Branching out to olives in Texas
By Julie Bonnin,
In Texas, growers are pressing forward with a crop that’s anything but drab
On the historic day of Bill and Bev Kemp’s first commercial olive harvest, Jack Russell terriers romp in the furrows beneath the trees, and two woolly llamas from next door watch the activity from the gravel road that runs past the grove. The olive grove owner, a transplanted Midwesterner, plucks the small fruit off the silvery-leaved trees, alongside Spanish-speaking pickers from South Texas.
Bill Kemp, who is semi-retired, says his sons have suggested he ditch the olive trees: “The Old Man’s out with the olive trees again; he should be playing golf.” But the owner of Southern Style Spices, an import company, yearned to be growing something on the land he bought his wife, Bev, as a birthday gift several years ago. Both of them grew up in Missouri on farms, but he’s the one with the green thumb and has consistently supplied his wife with fruits and vegetables to can or prepare in other ways.
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Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 12:29 pm under
