Date:  November 1, 2024  |   Story: Virginia Brown  |   Photography: Rett Peek  |   Styling: Bailey Dougan  |  

How Shady Grove Pecan Orchards stemmed from a longtime family dream

For decades, Billy Jeter dreamed that one day, along with his family, he would plant a grove and grow his own pecans. Unsurprising, maybe, since the Jeter family’s farming heritage in Arkansas dates four generations. (Their extended family still farms cotton, corn, wheat, and soybeans in Jefferson County.) But pecans in particular held a special place in Jeter’s heart. “Where we’re from, there were these old pecan trees, and it was nostalgic for families to sit around at the holidays, crack pecans, and eat them,” says Anna Jeter Lester, Billy’s daughter. “People would get them as gifts and put them in desserts.”

In 2020, Billy Jeter purchased a grove in their hometown of Wabbaseka and got cracking. Today, the family runs four orchards, roughly 65 acres in all, in both Scott and Wabbaseka. “It’s just something my dad always wanted to start,” Anna says. “So we started it all from the ground up.” It’s an ideal blend of backgrounds for Anna, who attended the University of Arkansas where she studied business and agriculture. By day, she and her dad run a financial services firm in Little Rock. But during time off, they head to the groves. “I love being with my family and figuring it all out, and enjoy the time we get to spend together during harvest,” she says.

Now a full family passion—Anna’s mother, husband, brother, and sister-in-law all participate in the process—the farm has grown into a busy wholesale and online consumer business. “People are motivated to buy local and know where their food comes from,” she says. “Aside from it being fun to satisfy our family’s farming roots, pecans are nutritious and people love them. We are really proud of them.”

But it’s not all family barbecues and fun. Turns out, growing pecans is tough work. “It took a lot of trial and error, and we learned as we went,” Anna says. “It was, let’s just say, not as simple as we thought it was going to be.” For guidance, they relied heavily on research groups, other area farmers, and the University of Arkansas’s Cooperative Extension Service. Early on, the Jeters learned that irrigation is critical. “The trees have to have a ton of water,” she says. “We learned that the hard way, especially with the droughts we have here.” Thankfully, high-tech equipment helps. They installed underground water sensors connected to a smartphone app that reads and reports moisture readings of the soil. “That way, we don’t have to dig a hole to see how dry it is,” she says. They also had to learn how to clean the orchards, look for pests—the pecan weevil, squirrels, and crows can all wreak havoc—prune young trees, and lots more. “It was a lot of learning on the fly,” Anna says.

Harvest, which runs from October to the first part of December, requires a complicated series of steps. First, they attach a pecan shaker implement to a tractor. “Two clamps gently shake the tree, and then all the pecans fall to the ground, but you have to be careful, because it can damage your trees,” Anna says.

A different implement then goes behind another tractor and picks up the fallen pecans. “It’s like a golf-ball picker-upper,” she says. The pecans then go to a sorter, which puts them on a conveyor belt where the family sorts them by hand and places them in bags. Finally, they go to another machine for cracking. The family will harvest between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds of pecans this season. “It’s not instant gratification, but we just really enjoy it as a family,” says Anna, who has a young daughter and a nephew. “We’d like to leave it to the next generation.”

Above: Anna Jeter Lester at the family’s orchard in Scott.

Anna Jeter Lester (left) with her parents, Susan and Billy Jeter. 

Billy Jeter’s whole family now plays a role in his dream of running a pecan orchard. During harvest, it’s all-hands-on-deck.

The Jeter family sells their Arkansas Delta pecans to shops like The Green Corner Store in Little Rock and ships all over the country through their website, shadygrovepecans.com.

In 2022, the family had the opportunity to acquire another pecan orchard that was already in production. Today the family has 1,400 trees, 250 of them of bearing age.

Keep reading for two family recipes to make this fall.


“This pecan pie recipe is as close as we could find to the best pecan pie my parents have had—at Brigtsen’s Restaurant in New Orleans,” Anna says. “There is something about adding the finely chopped pecans to the filling that makes this recipe super flavorful without seeming quite as sweet.”

RECIPE

Shady Grove Pecan Pie

SHOP
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark Karo syrup
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt
½ cup Shady Grove Pecans, very finely chopped
½ cup Shady Grove Pecans, halved
1 premade pie crust, thawed
Optional: a dash of bourbon

PREPARE
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer at the highest speed until frothy. Add sugar, Karo syrup, butter, vanilla extract, salt, finely chopped pecans, and bourbon (if desired). Blend at a lower speed until well incorporated, then stir in halved pecans.

Pour mixture in the pie crust and cover exposed crust with foil so it doesn’t burn. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove foil from crust (leave in place if the crust is already a light golden brown). Bake for 10 more minutes, then let cool at room temperature for an hour. Serve with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream.

RECIPE

Uncle John’s Pecans

Billy’s brother, John, makes this sweet-and-spicy snack for friends around the holidays

SHOP
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon ground cayenne
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon local honey
1 cup Shady Grove Pecans, shelled and cleaned

PREPARE
Preheat oven to 250°F. Combine paprika, cayenne, cinnamon, ginger, salt, sugar, and pepper in a small bowl, setting aside a tablespoon for later. Melt butter slowly over low heat. Slowly whisk in spice mixture, then honey.

In a large mixing bowl, pour mixture over pecans and stir to coat evenly. Spread pecans on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes, or until pecans have started to brown. Sprinkle with reserved spice mixture and serve when cooled. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.