What if there were a single plant that would shower down nourishing, tasty food nearly every autumn for over a couple hundred years? Food that humans, and a number of mammals, insects and birds, can thrive on? What if that food came pre-sealed in such a way that it had a shelf life of over a year, possibly over five years, so you could enjoy it all winter, or next summer? Now that would be a gift, a plant to protect, nurture and write songs about!

Well, there happens to be such a treasure: the pecan tree. This gorgeous tree lives long, grows way high, is a source of shade, oxygen, and attractive wood. The nutmeat is well preserved within handsome, hard shells. The trees have such a lifespan that they could easily feed one's great-grandchildren, and they did so for the native Americans who lived here across the centuries past.

(A thank you to the two great pecans that graced our front yard the many years my parents lived there: 1961 to 2008.)