Pecan-growing runs in the Willson family. Alex Willson’s grandparents began planting trees on their 1,760-acre plot, Sunnyland Farms, in the 1940s; his father installed a pioneering irrigation system here in the 1970s and today Alex heads up the business.

Although better known for its peanuts, Georgia is the US’s pecan powerhouse, producing a third of the American yield: about 40 million kilos. When Hurricane Michael swept through the state in 2018, it wiped out many smaller producers and destroyed 4,200 trees at Sunnyland, which sits just outside the city of Albany. “It hit us hard, because a pecan tree can take a decade to grow back,” says Alex, “but we have a lot of longevity.”  See more.