After reading “Tall Tales” [October 2014], Jim Kolkhorst alerted Texas Co-op Power to another special tree—La Bahia Pecan at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site. The tree overlooks the historic ferry crossing where the Navasota and Brazos rivers meet, and it witnessed the beginning of Texas as Texas. Seedlings from La Bahia Pecan are available for purchase.
Tests confirmed the tree stood when delegates drafted and adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, says Kolkhorst, president of the Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park Association and a member of Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.
Jim Ellison, a Bluebonnet member who owned Ellison’s Greenhouses for 44 years, came up with the idea to sell La Bahia seedlings to raise money for the park association. With help from Texas A&M University, pecans were propagated. Almost 2,000 seedlings have been sold, and another 2,000 are available this spring.
Bluebonnet EC has sent bucket trucks and crews to harvest the pecans (shown above). “For us at Bluebonnet, that’s an easy request,” says Wesley Brinkmeyer, the co-op’s manager of energy programs. “We’re a co-op, and nothing beats helping out our members.”
The seedlings sell for $100, and the proceeds go to the park association and A&M. To purchase a seedling, contact Ellison at (979) 451-9187.
