) Oh.

- (Jared) And when the pecans get to a certain rotation in the machine, a little big burst of air will hit a little metal pocket and just crack the pecan.

- (Casey) Okay.

And so the whole point is to just crack the shell not the actual nut, right?

- (Jared) Yes.

- (Casey) You want a large as nut as possible.

- (Jared) We wanna set those crackers just right.

- (Casey) Okay.

Alright.

So it kind of will divide all of those pieces up then?

- (Jared) After they go through the crackers, they'll go up through a sheller and it's a round turret that's beating the shell off the halves.

And then they drop down into a sizer which will size them into all different size pieces and halves.

- (Casey) Okay.

And in that process, what's happening to all the shells?

How do they get outta there?

- The shells are getting sucked away by air a little bit at each stage.

And then we get the remainder of the shells with eye machines using infrared technology.

And finally they'll go across an inspection table.

And still, today a human eye still looks at all of them before they go in the box.

- (Casey) Okay.

I know even some of those processes you still have a little bit of shell so it keeps getting finer and finer tuned right?

Is that the process?

- (Jared) Yes.

Yeah, we're just trying to get a little shell out at each step.

Otherwise if you try to take too much shell then you're gonna be wasting a lot of your good nut meat.

- (Casey) Right.

And even some of the pieces that might have a little bad, do you try to get as much good off of them as possible?

- We do.

We try to recoup everything we can.

- Okay.

- I mean, you can't get everything.

You still have mill loss, but you try to get it all.

- But that's how you go from a whole half to some of these pieces, right?

- Yes.

- Which are still tasty as ever, so.

- Yes.

- Okay, well thank you so much.

And basically then at that point they go into packaging?

- Yes.

We'll either package in one pound bags in ours.

We package in other, you know, clear bags for other people.

We also, our main is 30 pound cases.

We sell from one pound to one semi load.

- (Casey) Oh, wow.

- (Jared) At a time.

- So tell us a little bit about your distribution.

I mean, you're not just selling to locals here in Afton, right?

- No.

Probably 90, 98, 99% of everything we do is wholesale and we're supplying a lot of big confectioneries and other retailers and stuff and grocery stores.

- Well, thank you so much for sharing this process and if anybody's not near Afton, make sure you check your grocery store for some Miller Pecan.

Thank you, Jared.

- Well thank you for coming.

- I'd like to introduce you today to the third kit in the Gardens To Go series.

This one is for about middle school and up and a good chunk of its 11 activities have to do with water moving through plants and then there's a few other fun activities.

So we're gonna demonstrate some of the things in terms of water movement through plants.

So the first thing is we know plants get their water from the soil and sometimes soil has a lot of water and sometimes it doesn't, so how does that make a difference to the plant?

All right, well, when water first gets into soil, if there's a lot of water, it saturates it.

It saturates it to the point where there's water coming out and dripping because it has filled up all the water spaces and all the air spaces.

Air spaces make up an important part of soil.

So if you have all the air spaces filled, then there's no way for the plant roots to get the air they need and in saturated soil, the plant will die.

If you let the water get to the point where it's not dripping so much, then there's still air in there.

The plant can be happy.

It's called field capacity.

It's got enough water for the plant and it's still got air so the plant can survive just fine.

If you get to the point where there's no water in the soil, I mean there's still water in here but you'd have to suck it out and plants just don't do that.

So this is the wilting capacity.

At this point, the wilting point of plants, they'll tell you that they need more water and so they'll start wilting.

And if they don't get water after that, then they die.

So how does water get through a plant?

Well, there's different kinds of roots, all right?

'Cause water goes in through the roots of a plant.

There's fibrous roots which anchor into the soil really well.

Like grasses, if you try to pull grass out of the ground, it's really resistant to coming 'cause it's got all these fibrous roots.

And then there's plants that have tap roots.

So picture a carrot, it doesn't hold much soil.

Like if you pull a dandelion up, there's not much soil.

But the roots is where the water comes in the plants.

And the way the water comes in is through something called capillary action.

Water likes to stick to itself, it's called cohesion.

