Employees load the nuts into cracking machines that press down on both ends until the oblong shells split. Newly vulnerable, the pecans continue their odyssey through shellers, blowers, and sorters until they emerge, at last, cleaner, drier, and 65% lighter than they went in. "If there's some off-grade, the machine will knock the bad stuff into a back barrel," says Bergeron. "The good ones come out the front."