A Visit to Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard

When good friends Peter and Victoria came to stay with us in late January, one of the really interesting things we did was to visit Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard, just 20 minutes south of San Antonio on I-37. It was really cold and dreary, owner Sandy Winoker, a former psychologist and illustrator who lived in New York before returning home to Texas, greeted us warmly.

She has a wealth of knowledge about olive trees and olive products, and she sells both. The olive oil we tasted was wonderful. Before we left, we bought a lovely little Arbequina olive tree and will plant it in a month or two to see how it does here in the city.

Sandy has over 10,000 olive trees on her property. She talked to us about varieties of trees, how best to grow them, and what she has learned since opening the olive orchard. We even got to tour the orchard in golf carts. Despite the weather it was a great afternoon.

I encourage you to visit the website, and then visit Sandy in person - she's wonderful!

Sandy's house, which includes an artist's studio and a retail space/educational center.	Some of the featured olive oil products - most are made on premises
Sandy explains her plans for expansion to Peter and Victoria	Peter and Michael accompany us on the tour in the second cart - we drive with Sandy to see the many, many olive trees
The trees are spectacular, and stretch on seemingly forever	Before we leave, Sandy helps us choose a tree that will do well in our area - we may have olives in a couple of years!

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