<font color="#0033CC">BUSINESS:</font> Boyette's Pecan Company – 36 years and going strong » Business

Business

Discussion

December 2, 2009

<font color="#0033CC">BUSINESS:</font> Boyette's Pecan Company – 36 years and going strong

They're into their 3rd generation as a family owned and operated business

Staff Suwannee Democrat The Suwannee Democrat Wed Dec 02, 2009, 11:08 AM EST

It was 1973 and Dale Boyette had just retired from the Navy. Dale was a cook while serving our country and when he got out he knew he didn't want to go into the restaurant business so the Boyette brothers, Dale and Don, decided to go into the grocery and pecan business. They've had a few different locations during this last 36 years; one was where Burger King stands now.

In the '80s Don decided to go into the oil business and keep the grocery business and Dale decided to stay in the pecan business with his wife Priscilla. In 1999 they moved to their current location at US 129 S. in Live Oak. Dale and Priscilla had two sons, Mike and Randy, who grew up in the pecan business. Today, Randy (Randall) is a conductor for Amtrak. Mike decided to follow in his father's footsteps and stay in the pecan business. When Mike married Shari Goolsby, she fell right into it as well, making a great addition with her bookkeeping and office skills.

Today Dale's grandson Randall (Randy Boyette Sr.'s son) works with them running the cracking machine, loading, unloading and weighing in the pecans, etc. And Dale's granddaughter Adrienne (Mike and Shari's daughter) works in the office. She also won the National FFA Agriscience Fair in the Bio Chemistry Division. Her project was called "Energy, Is It Nutty?" It was a project created to determine the amount of energy contained in pecans. It was determined that the 'Elliot' pecan had the most energy. "And likely so," said Dale, "because it contains the most oil."

According to Dale there are over 200 varieties of pecan trees. The Elliots are the best producer and the best tasting. The trees (Elliots) are less susceptible to disease and drought and are self-pollinating, which, if you're a grower, is a great benefit! It takes about 12 years for a tree to start producing nuts. They grow around a foot per year and live 125 years or more. "Back in earlier times most people would have 10 or 12 pecan trees on their farm," Dale said, "and they would use the money from harvesting the nuts each year to pay their taxes and buy Christmas."

Dale also said about 95 percent of the pecans from this area are picked up by hand. The Boyette's Pecan Company ships mostly to the southeastern U.S. to various processing plants. They have to wait until they get a semi load and as you can imagine, that's a lot of nuts!