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Field of 'sticks' develops into successful orchard, retail business |
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By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition |
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November 21, 2002 -- "I remember when we asked our family to come out and see our pecan orchard, and they said, 'That's nothing but a bunch of sticks!' And that's all it was - just a bunch of little sticks sticking up," laughed Lisa Berdoll of Bastrop County. That was 23 years ago, and things have changed a lot for Hal and Lisa Berdoll since that fateful day. It's been a lot of hard work and dedication to the orchards, but it has paid off. The once-little sticks became nut-bearing trees, and the supply of pecans led to the creation of Berdoll Pecan Farm Candy and Gift Company. The business has earned quite a following, along with a healthy mail order business. With the holidays coming and cooks needing pecans, business is picking up. "Hal had the land he inherited when he was younger ... on the Colorado River ... which is river bottom land, and the soil is ideal for a pecan orchard," said Lisa. After watching and learning from other pecan growers in the area, the Berdolls decided to change over from row-crop farming and try their luck with pecans. "On 130 acres, we felt like we could make a living out of it. We planted the trees ... about 5,500," she said. While most pecan trees take about seven years to produce, Berdoll said they "really pushed" their orchard by irrigating and applying fertilizer and insecticides, and they had their first crop in four years. Originally, they sold the pecans out of their garage, before opening retail stores and diversifying their products. One thing has remained the same as the business grew: It is very important to the Berdoll family that customers are not only pleased with their products, but are offered some education concerning pecans, when they come to visit. "We do try to tell everybody that comes in the store that we do raise the pecans ourselves, because they don't see the trees and think they come from somewhere else," said Lisa. "That's one of our major problems. We want to do everything ourselves. We make all the candy, ourselves ... all of it. Down in the middle of the orchard, we have some barns and kitchens, and we do all the shelling, all the cracking, and all the candy-making. We're just real proud of what we have and we want to know that everything's done right, and if it's not, it was us that did it." Customers can purchase pecans - choosing from five papershell varieties - that are cracked, shelled, or in-shell. There's also jerky from Schulenburg, gift items and fresh peaches and tomatoes in season. The Berdoll store also offers cinnamon-sugared pecans, roasted and salted pecans, chocolate-covered pecans, pecan brittle, chocolate-covered pecan brittle and chocolate and white chocolate carmel clusters. For the "real" Texans or "want-a-be-Texans," the Berdolls also offer jalapeno flavored pecans. While many of the "older" generation still enjoy cracking and picking the nuts themselves, Berdoll said the younger generation seems to want them shelled out ... "just open up the bag and pour!" While product quality and customer service are priorities, weather can affect their goals. Lisa said that the years when the weather isn't cooperating, and the harvests are lower than normal, can be a concern. "When you sell the very best, when you sell anything else ... it's bad," she added. On an average year, the Berdolls harvest between 250,000 and 300,000 pounds of pecans. This year, they are expecting to harvest around 100,000 pounds, due to the weather conditions. As time goes by, finding labor becomes harder, and then there are the people who complain about spraying the orchards to contend with, according to Lisa. Although the Berdolls have three, grown children, she said she doesn't expect them to take over the business, but they help with sales and in the orchard when they are not in college or working elsewhere. In spite of all the hard work and concerns over weather issues, etc., Lisa said she doesn't know what else she would do, after 23 years in the pecan business. "For me, the best part has been just being out with the people in the stores, and having people that are so thrilled to have our product. The pride of being able to grow something and make it into something and make other people happy is ... probably ... for me, the most rewarding thing," she concluded. (Berdoll Pecan Farm stores can be reached at 512-321-6157 and are located on Hwy. 71E; one is 15 miles outside of Austin, and the other is one mile west of Bastrop.) |
