Hang out in the shallows below or swim above the dam at Blanco State Park

Road trips hold infinite promise and possibilities, and Austinites are spoiled with many easy Texas Hill Country day trip opportunities. Blanco lies less than an hour away, offering plenty of fun to fill your day. Here is my recipe for making the absolute best of a day trip to Blanco, Texas. [Read more…]

Whiskey cocktail at Andalusia Whiskey Co. in nearby Blanco, TX

Guest article by Mathis Kennington

When you think of grain to glass whiskey, what comes to mind? It took me a minute, the first time I let that phrase sink in. It’s less familiar to me than, let’s say, farm to table food. Grain to glass whiskey hints at the same kind of untouched, unmessed with allure our favorite local restaurants offer: raw fruits and vegetables that must only travel a few miles from a local urban farm until they’re in the hands of a discerning chef. Locally and humanely finished beef and pork that didn’t get mixed into a big pile of neon pink mystery meat paste. We Austinites love to know where our food comes from and what our food ate.

It’s strange we don’t demand the same of our spirits.

Enter Andalusia Whiskey Co. This Blanco-based whiskey distillery startup is committed to producing world class whiskeys with integrity. [Read more…]

Lavender fields forever in Blanco, TX (Credit: Tasha Brieger)

A book introduced me to Tasha Brieger, owner of Hill Country Lavender. Jeannie Ralston’s The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming is the story of a couple who, after several trips to Provence, noted how similar the Hill Country was to the terrain and climate of southern France. Jeannie and her husband Robb Kendrick, a professional photographer, became pioneers when they opened a lavender farm in Blanco, TX in 1999. [Read more…]