Since the 1940s
Our Story
Four generations on the same land
Did You Know?
American Olives Began in Pensacola
Olive production in America began right here in the Panhandle. Don Tristan De Luna's 16th-century settlement was destroyed by a hurricane — and the Spanish ships were laden with olives, a staple of the Spanish diet.
When the ships were destroyed, some of those olives made it to shore, sprouted, and bore fruit.
— University of West Florida, Department of Archeology
The Thomas Family
The Land & The
People
This farm has fed a family for four generations. Now it grows olives.
1940s
The Down-PaymentGrover Thomas sends money home from his work as a Merchant Marine to make the down-payment on the farm land.
Until the 1980s
Charles Works the LandCharles Thomas farms the land until his death, raising crops and milk cows on the same fields where olives grow today.
Age Nine
Mike Learns to DriveMike Thomas learns to drive on this land — behind the wheel of a truck he couldn’t reach the pedals of, zig-zagging across the hay field.
2012
The Grove BeginsThe first olive trees go into the ground, and BlackWater Olive Grove is born. Florida soil, Spanish tradition.
2024
First HarvestOur modest first harvest in August 2024 sells out of oil almost immediately. The press works. The grove works.
Today
Growing OnEvery August and September we pick, press within minutes, and bottle on site — and the grove keeps expanding.
“My Uncle Ray would set me behind the steering wheel, pull out the choke to keep the engine from stalling, then climb out of the cab into the truck bed — and as I zig-zagged around the field he would toss hay to my grandfather's milk cows.”
Mike Thomas · BlackWater Olive Grove
Harvest Season · August & September
Taste What This Land Grows
Estate oil is only available while the harvest lasts. Last year it sold out in weeks.