So one example of capillary action is if you take a little piece of paper, in this case we'll take a little flower, and if you put it in water, it'll expand and start opening up that flower.

So that's an example of capillary action and that's what makes all the water stick to itself as it goes up the tree, all right?

So water only goes up.

So in this activity, you cut out a tree and you cut out some leaves and you make a little model and with the arrows, you show that water only goes from the roots up to the branches, up to the leaves and out.

So if you were to take a plant like a tree and you were to cut it in half, you would see how water goes through a tree.

So if you cut down a tree, in the middle is the heartwood.

That's like when it was just a baby tree.

Inside are called xylem and those are the tubes that water goes up.

As the tree grows, there's a cambium layer here that's represented by this orange.

All new water tubes, all new xylem grow inside the cambium and all new phloem, which has the sugar, grows outside.

So all this water is going up through the middle of the tree.

Now it only goes up so it has to get out of the tree at some point.

So how does it do that?

Well, on each leaf, you have openings called stomata, all right, and when the water gets to the hole, and the hole's there because oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged.

But just like when you breathe, you lose water, so does the tree.

So when the first molecule gets up here exposed to the sun and the air, it evaporates.

But water likes to stick to itself, again, because of cohesion.

So when that water molecule evaporates, it pulls the next one.

It pulls the next one, it pulls the next one.

So that is how water comes out of a tree.

So that's the basic moving of water through a plant.

This kit also has other activities.

This one we took a loofah plant, and you'll learn about the loofahs in the book, and we give 'em some soap and they make their own little loofah soap so they can use that to scrub during a bath.

We also have an activity for germination tests.

We give you some seeds that are not fresh, they're a little bit old, and you use a paper towel and some water and you watch the seeds over a period of days to see how many of them actually germinate.

And then you can see like, if only half of 'em are germinating, I need to plant twice as many to get the amount that I want.

We also have a phototropism activity that's in the book.

You plant some seeds in a cup, you make a little cardboard box, make a little maze and the plant will follow the light, so that's what these seeds are for.

We also have a DNA extraction activity.

We give you what you need to extract the DNA from whatever you want, usually a strawberry works really well.

And then the final activity is the forensic mystery.

There was a horse stolen and there's three ranches around and no one knows which ranch took the horse.

But you've got pollen all over the place and different areas have different kinds of pollen, so the desert's gonna have a different kind of pollen signature than the plains.

You know, your backyard, it'll be different than mine.

It depends on what plants grow there.

And so pollen, you'll see all different pollens look different.

So you have different pollens in here and you have to figure out what plants that pollen came from and then you get a pollen signature from the different suspect ranches.

- And the rope that was left behind when they sold the horse has a certain pollen profile.

So you compare it to see which ranch stole the horse.

So this kit with 11 activities is made to be done by middle school age children, maybe 10, 11, 12, and up.

No batteries required, no internet required.

And it's $30.

So if you have, if you want to keep your kids occupied over fall break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break spring break, summer break, when you need a birthday present, this is a good thing to give your budding scientist.

(mellow jazz music) - Each year for the Oklahoma Proven program, we choose a plant for a tree, shrub, annual, and perennial that we promote.

But every once in a while we throw in a plant in the Collector's Choice.

This is a plant that might need special site selection, or special care, or may just be an underutilized plant that might, you might have to search around a little bit to find it.

This year we did choose a Collector's Choice Plant, and it is the Mexican Buckeye, or Ungnadia speciosa.

A Mexican Buckeye is a native plant.

It's a shrub, multi-stem shrub, that can grow 15 to 30 feet high and about 20 foot high, and 20 foot wide at maturity.

It is native to Central and West Texas, down into Mexico and New Mexico, but is actually quite hardy here in, in Oklahoma.

We've had these specimens.

We have about three of them on campus.

They've been here for several years, and they've done really well.

Now, last year, February of 2021, when we had that deep freeze, these plants were actually killed to the ground, but they came back very nicely from the crown of the plant, from the roots, and we have these wonderful plants.

You can see this is all growth in just the last year and a half.

Now, what I really like about this plant is in the springtime, just as the leaves are beginning to emerge, they also produce these bright pink flowers.

