Olive growers post gains in production
California’s industry is by far the leader, but Texas posts gains
Texas’ fledgling olive industry sees gains as growers boast of being second in U.S. olive production, though still well behind California’s established crop.
As he reached middle age, John Gambini’s Sicilian roots were tugging hard.
Though a successful homebuilder, he’d long yearned to buy land to grow something, preferably something that would tie his Mediterranean ancestry to the Texas Hill Country — like a vineyard.
Except that by the time he was ready to take to the soil in 2008, the Texas vintners’ scene already was pretty well established, with 162 wineries drawing tourists to tasting rooms in nearby places like Fredericksburg and New Braunfels. As he swallowed the notion that he’d come too late to Texas wine, an article on some pioneering olive growers caught his attention. The Texas olive oil scene was only starting to happen.
“I got together with my family members and said, ‘Hey, this ties into our heritage,’ ” Gambini said. “Our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents were farmers and cooks back in Sicily, so they had to have been involved in olive oil.”
Olive oil has been around for thousands of years, served on
tables since 6,000 B.C. in Galilee.
“I really wanted to build a business that could realistically last forever ,” Ga mbini said.
Legend has it that it was the goddess Athena who delivered the olive tree to the Greeks, securing her name sake of the city of Athens. Plant scientists are hopeful that what came easily to the ancients ought tobe do able across the world in Texas, but with Texas’ springtime spin of temperature roulette, the jury’ s still out.
Industry kudos have proven that the potential is there. In 2009, Gambini transplanted some California olive trees to launch his 17acre orchard in Dripping Springs, and a year later started pressing his oil under the Texas Hill Country Olive Co. brand. Bottles from that inaugural batch won a silver medal at the New York InternationalOlive Oil Competition.
He’s won medals every year since, this year taking home a silver medal at a competition in France.
Gambini spoke from his table at the inaugural Texas Olive Conference on June 16 in San Antonio, where he and other Texas olive growers displayed bottles of extra virgin olive oil with Texas-themed labels and $20-plus price tags.
His wasn’t the only oil that has won awards and commanded a shelf space-worthy following. Southeast Texas Olive Co., a Beaumont-area operation started by an Italian petroleum engineer, has also taken home the silver from the New York competition. Texana Brands, which has a 156-acre olive orchard in Artesia Wells, is rolling out its line of extra virgin and herb infused oil sat H-E-B.
The conference provided a series of educational talks by Texas A&M University plant specialists as well as Californians who dominate the U.S. olive industry.
While Texas production is minuscule compared with California’s, Texas growers boast being second in U.S. olive production and note that California has a more than50-yearheadstart.
Texas olive acreage documented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture census of agriculture went from zero in 2002 to 760 acres in 2012. Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension researchers now estimate there are about 1,800 acres of olive trees planted in the Lone Star state. The AgriLife team of extension agents are working with growers to learn the best olive varieties for the state and figure out how to best deal with climate challenges.
“This is our first conference as a unified olive industry in Texas,” said Kerry Thornhill-Houston, a Dimmit County grower who is secretary of the Texas Association of Olive Oil. “We don’t have good yield numbers, we’re really kind of just growing. The more established orchards are just now coming into production. … I just had my first harvest last year .”
While there are a couple of Texas orchards that are 100 acres or larger, the majority are 20 acres or less. The successful ones are in a narrow band of Texas that gets cool winter nights, but not prolonged freezes, and overall warm weather without being so hot that it withers the trees and prevents budding.
“You hate to tell someone not to plant, let’s say, north of Interstate 10,” she said. “You can grow olive trees anywhere, but it’s certainly going to be more ornamental. And you can pick your fruit, brine it and put it in a mason jar, but that’s all it willbe.”
Texas A&M advised against oil production in the state, saying it would be difficult to be commercially feasible, she said.
O lives are believed to have originated in Syria and Turkey at least 5,000 years ago and then spread throughout the Mediterranean region. The top olive oil producing country today is Spain, followed by Italy, Greece and other Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Tunisia, Portugal, Syria and Morocco. Australia is having some success with olives, as are India andArgentina.
California, the only U.S. state with significant olive production, still produces less than 1 percent of the world’s supply. But California has a large swath of Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters.
Texas’ climate is continental, which can bring relatively cold winters. It’s more than a matter of latitude. Even North Texas gets too many frosty nights for olives.
Texas’ subtropical Rio Grande Valley meanwhile is just too hot. Olive trees that might thrive near Galveston are unlikely to sustain fruit in Texas-Mexico border towns like Weslaco, where the climate is ideal for producing the state’ s famed red grape fruit.