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GO TEXAN Truly Significant Texans in Agrlculture celebrates Kim Followwill, Grape and Olive grower · GO TEXAN THE Truly Significant

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hot in Texas, found across the state.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Ride it's how we look kid risk.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It is honestly boots, it's what.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We're wearing horses.
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  Speaker 1: Yea, we may ride farm it is so rewarding.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Branch should we do with ride? And we a sub s.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: What's left is just atna. It's done. What you go say,
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  Speaker 2: it's doing true sign.
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  Speaker 3: And welcome back to Truly Significant dot com presents Go
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Texan Podcast. I'm Rick Tokinney reporting live from the Texas
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  Speaker 3: Wine and Grape Growers Association here in San Marcos, Texas.
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  Speaker 3: And walking into our booth here is Kim Followell, Texas
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  Speaker 3: Aggie Classes seventy nine. She's a grape grower and an
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  Speaker 3: olive grower, and I know that you're going to enjoy
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  Speaker 3: this very candid conversation with her.
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  Speaker 4: Enjoy Kim Followwell, my.
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: Name is Kim Followell, and I'm from Cuero, Texas, and
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  Speaker 5: I am a new grapegrower. I had a commercial olive
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  Speaker 5: orchard that was about to be producing olives ury the
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  Speaker 5: freeze of twenty one wiped us out. I'm in the
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  Speaker 5: Gulf Coast and so also Hurri Kane Harvey was not
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  Speaker 5: really friendly to us either, so I had a lot
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  Speaker 5: of challenges in growing olives. And the last orchard that
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: we planted in olives did not thrive at all. We
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  Speaker 5: planted it twice and it didn't thrive. And so because
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  Speaker 5: we have deer fenced it's that orchard just thirty five acres,
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  Speaker 5: and because it's deer fenced and irrigated and it's been
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  Speaker 5: sitting there for a couple of years, we decided that
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  Speaker 5: we would try because we have the infrastructure to grow
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  Speaker 5: grapes there.
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  Speaker 4: You could almost write your own farmer's alminat good.
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  Speaker 5: It's like good, everything that could happen has happened. Yes,
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  Speaker 5: just about when five hundred yr floods, Hurricane Harvey and
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  Speaker 5: two freezes.
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  Speaker 6: Those are I don't know whether people out there are listening,
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  Speaker 6: are all of faith not, but those are acts of God. Hurricanes, tornadoes,
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  Speaker 6: health furners, Yeah, deep deep freezes. And people don't realize
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  Speaker 6: that when you're walking into the life as a farmer,
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  Speaker 6: that you were going to be up against mother nature,
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  Speaker 6: mother nature, and sometimes you're going to win and sometimes
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  Speaker 6: you're gonna lose. You've got to see the long road.
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  Speaker 5: I'm a fighter.
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  Speaker 6: You've got to be a fighter because otherwise you could
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  Speaker 6: give up very easily.
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  Speaker 4: So this isn't for the faint of heart.
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  Speaker 5: No, sir, it's not. It's like raising children. It's not
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  Speaker 5: for the fate of heart. We know that.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So we've observed olive farms across the world.
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  Speaker 6: Our favorite are in Spain. Of course, I told Carla
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  Speaker 6: that when I die, you can bury me in olives.
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  Speaker 6: But let me tell you where they're from.
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  Speaker 5: They won't be in Texas.
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  Speaker 4: They're not.
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  Speaker 5: You're not going under in Texas.
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  Speaker 4: What is the for our listeners?
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  Speaker 6: Tell them what is the basic difference between Spanish soil
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  Speaker 6: and where you live, and why the fruit thrives one
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  Speaker 6: place and maybe it struggles in an.
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  Speaker 5: Know if it's so much the soil. The planting methods,
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  Speaker 5: of course, in the last few years have been different.
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  Speaker 5: Texas tried to follow California and doing high density orchards,
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  Speaker 5: which in my opinion, this is just my opinion, the
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  Speaker 5: trees were planted every five feet. The roads were spaced
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  Speaker 5: wide apart, but the trees were every five feet, and
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  Speaker 5: that's high density planning. Of course, you can harvest a
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  Speaker 5: lot more olives that way. Nurseries can sell a lot
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  Speaker 5: more olive trees, but I don't really know that. You know,
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  Speaker 5: if I had to do it again, I would not
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  Speaker 5: do that because there's no movement of air. The sunlight
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  Speaker 5: can't really permeate the tree like it could if it
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  Speaker 5: was farther apart. So a lot of those traditional orchards,
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  Speaker 5: those trees are twenty five feet apart. They're not as
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  Speaker 5: close as we planted them here. So I think that
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  Speaker 5: was a big function as well. And actually how I
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  Speaker 5: ended up planting olives was we had this property that
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  Speaker 5: wasn't big enough to make much money off of cattle,
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  Speaker 5: and so I started investigating different crops. At this time,
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  Speaker 5: all of the Texas olive oil industry was was coming around.