And so it actually resembles very much a red bud in the springtime.

So it has these bright pink flowers against these nice gray, light gray bark stems.

And then the leaves come on.

When they're new, they come in nice bright coppery color.

And then they mature to a light green, bright green, throughout the summer.

They're pinnately compound.

And then in the fall, they actually turn a nice bright yellow.

Now following the the flowers, there's actually a seed pod that's produced by the plant.

And it's actually a three-valved capsule that matures to a dark brown, nice, rich brown color as the the summer progresses.

And when it's mature, it'll split, split open and reveal these bright, shiny black seeds.

Now, the capsule and the seeds actually resemble a Buckeye.

That's the common name, Mexican Buckeye.

But it's not actually a true Buckeye.

In fact, they're not even related.

So this is an awesome plant.

It tolerates alkaline soils.

It's very, like like I mentioned, very heat and drought tolerant.

So, if you're looking for a great plant to maybe be a accent plant, or to be used as a background, or a deciduous screen, this might be a great choice for you, especially in Central and Western Oklahoma.

(upbeat music) - Hi everybody.

Today I'm gonna be making a stuffed mushroom that is stuffed with pecans and cream cheese, and it is just so delicious.

You are gonna love this.

And we're gonna start just with some whole button mushrooms.

Carefully remove the stem from each one, 'cause that's the part you're gonna fill, is right there, and so you don't wanna tear it up.

And as you remove the stem just put the little cap on your sheet pan.

And once you've removed all your stems we're just gonna chop them up into a very rough, but very fine, you know, chop.

Almost a mince.

It doesn't have to be exact, but we want it pretty small.

(knife chopping) So once you've got all of your stems kind of roughly minced up, roughly chopped, if you think that they're still a little too big, like this is probably still too big, you just take the the knife, and just kind of run it through like this to chop it up even smaller without getting your fingers in the way.

(knife chopping) And to the mushroom stems, we're gonna add some minced shallot and some finely chopped pecan.

(mellow jazz trumpet music) So next we're just gonna heat a little bit of olive oil in skillet over medium heat.

- Not much at all, maybe two teaspoons.

And to that we're gonna add our mushroom stems, shallots, and pecans, and just saute them for a little bit.

(pan sizzling) Some garlic would also be great in here, so I might add some garlic powder 'cause I didn't have any fresh garlic, but fresh garlic would work really well.

Once your onions and mushrooms have softened, just transfer your pecan mixture back into your small mixing bowl.

And to that we are gonna add just a little bit of cream cheese.

Goat cheese would also be great in this if you have goat cheese and you like goat cheese and we're also gonna add some parsley and some Panko breadcrumbs.

We'll just get this nice and mixed up.

The heat of the pecan mixture should melt your cheese nicely, so you can throw it in there at room temperature or even cold and it should melt and mix in just fine.

So once your pecan mixture is all smooth with the cheese and everything's melted in, you're gonna take some olive oil and a pastry brush and brush each of your mushroom caps, the inside and all around the outside with a little bit of olive oil, or you could use melted butter.

Don't skip this step, it's gonna make a difference.

And then once you've got 'em all brushed with your oil, we're gonna fill them with our cream cheese and nut mixture.

So, about a teaspoon into each mushroom cap, just right in there.

Your fingers are gonna get messy, so just make your piece with that and I would say try to fill them evenly if you can, but you know, they're all different sizes, so it's about a teaspoon into each, but some will have a little bit more and some will have a little bit less, depending on how big your mushroom was.

Once they're all filled, kind of arrange 'em on your tray so that they're not touching, there's lots of space around them, and then we're gonna pop these in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes until they're nice and brown on the top, and then we're gonna top them with a candied pecan.

While your mushrooms are in the oven, you can start on your candied pecans and we'll just heat up a little bit more olive oil in our skillet and we're gonna put in a teaspoon or two of honey, and to that we are gonna add a half pecan, so at one pecan half for every mushroom cap that you have, and so you do wanna kinda look through your pecans and make sure that you don't have any broken pieces, because we want these intact.

We're gonna stir this around so that it gets all coated in the olive oil and the honey, and just cook it until the pecans start to get a little bit darker in color.

