A Day Trip to a Texas Olive Ranch for the
Pressing of the Olives

We spent a rainy Saturday heading out to the Bella Vista Ranch near Wimberley, Texas to see the fall '04 pressing of Texas olives into olive oil.

Mimosas and Asiago - not a bad way to start the morning.

The owners' house at Bella Vista is typical Texas limestone.

Inside the tasting room are lots of different kinds of olive oil and condiments.

Jack, the owner, talks about the history, chemistry, and growing conditions for the olives that produce the oil.

Here are the olives being sent to the pressing machine, pits and all.

This is the leftover stuff that comes out of the pressing machine - it reminds everyone of yucky things, but it goes into the compost pile and to the cattle, who love it.

Here is the olive oil coming out - their total production on this day was eight gallons, which shows how many olives it takes to make oil.

We are instructed to smell and taste the oil- Mike chooses to listen to it, too.