Pecans are one of the most popular foods grown and consumed in the Southern U.S., but the road to success is not always easy. Growers, including Buck Paulk of Shiloh Pecan Farms, are reeling from the effects of Hurricane Idalia.

Paulk is orchestrating his crews through harvest this fall, while finishing removal of 19,000 pecan trees he lost during the late summer disaster.

This is the only job Paulk has ever had or ever wanted, and he said his trees are far more than his profession.

“It’s a real personal relationship,” he said. “When I look at a field, in my mind’s eye, it comes off as ‘I remember when I was planting that. I remember what grade I was in, or I remember that’s the year I was married, or that’s the year this child of mind was born.’ There’s always a personal tie to just about everything that I look at. It’s not just an orchard, but it’s an orchard that’s dated in my to some particular season in my life or an event in my life.”

Georgia is the nation’s leading producer of pecans, which is the only tree nut native to North America.