And then we'll remove it to a plate or piece of parchment paper to cool.

So, my pecans are starting to get a little darker in color, the honey has caramelized a little and we're gonna just remove them to this plate.

Once your mushroom caps are out of the oven and your pecan pieces are cool enough to handle, just top each one of your mushroom caps with a candied pecan.

Serve these while they're still hot.

On Thanksgiving, we often think of pecans as a great dessert in the form of pecan pie, but they make a great appetizer as well.

(upbeat music) - As we close out our 2022 season of Oklahoma Gardening, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of what's to come next season.

You probably recognize where we are at if you've ever been to Stillwater, we are at the old swine farm that's just south of Highway 51 as you come in from the west side and this has been reinvented into the new student farm.

Joining me today is Lynda Carrier, who is the new student farm manager, co-manager I should say.

- Right.

- Matt Beartrack is also working with you.

- Correct, yes.

- So Lynda, tell me about how this concept got started.

- Ah, I think it was something Dr. Moss, our department head, thought about quite a while back, and it ended up in a joint effort with another group here in Stillwater locally.

It's a local food bank called Our Daily Bread, and what we're gonna be doing is producing vegetables for the community.

- Now, I know a lot of times when we think about starting a garden, we tend to think Step One, in the spring, but you're starting this kind of end of season.

- Yeah.

- Tell me a little bit what your first objectives are.

- Okay, well first of all, my first day was September 1st, (host laughs) and on that day, we had people coming out, a student class came out, and the first thing we did was took soil samples.

Once we got soil sample results, we looked at those, and we needed to get this organic matter up, the composting.

We kind of had some ground that was very uneven out here, so we had a company come in and level the area, take out a few trees.

And then once we had that done, the same company came in and brought 70 dump truckloads of manure.

We disced it in the ground, and of course, at that time, we had no rain, it was very dry.

But we managed to get it disced in, and so we just went ahead and cultivated it and planted a cover crop in it.

- So next spring, we'll have vegetables out here?

- Yes, we hope to.

We hope to start early in the spring.

February, we're gonna start with transplants of cool season crops, but we have a lot to get done before then.

- Yeah, tell me about some of those winter plans.

- We're gonna put several frost-free hydrants in down through both sides of this.

And then once we get the irrigation in, we're gonna build a fence, an eight-foot-tall deer fence.

- [Host] (laughs) You gotta protect those vegetables, right?

- Yes, yes, definitely.

- Well, Linda, thanks for giving us a little bit of a sneak peek to the new student farm here at OSU.

And just like they're doing a lot of planning this winter, Oklahoma Gardening will also be doing a lot of planning over the winter months as we prepare for next season.

We'll be bringing you a lot of great stories as always, including more updates about the student farm as it progresses.

And as I wrap up my seventh season of hosting Oklahoma Gardening, I am still always in awe and inspired by everyone that we get to meet along the way.

Thank you for opening up your businesses and your backyards to share with us your stories and your passion.

Also, thank you to all of our viewers who continue to join in each week to see the amazing horticulture that we have here in Oklahoma.

Now, while this concludes our regular season for 2022, this winter you can continue to find Best of Oklahoma Gardening shows each week.

And join us right back here in February when we begin our new season of Oklahoma Gardening.

(lighthearted music) There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

(lighthearted music) It's that bittersweet time of year when we put our garden here at TBG to rest for another winter.

While this is our last new show, you can continue to get inspiration from our Best of Oklahoma Gardening shows that will begin airing right here on December 10th.

(lighthearted music) - Okay.

- Is this practice or real?

(lighthearted music) - [Host] To find out more information about show topics, as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at OklahomaGardening.okstate.edu.

Join in on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

You can find this entire show and other recent shows, as well as individual segments, on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune in to our OK Gardening Classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriter, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry.

Additional support is also provided by Pond Pro Shop, Greenleaf Nursery, and the Garden Debut Plants, the Tulsa Garden Center at Woodward Park, the Oklahoma Horticultural Society, Smart Pot, and the Tulsa Garden Club.

(lighthearted music)