A Runner Reflects on Lady Bird Johnson’s Legacy and the Companionship of Nature
Johnson described nature as her daily companion. “The song of the wind in the upper branches of the pine trees is the most evocative symphony I’ve ever heard.” Read More »
Meet Our Makers: Jae Benjamin of Benjamin Soap Co.
At her studio in Hutto, Jae Benjamin crafts small batches of cold-process soaps and hand-poured soy candles using all-natural ingredients. Her artisan bath, body, and home products often contain organic herbs, raw honey, and plant-based essential oils, and some feature inventive additions like coffee beans and stout beer. Benjamin started out small at an Austin farmers market in 2014, but now her wares can be found at select shops across the nation. Read More »
Aaron Franklin Dishes on His New Steak Cookbook
Aaron Franklin, of Austin's Franklin Barbecue, talks about his new steak cookbook. Read More »
Long Live Willie Nelson
Texas Highways EXTRA Newsletter April 2019 | Web Version Read More »
Where to Pick the Best Texas Produce for Canning
As a child, one of the first things I did upon arriving at my Mamaw Grace and Papaw Dorsey’s rambling fieldstone farmhouse in Kentucky was to open the cellar door off the main dining room. Slowly, I crept down the wooden stairs, allowing my eyes to adjust to the dim light. A single shaft of sunlight from the cellar window illuminated the far stone wall—or what would have been the wall had it not been obscured from floor to rafters by glistening glass-encased riches in every color of the rainbow. Read More »
Fire-Roasted Hatch Chile Salsa Recipe
All year-round Texas produces fruits and vegetable ripe for baking, cooking, and canning. Tomato season is just around the corner, and after picking up a few bushels at a farmers’ market or stand, you’ll want to have this salsa recipe handy. Roasting the peppers and tomatoes first adds some toothsome char and also makes them easier to peel. Hatch chiles mingled with jalapeños to bring some smoky depth to the heat; just make sure to either wear gloves while working with hot peppers or plan to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. Canning the results ensures that your salsa is delicious and fresh-tasting for the next year. Read More »
For Presidio, the ‘Middle of Nowhere’ Is a Fine Place to Be
Big Bend wanderers, celebrities drifting down from Marfa, and other end-of-the-liners have officially discovered the border town of Presidio. They’re late by about eight centuries, though: People have lived for so long at the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos that the valley surrounding Presidio is thought to be the oldest continually cultivated farmland in Texas, if not the United States. “It’s funny,” says John Ferguson, the mayor of this dusty town 60 miles south of Marfa. “Presidio is the oldest town anywhere in the entire Big Bend area, but so little of our history is truly known, even to those of us who live right here on top of it.” Read More »
Four New Trailheads Lead Hikers to El Paso’s Wild Outdoors
Four new urban trailheads opened this March in El Paso, providing stunning views and helpful amenities for hikers and mountain bikers trekking from the city’s streets into Franklin Mountains State Park, the largest urban park in the country. Read More »
The Surrender of Santa Anna
In 1886, 50 years after the Battle of San Jacinto, Austin painter William Henry Huddle set out to interpret a critical scene from the conflict with his painting, The Surrender of Santa Anna. Huddle’s oil-on-canvas work, which has hung in the South Foyer of the Texas Capitol since 1891, depicts the morning after the April 21, 1836, clash as Texian fighters presented Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna, dressed in the white pants of a private, to Texas Gen. Sam Houston, who is reclined with a battle wound to his leg. The decisive victory secured the rebels’ independence from Mexico, a turning point Texas honors annually on April 21, known as San Jacinto Day. Huddle’s painting includes more than 30 historical figures, among them scout Erastus “Deaf” Smith (seated on a log), Secretary of War Thomas Jefferson Rusk (to the rear left of Houston), and Col. Mirabeau B. Lamar (left of Rusk). Read More »
Photo: Lightning Over Sweetwater
The wide-open spaces and generally flat landscape make the plains of Texas a prime location for wind energy production. With nothing to block the view for miles, the environment also makes for some spectacular storm viewing. The two combine in this electric image of a storm passing over a wind farm near Sweetwater. Read More »
A Palo Duro Canyon Community Offers More Than Meets the Eye
Your first time in Canyon, you’ll be forgiven for wondering where this Panhandle community of about 15,000 gets its name. Heading into town, you pass beehives from a local honey farm, the sprawling campus of West Texas A&M University, and tidy brick houses. What you won’t see is anything resembling a canyon. Read More »
Hike, Fish, and Play—but Watch Out for Bigfoot—at the Mineola Nature Preserve
Past the sign for a wastewater treatment plant on the southern edge of Mineola, one of the largest municipal parks in the nation awaits. The Mineola Nature Preserve sprawls 2,911 acres across garden trails, forests, wetlands, grassy fields, and river. More than 193 species of birds roam here, as well as delicate butterflies, roly polies, thundering buffalo, and Longhorn cattle. Read More »
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