Intro: 

The olive harvest in Texas is underway.  Leticia Torres reports.

Torres:

It has been a challenge but producers are actually getting olive trees to grow in Texas.  Jim Henry, with the Texas Olive Oil Council, says there are a lot of growers with small orchards here and there, but there are only a half a dozen commercial olive growers scattered across southern and central Texas.

Henry:

There is Jerry Ferrill in Cotulla, the Andersons in Dilley, Jim Marmion in Asherton, The Texas Olive Ranch in Carrizo Springs, Jack Dougherty in Wimberley and Sandy Winokur in Elmendorf.

Torres:

Jack Dougherty's operation in Wimberley was the first commercial olive orchard planted in Central Texas back in 1998 but it wasn't until 2001 that he successfully produced his first olive crop. 

Dougherty:

There's a lot of difficulties growing olives but we're making progress and we've made more progress in the last couple of years than we've had in the last eight.

Torres:

Dougherty says the biggest challenge has been the winter weather.  In fact he'll welcome drought like conditions any day if he can keep the cold temperatures from creeping in.

Dougherty:

Olive trees are a desert-oriented tree.  They're an arid environment tree and so they do very very well when it's hot and dry.  They're much like an oak tree. They can survive long periods of drought. 

Torres:

Keeping that in mind, how does your harvest look this year?

Dougherty:

It looks excellent, it's probably the best that we've ever had.

Torres:

And though Dougherty can't estimate how many pounds of olives he will harvest in the coming weeks, he will say that he is probably the only producer harvesting any olives this year.  Jim Henry, with the Texas Olive Oil Council, says unfortunately Dougherty's prediction is right on target.

Henry:

He's correct and the reason that probably nobody else will harvest is is that either they don't have enough olives or the trees are too young to produce.

Torres:

But Henry says this time next year, he predicts it will be a whole different story for the rest of the olive producers in Texas.  In Austin, I'm Leticia Torres.