High Ground

The Texas Panhandle is home to more than a few businesses finding success in an agricultural niche.

Gary Oldham, owner of SOS from Texas, can say he grows his own T-shirts.

The farming company in Samnorwood markets its own clothing lines from the organic cotton it grows on about 100 acres.

That’s enough cotton to make about 100,000 T-shirts, Oldham notes.

“Our family had been farming forever, but the Texas Department of Agriculture started an organic certification program back in ’92 and that’s when we got our land certified and started growing our cotton,” he says. The company also produces socks, sweatshirts, baby blankets and more from the cotton.

“We were planning on just growing cotton and found the buyers were looking for a finished product,” Oldham says. “So instead of just selling raw cotton, we got into making T-shirts.”

Goodart Candy Co. in Lubbock figured out a sweet tooth can establish loyal customers. The company has been producing peanut patties since 1939.

Ron Harbuck, vice president of the company, says the patties are made the same way they were when the company first opened.

“They’re still done in old-fashioned copper kettles and cooked in a batch at a time,” Harbuck says. “Peanut patties are our mainstay, but we also make peanut brittle.”

Batches of peanutty goodness are sold all over the country from California to the southern states.

“We do mail orders in every state of the union,” he says.

And Panhandle Popcorn Co. in Plainview also knows a thing or two about keeping a business growing.

The company started producing gourmet popcorn in the region in 1942, says owner Jim Mock.

The company sells gourmet popcorn to Neiman Marcus stores, as well as through mail orders and area stores.