Jack Dougherty is an expert on olives who runs Bella Vista Ranch olive grove in Wimberley, Texas. He had a high-tech career in California but his passion was for farming. He educates visitors about olives and olive oil, explaining that olives were initially very bitter before being soaked in brine. Olive farming originated in the Mediterranean but is now also occurring in California and Texas as the health benefits of olive oil have increased demand.

1. Olive Oil Is Like a Fine
Wine

2. • Jack Dougherty of Bella Vista Ranch knows
olives.
• It was olives that bridged the gap between the
high tech haven of Palo Alto and the Texas Hill
Country heaven of Wimberley for Jack
Dougherty. Mr. Dougherty had a distinguished
career in the high tech industry and at one
point supervised well over 1,000 employees.
But his heart was always in the fruit groves
and nut bearing groves near his boyhood Palo
Alto home.

3. • In Jack's case, it seems you just can't take the country out
of the boy and he made his way to Texas and Wimberley as
soon as he could. He still travels the world in search of
information and technology, and techniques on olives, but
his home and his heart are now at Bella Vista Ranch near
Wimberley, Texas.
• We took a tour of Bella Vista Ranch a few weeks ago and
sat in amazement as he explained the story of olives to us
and a few others gathered under some live oak trees sitting
on picnic tables right smack in the middle of one of the
premier olive groves in Texas and the USA. We had no idea
we had stumbled upon one of the premier experts of the
olive world right there in Wimberley.

4. • As he told the history of olives, he related that the first
person who ever tasted an olive was probably not
impressed. Raw olives contain an alkaloid that makes
them very bitter and unedible. Some ancient
civilization discovered that soaking them in brine
removes the bad taste.
• Olives have been around for centuries, but until
recently they were just a condiment you served with
your meals or at a party as an appetizer. It was in the
1990 s that health organizations took notice of the′
health benefits, specifically our heart health. With this
discovery, new diets emerged using Olive Oil in their
recipes.

5. • Olive farming originated in the
Mediterranean, but as the economy changed
so did the use of the land that olives were
grown. In the United States, California is our
major grower of both green and black olives,
but due to the high prices of land, the olive
growing is also shrinking. So now Olive
farmers are looking for less expensive land to
grow olives to produce the olive oil to meet
the increasing demand.

6. • Resources:
• http://tienda.augustajardin.com/p118009-olivo-ho
http://ezinearticles.com/?Olive-Oil-Is-Like-a-Fine-
Wine&id=5548266

7. •Thanks for reading