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  Speaker 5: You know, a lot of people were investing money, hard work,
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  Speaker 5: and so that's what we decided to do. All the
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  Speaker 5: equatorial information that came from, sorry, not equatorial, climatic information
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  Speaker 5: from Foster Field which is in Victoria and air Force Face.
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  Speaker 5: It's been closed a long time, but they had twenty
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  Speaker 5: five years with the climatics. Those climatics really added up
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  Speaker 5: to a Mediterranean climate in terms of highs and lows
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  Speaker 5: and amount of rainfall. So I think that had something
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  Speaker 5: to do with it. Everybody told me my soil was
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  Speaker 5: too good. What I never put any amendments in it.
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  Speaker 5: I never fertilized. Olives like to struggle. They like really tough.
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  Speaker 5: I know you said you've traveled. You think about the
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  Speaker 5: orchards you walked through. They were probably rocky, they were
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  Speaker 5: probably dry, and that's what they like. So I just
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  Speaker 5: feel like my location was not.
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  Speaker 2: Conduce.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, the swall was too good. People keep saying your
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  Speaker 5: soil too good. Well, what am I going to do
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  Speaker 5: about that?
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  Speaker 7: Right?
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  Speaker 5: So I'm just hoping that the grape to think my
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  Speaker 5: soil is just right because I'm planting next week.
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  Speaker 4: You know what I appreciate so much what you're saying
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  Speaker 4: is Number one, you have hope in your eyes.
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  Speaker 5: It's a new adventure.
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  Speaker 4: It's a new adventure.
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  Speaker 6: And then secondly, you just just you just threw out
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  Speaker 6: a couple of life metaphors that are so interesting. This
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  Speaker 6: one for starters five feet apart versus twenty five that's
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  Speaker 6: urban sprang. Yeah, people are unhappy when they're too close
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  Speaker 6: to each other, right I am, I am?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: And then this other part about all lives like to struggle.
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  Speaker 6: They're stronger because they struggle exactly that's character and integrity.
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  Speaker 5: I've got a lot of it from those all up said,
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  Speaker 5: I guess.
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  Speaker 4: But the part that.
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  Speaker 6: Interesting I think intriguing about olives is that we see
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  Speaker 6: when we travel to some of the bigger cities, we
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  Speaker 6: see young people selling olive oil in stores and taking
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  Speaker 6: a shot of it. And it reminds us of the
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  Speaker 6: those days when a doctor said drinking red wine is
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  Speaker 6: gonna help you live longer, you know, drink a glass
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  Speaker 6: a day. And so now we see this happening, and
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  Speaker 6: then we read about it, and we see it in blogs.
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  Speaker 6: Then these functional doctors come out.
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  Speaker 4: The latest who who was right? As we call them,
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  Speaker 4: not which doctors, but and they go drink.
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  Speaker 5: I mean there's great benefits from olive oil.
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  Speaker 4: There really is.
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  Speaker 6: I mean we have totally converted and so there's a
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  Speaker 6: you're on the I think you're on the cusp of
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  Speaker 6: something bigger and greater, where you've got some positive forces
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  Speaker 6: behind you that are different from any other industry.
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  Speaker 4: The olives, the olives, Am I wrong?
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  Speaker 5: No, I think you're right, because the health benefits of
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  Speaker 5: olive oil are you know, it's good for your heart,
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  Speaker 5: it's good for cancer, it's good for diabetes, it's good
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  Speaker 5: for your joints, it's good for everything. Yes, But I
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  Speaker 5: don't think we can grow it in Texas very well.
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  Speaker 5: I just don't, so I agree with you one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 5: Olive oil is definitely good. It's delicious, it provides a
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  Speaker 5: lot of benefits for health. But I don't know about
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  Speaker 5: growing it in Texas. I tried it, and yes, I struggled.
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  Speaker 5: And we'll see. Those trees are just sitting there. I
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  Speaker 5: haven't done any this one orchard where I'm in a
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  Speaker 5: plant in grapes. Yes, I pulled the trees out of there,
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  Speaker 5: and I'd love to find nurseries that wanted them. So far,
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  Speaker 5: I haven't done that. But the other orchard's just sitting
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  Speaker 5: there and perhaps someday. I don't fertilize it, which I
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  Speaker 5: really never did, and I don't water it. I haven't
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  Speaker 5: put any water in there in three years. And now
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  Speaker 5: this last freeze that we had that we weren't supposed
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  Speaker 5: to have, I'm sure it has the name did some
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  Speaker 5: more damage, but I'm just going to see what they do.
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  Speaker 4: Did you ever amend your soil with limestone?
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  Speaker 2: I have no.
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  Speaker 5: I have a lot of different soils. I do have
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  Speaker 5: some soil that does have a lot of limestone in it.
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  Speaker 5: And it's funny, those trees did produce more fruit. I
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  Speaker 5: did have fruit, but not enough for a commercial harvest.
