UPDATE December 2023 – Bad news y’all! The Pape Pecan House and Nutcracker Museum has closed its doors in Seguin! At least you’ll always be able to experience it here on The Texas Bucket List.
Seguin – Seguin Texas is synonymous with pecans. Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to record the existence of pecans, and he referred to the Guadalupe River as the river of nuts. Today, pecan farms are a big part of the Texas economy and just a stone’s throw from the river you’ll find Pape Pecan House. “Some people say Pape, Pape, but they pronounce it Pape,” joked Grace Craft, an employee of the pecan stand since 2010. “Like pecan. You don’t say pecan around here though. We direct you to the bathroom.”
The Pape Pecan House has a wide variety of nuts showcasing the specialties of various growers around seguin. “We buy from local growers around the area,” said Craft. “Right now we have Pawnee, Cheyenne, Choctaw, and Grey King.”
When folks find their way to the Pape Pecan House, it’s not the decades of history they want to talk about, it’s the collection of nutcrackers that breaks the ice. From your typical holiday affair to cartoon characters and antique crackers, you never know what you’ll find in this museum dedicated to nutcrackers. “It’s a family business who’s been in the business for over 60 years,” said Craft. “Started with his dad, Hugo, and his mom, and then Mr. Pape, Kenneth came in and started learning the business.”
Kenneth took what started as a humble pecan stand with his parents and created a unique experience for visitors by starting the nutcracker collection. “The nutcracker collection started when he had a good friend that gave him a small collection, so as he traveled and saw nutcrackers, he started collecting them,” said Craft. ”He’s got books and books and he’d sit there and look at his books every day, just all the different nutcrackers and just… He loved them. He just loved them.”
As Kenneth’s collection grew, it began to take form as more of a museum than a display, and he was always willing to tell people about all the different unique, antique, rare and novel nutcrackers that he had on display. “A lot of people ask what’s his oldest nutcracker, and he would always laugh at it because someone would think maybe the wooden carved ones or maybe one of these,” said Craft. “It’s actually, in that case over there, there’s some rocks. That’s what the Indians used, so that would be his oldest, his oldest nutcracker. He’s got a lot of wooden carved ones from Germany. He’s got presidents, to Star Wars, to Disney, to the metal cast iron ones, the squirrels, the alligators, the dogs. Then you got the Naughty Nellies down there, the ones where you crack the pecan between their legs.”
Speaking of curiosity, one doesn’t come to the pecan house and not try some different types of pecans. “We’ve got Pawnee, we have Choctaw, GraKing, and Cheyenne. They’re all considered soft-shell pecans,” said Craft. “The biggest difference between them is the flavor, the oil content.
Pawnees and Cheyenne, they have a buttery taste. They have plenty of oil. Choctaw’s pretty close, and GraKing is a good pecan also. When you use this one, it’ll squeeze some of the oil out, and you can see the oil content in the pecan. And that’s what you want. You want the oil content to be in there because it gives the pecan the flavor.”
Getting to sample all sorts of pecans is only a part of the experience at the Pape Pecan House. It’s the thousands of nutcrackers all eagerly awaiting a chance to crack open someone’s snack that makes you realize that this stop is all it’s cracked up to be. “It was his passion, and that’s what he lived for, so hopefully they keep it going,” said Craft.