FAIRHOPE—When Hurricane Isaac pounded the coast last month, one local pecan farm was hit hard by the wind and rain. B&B Pecan Company is a family-owned business in Fairhope that has been in operation since 1956.

B&B Pecan Co. lost three pecan trees during the recent storm and an estimated 30 to 40 percent of their crop, according to Mona Barfield. Barfield is the sister of Doug Bishop and daughter of Clarence Bishop. The three of them run B&B Pecan.

The pecan farm had what is called a bumper crop this year, which means that the trees are loaded with pecans to near capacity, said Barfield. When Hurricane Isaac blew through the area, the wind damaged the limbs of the trees and blew the pecans off of the branches. Barfield said they won’t know if the pecans still left on the trees will be any good until harvest time in November.

“There are a lot of limbs that are broken and just hanging there and we won’t know if those pecans that are on a broken branch will mature,” said Barfield. The wind may have caused the nuts still on the trees to knock together, causing bruising Barfield also said.

It takes about 200 leaves on a pecan tree to produce one quality nut. Trees also take about 10 to 12 years to produce a crop of pecans that will pay for itself, according to Barfield. B&B Pecans has three orchards with about 1,200 crop producing trees.

“We won’t know how much of what’s left of our crop is good until harvest,” says Barfield. “I’m just glad we didn’t lose more trees than we did.”