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  Speaker 5: But they didn't grow very bit. My other trees were
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  Speaker 5: you know, I kept having to hedge them on the
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  Speaker 5: top and on the side, which is a practice you
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  Speaker 5: do with all of us anyway. But the trees that
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  Speaker 5: were in the more mineral soil didn't get very big,
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  Speaker 5: but they had more fruit.
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  Speaker 4: About that. Yeah, okay, So I'll wrap up this with
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  Speaker 4: a couple more deeper questions. So what have you learned
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  Speaker 4: over the course of your life since graduating from A
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  Speaker 4: and M about the value of pruning? And obvious that
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  Speaker 4: in general.
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  Speaker 5: You're being philosophical. I know you are well.
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  Speaker 4: I think that.
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  Speaker 5: I've tried to accentuate the good and eliminate the bad.
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  Speaker 5: And that, in a way, is pruning in an orchard.
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  Speaker 5: It's preening in the gardening, it's screening in any way
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  Speaker 5: you do. But it can also be applied to life.
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  Speaker 5: I guess, grab what you like and get rid of
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  Speaker 5: what you don't.
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  Speaker 4: Don't.
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  Speaker 5: As I get older, I don't want to spend energy
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  Speaker 5: on things that don't I don't want to say serve me,
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  Speaker 5: but that I don't feel good about trying not anything
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  Speaker 5: because I only have so much energy left. So I'm
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  Speaker 5: going to prune the stuff that sucks energy and doesn't
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  Speaker 5: give it.
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  Speaker 4: Amen.
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  Speaker 6: That's how we think. And the less yer we have,
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: the more we give away. I think one doctor told
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  Speaker 6: me it gives off endorphins. So maybe that's why we
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: feel good about giving plus, like, for instance, collecting corkscrew for.
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  Speaker 4: The last I know.
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  Speaker 5: I love those.
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  Speaker 4: It's like, so good, what are we going to do?
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  Speaker 4: Kids don't want my kids will want anything. Your favorite
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: thing to say is I don't wanted dad. That's that's
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  Speaker 4: the number one quote from right.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 6: So they've already prune. Yes, we taught them well, yes,
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  Speaker 6: And now what we value much like my great grandmother's clock, right,
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  Speaker 6: nobody in it.
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  Speaker 4: We're got to get past that nostalgian cinnamonality.
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  Speaker 5: Right, enjoy it while you have it. Hopefully somebody will
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  Speaker 5: want it. But if they don't, you enjoy it.
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  Speaker 4: While you at it. That's right, Okay, one more five
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  Speaker 4: years from now? What do you want?
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  Speaker 5: Though you said thirty five acres, I'm only planting.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: Four, Okay, how many? What do you want that the
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  Speaker 4: four to look like?
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  Speaker 5: I want the four to not have Pierce's disease, which
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: is very prevalent where we live. I would like to
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  Speaker 5: be able to grow other fruit other than just the
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  Speaker 5: varieties that are PD resistant, because there's not many. So
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  Speaker 5: I would like to see that produce good fruit that
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  Speaker 5: wineries would like to buy from me.
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  Speaker 4: To make wine, to mix, to mix.
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  Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely, it's it's a varietal blanc du bois that
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: is blended and it's become a big thing for sparkling wines,
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  Speaker 5: and so that's really what I'm hoping, And I'm hoping
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  Speaker 5: that the juice will be so good that I'll be
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  Speaker 5: able to grow and sell lots of grapes.
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  Speaker 4: What's the variety blanc du.
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  Speaker 5: Bois, I asked us. And also we're planting an experimental
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: one called Poissanti Nowa, which is a red grape.
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  Speaker 6: Great, you are a wonderful guest, Carlo. Would you be
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: so kind of hand me a book so I can
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  Speaker 6: write a personal note on these.
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  Speaker 5: Four acres, Yes, four acres of grapes. I could plant
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: sixty five acres of grapes. Oh, thank you so much.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: Make those four acres matter, We'll try.
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: Thank you for joining us on this Go Texan podcast.
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: We thank Commissioner Sid Miller and the team at the
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: Texas Department of Agriculture for their support, and we urge
• 13:43
  Speaker 7: you to support the Texas wine industry and the hundreds
• 13:47
  Speaker 7: of wineries and thousands of grape growers out there in
• 13:49
  Speaker 7: our state. When dining out, consider ordering Texas wines and
• 13:54
  Speaker 7: remember Texas agriculture truly matters and our wine industry is
• 13:59
  Speaker 7: robust because of you. This show is produced in connection
• 14:03
  Speaker 7: with the Texas Department of Agriculture. The original music is
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: from TSB Rocks dot Com, the truly significant band. Until
• 14:12
  Speaker 7: next time, Go Texan.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Each hat in Texas found across the sea. Ride it's
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: how loocis brist it is any loose, it's what we're wearing.
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  Speaker 2: Horses.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we may ride no farm.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: It is soul reporting branch. Should we do it? Fry
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: and we a sub s. What's left is just an.
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  Speaker 2: It's not what you go say. It's no true SIGNI