You can buy pecans harvested from the native pecan groves at Boys & Girls Homes Farms for the first time in many years because of the labors of Fred Lemmens of Hendersonville, NC. He began Lake Waccamaw Pecans as a shoulder season business and has already harvested more than 5,000 pounds of pecans. Fred's full-time business is A Servants Touch Prowash, a pressure washing and detailing business in his hometown of Hendersonville.
Fred was visiting Lake Waccamaw on a fishing trip when he offered to pressure wash the buildings at Boys & Girls Homes and noticed that the pecan groves had not been harvested.
"My dad was a farmer near Montreal and his dad was a farmer in Belgium so I guess I'm the third generation," he said while rolling his pecan roller to collect a second harvest of pecans in early February. Fred will be selling both processed and in-the-shell pecans for $10 per bag at the entrance to the Boys & Girls Homes Farm on Bill Thompson Lane through early March and then during Southern Farm Days March 14-16.
Fred said the work can be physical collecting the pecans with a roller and a machine, but it reminds him of his days hiking The Appalachian Trail. It's also another way for him to give back. He gives 10 percent of the proceeds from sales of Lake Waccamaw Pecans and 10 percent of the harvest back to Boys & Girls Homes programs of care.
"God has provided so much for me business-wise," he said, "so I can do this in the off-season. As a Christian, my focus is providing a service and giving back. If God gives people an opportunity to give back, can we use these pecans to give back to Boys & Girls Homes? I think we can."
Learn more about Lake Waccamaw Pecans at their Facebook page here.
