International Olive Festival of Texas™ 2010
A GO TEXAN event in cooperation with the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Saturday, March 27, 2010, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm              
The second annual olive festival sponsored by Les Dames d’Escoffier San Antonio chapter, the leading international organization composed of women in the fields of food, wine, and hospitality, is scheduled for March 27, 2010. This highly successful event, back by popular demand, will feature 25 vendors, gourmet food and Texas wine concessions planned with genuine “foodies” in mind, cooking demonstrations by chefs and other experts, health and nutrition seminars as well as an entire tent devoted to other national organizations with a similar purpose, olive oil beauty products, presentations on Mediterranean herbs and growing olive trees for pleasure or profit, tours of the ranch, and olive and olive oil presentations planned around entertaining ideas.

  When Pati Jacobs started Bastrop Cattle Company in 2006, she started out with the philosophy that she could offer a better price to ranchers to raise grass fed, free-range animals than they could receive through the auction barn, and still be cost competitive with most beef products in the consumer market.

On the subject of eating Texas foods and beverages, we at the Texas Food and Wine Gourmet.com are always on the lookout for great Farmer’s Markets.  So let us know of great ones in your region.  Two new markets in the Hill Country are great and certainly worth checking out.  Well, actually one is brand new and the other is the long-awaited re-opening of a much-loved Dripping Springs Farm Stand.  

 For Lamb Lovers - One of the newest additions to the growing list of free range meats being grown in the Texas Hill Country using sustainable practices is Twin County Dorpers.  Owners Isabelle Lauziere and Lloyd Wendell are producing fabulous lamb products on their Harper, Texas, ranch located about 22 miles west of Fredericksburg.  The ranch, which has been in Lloyd’s family for many years, grew wool and mohair producing varieties of sheep for years. 

It was one of those typically Texas late September days - already hot at 5:30 a.m. as we left the house and headed down the winding, curvy back roads from Fredericksburg to Wimberley. With the aid of some good strong Mason’s Blend coffee and a couple of Roger’s great egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches, we made it to Bella Vista Ranch a little after 7:00, pumped and ready to pick olives.