Patty Loew:
It's that time of the year when squirrels are busy storing away nuts for another long winter. But they've got some competition. "In Wisconsin" reporter Liz Koerner introduces you to a father and son team with an unusual fall ritual around Platteville.

Roger Lange:
Brandon if I could get you to start putting the pickers in the trailer and I'll shut the garage door here.

Liz Koerner:
Roger Lange and his son Brandon would not be insulted if you called them a little nutty.

Roger Lange:
Do you want one or two pickers?

Brandon Lange:
Two.

Roger Lange:
All right.

Liz Koerner:
In fact, they have an autumn ritual that all but guarantees that the Lange family name and the word nuts are used in the same sentence.

Roger Lange:
Looks like there's quite a bit of seed here.

Liz Koerner:
Every year the Langes collect nuts like acorns on lawns around town using these funny-looking machines. Pushing past each other with their pickers, at times they appear to be a dancing duet. Brandon says there's a good reason why he helps his dad every year.

Brandon Lange:
Fun.

Liz Koerner:
This annual father-son adventure got started 11 years ago when Brandon was only two. At that age, he wasn't much help but things have certainly changed over the years.

Roger Lange:
I need a helper. He's pretty invaluable. I mean, he's a good, hard worker.

Liz Koerner:
And hard work is what it's all about. Brandon and his father start the nut picking season in mid August, collecting their first crop under burr oak trees.

Roger Lange:
This is burr oak. It's an acorn from the bur oak tree. It has the curlies on the end and the cap is attached to the seed. That's how you normally see it. I go back to the same tree every year because that's the first tree that drops.

Liz Koerner:
After the burr oak harvest, the Langes move on to white oak followed by red oak and gather a little butternut and shagbark hickory along the way. They sell most of the nuts to the DNR's Wilson state tree nursery in Boscobel and earn $25 to $35 a bushel. Roger already has a full time job so the cash for collecting nuts is a bonus. Brandon said he's saving for college and a truck. You can probably guess which comes first.

Brandon Lange:
Truck.

Liz Koerner:
But their work isn't done when they pack up and head for home. That's when these pickers get picky. They hand sort the burr oak acorns and pick out the trash.

Brandon Lange:
The leaves, twigs, sticks, anything that looks like it's junk.

Roger Lange:
A lot of this stuff will go down through the mesh. That's why I'm swishing it around.

Liz Koerner:
White oak and red oak acorns are easier to sort than burr oak. They just shovel them into a big bucket of water.

Roger Lange:
Anything with air in it will actually float. It makes it nice for sorting. Look and see how well it did. It looks like it will still need a little bit of touch-up on it.

Liz Koerner:
After the Langes deliver the nuts to the DNR, they're planted in the state's tree nursery. When the trees are two to three years old, the DNR sells them to the public. Roger and Brandon see evidence of their hard work in a private plantation just down the road from their Platteville home. The DNR estimates about a million trees are now growing out of the Lange's seed collecting efforts.

Roger Lange:
There's a lot of work in this, and kind of gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that, you know, I provided a lot of seeds to the state.

Roger Lange:
The service that, you know, who else will get it done, you know.

Patty Loew:
Roger Lange says white oak acorns pay the best. The demand from the state is down this year because they're not selling as many trees.