The climate where the Italian trees thrived felt similar to the climate he was accustomed to in South Central Texas. He did some research and decided the notion of growing olive trees wasn't as far-fetched as agriculture Extension agents and research scientists had led him to believe.
That was five years ago. Today, Transeau has about 4,000 olive trees, representing more than 40 varieties, on his Charta Olive Farms, near Columbus, where he is creating an olive tree nursery to serve what he expects to be a growing number of olive growers in the region.
Growing olives in Texas has been considered a risky proposition for a number of reasons, one of those being the trees' susceptibility to cold weather. Transeau's experience this year, and that of other growers, has convinced him that olive trees can stand up to the region's coldest temperatures. Temperatures last month dipped into the teens, the point where horticulture experts say olive trees are most vulnerable. His trees came through mostly unaffected.
"Some of the varieties showed no effect at all," he said. "The vast majority had tiny burn marks on a few of their leaves. Some of the varieties from North Africa and Sicily didn't do so well, because it's warm year-round there. The Spanish, Italian and Greek varieties did just fine."
The success of the trees and the interest he is seeing from people interested in planting olive trees validates his faith in a crop that he was actively discouraged from growing.
"A lot of Extension people and scientists thought it was less than a sure thing, to put it mildly," Transeau said. "A few olive growers in the state and myself ignored that advice. I'm operating a nursery, so my niche is a little different from the people who are growing olives commercially or those who just put a few trees in the ground."
Charta Olive Farm also offers orchard services that include as much, or as little, service as customers want. Some growers, especially larger commercial growers, will prefer to do all the work themselves. For those who don't or can't, Charta offers full installation and maintenance of the orchard, including site assessment and preparation, irrigation, maintenance, harvesting and processing.
Charta has a centrifugal olive press to process olives and a bottling machine and other equipment to box, ship and label a customer's own brand of olive oil. A wet winter has slowed work, but plans to open a retail unit are still on track, along with plans for making the farm a hub of olive research in the state.
Transeau earned a degree in biology at Stephen F. Austin but made a career in private business. Propagating olive trees and learning through hands-on experience has allowed him to indulge and explore the passion for agriculture research that fueled his studies in college.
"I've always been real interested in plants. We grow fruit trees and citrus and raise bees -- all that 'living in the country' stuff," he said. "When I saw how similar our climate is to other olive-growing regions, I really began to research it seriously and decided that growing olives was possible here, no matter what other people said.
"One of my goals here is to have a bank for olive genetics. I'd like to have 100 varieties available for people to choose from. This is a place where they can be studied to produce varieties that are perfectly suited for Texas."
The biggest surprise Transeau has had in staring Charta Olive Farm is the response from people interested in putting in some olive trees. A large number of the calls have come from within the state but he has received calls from all over the country and even from Saudi Arabia.
"We were not expecting the demand that we've seen," he said. "We thought it would take several years to develop in a slow fashion. We grew 10,000 trees last year and sold every one. It's blossomed a lot quicker than we thought it would."
For more information on Charta Olive Farm and its services, go to chartaolives.com.
