Texas Olive Ranch
TRAILBLAZING TEXAS OLIVE OIL
Fifteen years ago, the thought of Texas olive oil was unimaginable. Today, due to the right combination of vision, knowledge, “tree whisperering,” and good old Texas primacy, Texas Olive Ranch is home to the largest crop of olives in the Southern United States. With our own natural grown olives, we make the finest Extra Virgin Olive Oils you can find anywhere because of our dedication to quality and doing things right. Our story begins with Texas-sized ambition and continues with a never-ending dedication to quality.
UNWAVERING BELIEF IN THE LAND OF TEXAS
Texas Olive Ranch sits just outside the beautiful Carrizo Springs in Southern Texas. The rugged landscape, sandy soils, and flora reminded founder Jim Henry of Southern Spain, legendary for its production of Arbequina extra virgin olive oil and also known as The Olive Mecca. Nothing like this had ever been done there before, but Jim never wavered in his belief that this was the perfect place to grow olives. So he planted 40,000 trees. To accomplish this Jim Henry partnered with Jerry Farrell and the Farrell family, they too were inspired to pursue Texas Olive Oil. Their partnership played a key role in getting the ranch started and are still actively involved today.
THE FARMER AT THE HEART OF IT
Jim knew what to look for because he’d spent 20 years traveling, learning and amassing olive oil production expertise. It was in the cards for Jim to be a farmer – at just 10, an aptitude test foresaw his destiny. After a childhood of work on his grandparent’s farm, he led a successful career in retail before discovering his passion for olive oil. Jim traveled extensively around the Mediterranean, to the birthplaces of olive oil in Italy, Spain, and Greece. He acquired the knowledge and the skills to cultivate different varietals of olive trees, studying under some of the oldest olive growing families in the world.
JIM STRIKES OIL
Olive oil, that is. Turns out, Jim was more than right about Southern Texas’s potential for cultivating tasty olives. In 2009, the first Arbequina trees blossomed and were pressed into some of the purest extra virgin olive oil ever produced in the U.S.
THE OLIVE OIL BOOM IN TEXAS
Thanks to Jim and Texas Olive Ranch, Texas is now an olive oil hub. We produce more than 25,000 gallons a year and have expanded from Carrizo Springs into Victoria, Texas, with plans to expand further.
We carefully tend to over 100,000 trees across Southern Texas to produce some of the most balanced extra virgin olive oil under the sun. Our authentic extra virgin olive oil, made from six different Spanish, Greek, and Italian olive varietals, tests at the highest industry standards for quality. Recently, we expanded our Ranch to the land of gauchos, planting 250,000 trees in Argentina – another place divinely suited for growing olives. Despite our growth, Texas Olive Ranch remains a family farm run by Jim Henry, his son Josh, and the employees who have been there from the start. Our values of tradition and integrity have carried us to where we are now – perfectly poised to produce remarkable extra virgin olive oil at a fair price.
Texas Olive Ranch now produces 25,000 gallons a year and we are excited to be expanding out business to beautiful Victoria, Texas where we recently planted 50,000 olive tree and are planning on planting 200,000 more.
SAME HENRY FAMILY, SAME FAMILY VALUES
Texas Olive Ranch is a family-owned business in every sense of the word. Jim’s son Josh has taken after his “tree whispering” father and is now known as “the wrangler” for his uncanny ability to operate the Ranch’s olive press. Any day of the week, you can find Jim out in the orchard caring for the trees with his own two hands. We know that our care and the quality it translates into is what has grown our small family business and is what keeps our loyal customers coming back. That’s why we work to maintain the family values we founded Texas Olive Ranch on as we grow, which means continuing to produce the highest quality of olive oil, no matter what everyone else is doing.
GIVING BACK TO THE LAND OF TEXAS
We’re grateful every day for the bounty that Texas land has given us. That’s why we believe in honoring it and putting what we reap back into the soil. We do everything possible to leave as small a footprint as possible, like feeding our leftover olive mash to our ranch animals who in turn naturally fertilize the orchard. Our olive oil is 100% GMO-free and grown with only natural methods, absolutely no chemicals or pesticides.