Overview
Texas farmers have been building a promising olive oil industry for three decades, with several orchards located near Houston. Southeast Texas Olive Co. in Devers, just 55 miles from Houston, operates a 34,000-tree orchard that once supplied olive oil to grocery and liquor stores throughout the Houston region. This local industry represents agricultural innovation and economic diversification for our area. Winter Storm Uri in 2021 severely damaged many Texas olive orchards, forcing farmers to rebuild or pivot to other crops. The storm highlighted both the vulnerability and resilience of local agriculture. For Houston residents, supporting surviving Texas olive farms means investing in local food production, reducing dependence on imported oils, and supporting agricultural jobs in our region. Local olive oil production creates economic opportunities in rural communities around Houston while providing fresh, high-quality products. When you buy Texas olive oil, you support farmers who are pioneering new agricultural possibilities in challenging climates. Many of these farms offer farm visits, tastings, and direct sales. Look for Texas olive oil in local grocery stores and farmers markets. Contact farms directly to learn about visiting orchards or buying oil. Supporting these agricultural innovators helps build a more diverse, resilient local food system that benefits all of us.
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“Texas olive farmers near Houston are rebuilding after Winter Storm Uri, creating local jobs and fresh oil you can buy to support agricultural innovation.”
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Image: Courtesy of Frank Majowicz
Texas is not usually the first place that comes to mind when people think of olive farming. Spain, Italy, and Greece are the world’s largest and most popular producers, but Americans consume a substantial amount of olive oil. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the US accounts for more than 15 percent of global consumption, despite less than 5 percent of it being produced here, most of it in California. For a while, Texas looked poised to change that.
Texas farmers dreamed of becoming the country’s second-largest olive producer. They were on track to do it—until disaster struck in the form of Winter Storm Uri. Now, the local olive industry is facing setbacks, with reduced supplies and many farmers pivoting to a more stable crop.
For roughly three decades, a small but determined group of farmers had been quietly building something. Dallas businessman Jim Henry is credited with being one of the first to catalyze the Texas olive oil movement. He fell in love with olive trees during his travels across Spain, where he noticed the climate—long, hot summers and mild winters—was similar to that of Texas. Back home, he was determined to start a farm. Naysayers warned that it wouldn’t work, but Henry forged ahead. After a failed first attempt in Marble Falls in 1993, Henry found some 100-year-old olive trees near Carrizo Springs and established a 40,000-tree orchard in 2004. Other farmers soon followed suit.
Image: Courtesy of Pamela Agbu
In 2009, cattle rancher Randy Brazil joined his neighbor, Gino Venitucci, an Italian American petroleum engineer, to plant a 34,000-tree orchard in Devers, around 55 miles outside of Houston. Those 40 acres would later become Southeast Texas Olive Co., whose oil was once featured in grocery and liquor stores throughout the Houston region and in the Netflix series Mo.
Retired chef Frank Majowicz and his wife, Renee, planted a 1,000-tree orchard, Dell’s Favorite Olive Ranch, in Elgin in 2014 after Renee decided her husband needed a hobby. They abandoned their original plan to grow mushrooms after hearing about the state’s olive oil boom.
Demand was never a problem—everything these farmers initially produced, they sold. Henry even expanded his operations in 2015 with a 200,000-tree orchard near Victoria, roughly 100 miles south of Houston, that produced around 25,000 gallons of oil a year.
Mike Walzel joined the movement in 2020, launching his farm, Fortissimo (Italian for “very strong”), near Navasota after retiring from the chemicals industry. He now serves as president of the Texas Association of Olive Growers, whose senior board members have since left, some abandoning their orchards entirely.
Much of that has to do with February 2021. Uri brought subfreezing temperatures that lasted for days, damaging every olive orchard in the state. In the worst cases, it froze the trees right down to the roots, eliminating any chance of future rehabilitation. Freezes in the years that followed compounded the damage, pushing a meaningful harvest years further away.
Image: Courtesy of Frank Majowicz
Walzel had only planted his 3,000 trees six to eight months before Uri. “My little bitty trees didn’t stand a chance,” he says. Majowicz’s more mature orchard fared better, but not by much. “They were devastated,” he says. “I was, too.” Brazil’s farm took a more gradual hit—his trees were already recovering from previous floods when the freeze arrived, tipping them over the edge.
Olive trees are especially sensitive to winter conditions, requiring both cool nights and mildly warm days to produce fruit—it’s why the crop favors the Mediterranean. Texas, with its rapid temperature swings and periodic deep freezes, is not a forgiving host.
But there are a few lessons Texas farmers who aren’t ready to give up yet could learn from California. Once the underdogs in an industry dominated by Europe, West Coast olive farmers have leveraged advances in science and technology to overcome obstacles, grow their orchards, and protect them.
David Garci-Aguirre, senior vice president of operations and master miller at Corto Olives, credits the development of super high-density olive farming as the primary breakthrough. Mechanical harvesting has helped reduce labor requirements and the time required to mill the oil.
In Texas, resources like the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service are pursuing that kind of progress. Stephen Janak, an extension program specialist for olive fruits, says one way to help olive trees survive the winter is to deprive them of water and fertilizer starting in Texas’s warm fall. This process mimics the dormancy cycle that the trees won’t naturally achieve on their own, thereby increasing their chances of survival during colder weather and freezes. The university is also conducting studies to determine which olive tree varieties are best suited to the Texas climate and which regions within the state are most viable for the crop.
Five years after Uri, olive trees across the state are bearing fruit again, but the damage has already been done. Larger, commercial farms like Henry’s now supplement their local supply with oil from other states or Europe. Many smaller farmers, still scarred by Uri, have switched to crops better suited to the Texas climate.
Walzel seems to have one foot out the door. He says he will tend to his remaining 22 trees, but should another freeze take them, he won’t replant. He’s redirected most of his attention toward growing grapes and is excited about making traditional balsamic vinegar.
Brazil returned to cattle ranching after deciding that olive oil farming wasn’t financially worthwhile, especially while planning for retirement, but he still waxes poetic about Texas olive oil.
One of the biggest benefits of Texas having its own supply is freshness, a quality that enhances both the taste and the health benefits of consuming olive oil. Oils from European countries are often at least a year old before reaching an American consumer, Brazil says—it’s part of the reason why a few Texas oils have won top honors at international competitions.
Image: Courtesy of Frank Majowicz
Brazil’s olive oil beat out hundreds of competing oils, including those from established European farms, winning a silver medal at the New York International Olive Oil Competition in 2017. Freshness, he said, made a difference. “If you ever go to an olive farm, when they’re milling the olives and [the] aroma is coming off the malaxers, and then you taste that olive oil that is coming off the back of that centrifuge, it’s just the organic taste—the pungency,” he says. “It’s like a pepper going down your throat. That’s when all the good things in olive oil won’t get no better than they are right there.”
Majowicz is still dedicated. With 500 surviving trees and 500 more replanted after Uri, he’s planning for a fruitful upcoming harvest that will allow him to sell oil. He’s already consulted with the AgriLife team on how to better winterproof his trees. Still, he moves forward with caution. He had plans to transform a part of his property into another orchard—but after 2021, he says: “I ain’t stupid.”
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