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“Texas Hill Country Olive Company provides high-quality olive oil to consumers as well as chefs, health and fitness professionals, high end culinary/specialty retailers and gift seekers.”
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Texas Hill Country Olive Company is a family run artisanal olive orchard that produces and sells high quality extra virgin olive oil. Texas Hill Country Olive Company also has a unique program that allows consumers to adopt an olive tree.
Orchard patrons who adopt an olive tree for a year reap the rewards from that tree — high-quality, cold press, organically grown extra virgin olive oil, and have the option to have their olive oil bottles affixed with custom labels. Texas Hill Country Olive Company cultivates and mills olives and bottles the olive oil on-site at the orchard. They have three specialty blends: Terra Verde, Master Miller’s Blend and Sola Stella.
Texas Hill Country Olive Company provides high-quality olive oil to consumers as well as chefs, health and fitness professionals, high end culinary/specialty retailers and gift seekers.
The idea to offer individuals an opportunity to adopt an olive tree in the Texas Hill Country was conceived by John Gambini in 2008. Together with the Mensik Family, John turned that idea into a reality. Texas Hill Country Olive Company’s mission is to provide the highest quality, organically grown extra virgin olive oil in Texas and to educate consumers why it is just as it was over two thousand years ago; olive oil is one of the most important food choices a person can make for not only their health, but their family’s as well.
Connections -
Rick Mensik, Owner
John Gambini, Owner
john at texashillcountryoliveco dot com
P.O. Box 1129
2530 W. Fitzhugh Rd.
Dripping Springs, TX 78620
Office 512.607.6512
Fax 512.607.6432
www.texashillcountryoliveco.com
Twitter: txhillctryolive
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"Adopt a tree at the Texas Hill Country orchard and bring the family to harvest your fruit!"
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Interview with John Gambini, Co-Owner: Texas Hill Country Olive Company - by PlanetShifter.com
Why is olive oil so healthy for us?
The most significant reason olive oil is good for is us are because of the polyphenols, tocopherols, oleocanthal, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K and oleic acids that exist in high quality extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). These antioxidants, vitamins, and acids have been medically proven to help protect the arteries around the heart from plaque build-up, provide resistance to the development of LDL’s, protect the body from colon cancer, and provide anti-inflammatory properties similar to ibruprofen.
More recent studies are showing that the properties in EVOO can also kill the Aids and Herpes virus. This incredible food source has been known for its healing powers for thousands of years and even before the birth of Christ.
Why not grow grapes?!
The olive industry in Texas is truly in its infant stage of development; whereas grapes have been grown here for over 40 years and there are currently more than 182 vineyards or wine producers in the state. There are currently 22 olive growers in Texas with only four of us producing olives; with the United States consuming over 75 million gallons of olive oil in a year with the consumption growing at a rate of 8 to10 percent a year. The US produces less than 1 percent of that total with the remainder coming from the Mediterranean countries of Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey.
The potential to create a new agricultural powerhouse and bring jobs to our country is unlimited.
I understand that the entire orchard will be 100% carbon neutral this year. What does this entail?
Our goal is to get to 100 % carbon neutral by taking the following steps:
1. Install a environmentally and ecologically friendly Helix wind system to take us off the grid by producing quiet environmentally safe electricity to run our building and and our irrigation well system. This system will reduce our carbon footprint alone by at least 2.5 tons of CO2 per year.
2. We have doubled the size of our olive orchard by expanding the tree planting to a total of 2000 olive trees. The trees we have planted represents over 1900 trees added to this 17 acre area of the Texas Hill Country. As you already know each of our trees absorb the CO2 created by our farm and the other farms in the area. I do not have the data yet to verify exactly how much they absorb, but because the olive tree is considered an; its leaves are performing their life giving miracle every day of the year.
3. We are using the smallest tractor we can get by with to tend the orchard thereby making only a very small carbon impact on the orchard, which is easily offset by our tree volume.
4. We do many other activities on the orchard by hand so as to not to create any other carbon emissions. Much of our weeding is done by hand and all of the harvesting is done by hand picking the trees.
Are you green certified by a third party?
When our building is completed in July or August, we expect to receive at least a silver rating from a third party inspector on our facility. I have a person who used to work for me who has LEED certification to do inspections for green certification. He will inspect and certify the building as a third party inspector.
Have you heard of a biodigester to transform waste into compost and energy?
We had already planned on using our waste to create a compost to be reused back as organic fertilizer on the trees. In addition, all of our remaining left over waste we plan to return it to the soil by dicing it into the soil between the rows of trees, thereby creating additional natural fertilizer. I will check into a biodigester, because I am not familiar with it.
Give us the specs on the eco-friendly windmill!
The Helix windmill is the most eco friendly windmill I have ever seen. The Texas Hill Country is known for its incredible bird populations in the southwest and we are equally known worldwide for our huge Mexican Freetail Bat population. This particular windmill is designed much like a upside down soft serve ice cream cone, rather than the traditional whirly bird or airplane prop blade you see dotted all over West Texas and parts of Wyoming. By being a cupped and curved style wind catching blade; it is bird and bat friendly, more efficient in generating electricity, and extremely quiet.
What are the benefits (and any hassles) with your membership in the Texas Olive Oil Council?
There has been no benefit to being a part of this organization and it appears to have been set up to benefit one individual and the small group of people around him. We are creating our on Co-Op group to band together all the small orchard growers and to provide support for others interested in getting in the olive orchard business.
Do you use traditional pesticides?
No traditional pesticides are used in our orchard.
Who do you hire to pick the fruit?
To date we have picked the fruit ourselves and we intend to allow all families and individuals who adopted a tree from us in the last year to come pick the olives from their adopted tree in October this year.
How long do the adopted tree take to bear fruit? How many trees are adopted?
All of our adopted trees are over 5 years old and have already started bearing fruit. 146 trees have been adopted since last August of 2009.
Where does the water for the orchard come from? Are you processing grey water?
We have drilled a very deep well to provide drinking water and irrigation water to our orchard. No, we are not processing grey water because we are on septic and are already returning most of our water back to the subsurface.
Is Dripping Springs a “green town?” What’s happening there on a Friday night?
I am not aware of Dripping Springs being as much a green town as Austin, which is one of the leaders in the country in the green movement. I really don’t know because I and my family members work to seven or eight every day and are ready to head home to be with our wives and family.
How are the online sales going?
Our online sales are not moving as much as we would like. We need to do a better job of getting the word out via blogging, tweeting, connecting with organic and food networking sites, and other forms of social media. My hope is that Patti and Sally at Penman PR will help us with that issue by introducing us to good folks like you. Spreading the word about our family artisanal orchard and why it is SO important to get Americans to buy American, support your local farmers, and put green food in our bodies to make us all healthier is what we are hoping to achieve.
Thank you for your time and particularly for the opportunity to tell our story to you. I look forward to meeting you someday and you are always welcome to come visit our little orchard. I will send you a bottle of our delicious oil for you to use. I hope you will enjoy it and a wish that you stay happy and healthy. Please let me know if I need to provide more information.
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