Adventures in Home Canning

by Celia Hayes

This latest adventure in home food preparation was my daughter's notion, upon noting that the aisle in our local HEB set aside for housewares and appliances had a new section for home canning supplies; including a sort of starter kit for novices; a large light-weight enamel lidded kettle, with a rack and some implements to shift around the jars ... of which there were also a nice assortment in various sizes. I was certain that we had a huge canning kettle in the garage – a gift from a military friend who was moving to another state – but we couldn't readily find it, as the garage is stuffed with items that my daughter has bought for that residence of her own which she hopes to have one day. But we…

20 Herbs to Remember

Written by Randy Watson

The 20th Anniversary of the San Antonio Herb Market presents the "20 Herbs to Remember" ... at the Pearl Brewery Complex, 312 Pearl Parkway, San Antonio, TX. Saturday, October 15, 2011 from 9:00am to 4:00pm.

The 2011 San Antonio Herb Market. The free SAWS-sponsored event features cooking demos, lectures, and activities for the kids! Purchase fresh herbs and other plants, handmade soaps, olive oils, books and other products to delight your herbal senses. Visit with experts on organic gardening, and choose from an array of handmade gardening items to purchase for your patio, deck or yard.

The Herb Market is free and open to the public. Mark your calendars for this very special event!

Road Trip: The Capital of Texas BBQ

Having reason last Saturday to go up to Lockhart, to participate in an evening fund-raising event to support the Eugene Clark Library, my daughter and I thought;  let's drive up in the early afternoon and take a look at the sights of historic downtown Lockhart; a district of several blocks centered on the archetypal Texas courthouse in a square with a number of businesses housed in classic late-19th century or early 20th century buildings.

It's a short drive from our San Antonio home, all things considered, and a fascinating place to spend a weekend afternoon. We would hit a couple of thrift and antique shops, check out one of the four notable BBQ houses, and generally have a relaxing afternoon.…

Festival on the Hill

by Celia Hayes

One of the things that drew me to the house that I eventually bought when I was first house-hunting in San Antonio in the early 1990s was that although it was the smallest, square-foot-wise of all the houses that I looked at  . . .  and it backed on a wide green belt that ran between Nacogdoches and O'Connor Roads. My backyard might be only a little wider than the house frontage, and about twelve feet wide – but beyond the fence was the green belt, which made it seem all the larger. Over and beyond the back fence was a good few acres of green and rising ground, crowned by St. Helena's  . . .  one of those cubist modern shaped, in pale buff brick, which looks vaguely like a ship.

Over time, the Stahl…

Peace Like a River

by Julia Hayden

We went to Wimberly last weekend, first for the Market Days, and then to try and find the place where I had taken some particularly beautiful pictures along the Blanco River some years ago. I am getting ready to publish a all-in-one hardback version of the Adelsverein Trilogy, and I thought that a nice rural view of the hills, river, trees and wildflowers would be just the ticket for the cover. Alas, no luck with the wildflowers this year, and we couldn’t find the road that we had gone driving down, which paralleled the river and offered a wonderful vista around every bend  . . .  never mind – we still got some lovely pictures, I got some plants to begin reviving my poor dog-and-frost destroyed garden again,…

Our Riverwalk

by Julia Hayden

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the downtown Riverwalk is the heart of San Antonio – after the Alamo, it’s the other completely unique tourist attraction. Water, trees and skinny riverbank gardens in the heart of a high-rise city – not many other places like it, and all hail Robert Hugman, the architect-genius who conceived the idea of a riverbank promenade, lined with shops and adorned with bridges and gardens.

Water and plenty of it drove the establishment of a settlement and missions here in the first place: an oasis in what was otherwise near enough to a desert. Early San Antonio looked to the water, measured out careful amounts through the acequias, the irrigation ditches. By the mid-19th…

A Month of Markets Around San Antonio

Farmers’ markets, that is – and not just in metropolitan San Antonio, although the every-Saturday at the Pearl Brewery reigns supreme for location and places to eat, and sheer variety of offerings. Not to mention the live music and the family friendliness of it all. One could actually work up a schedule of hitting the local markets and doing a bit of sight-seeing in certain towns within driving distance of San Antonio: they’d be something to do, every Saturday – and better for you than vegging out in front of the television.

First Saturday of the month: Wimberley Market Days, which is just about the granddaddy of them all, being the oldest outdoor market in the state, and the…

The Gruene Leaves of Summer

So, having worked over Mothers’ Day weekend delivering edible fruit centerpieces, my daughter and I decided that we would slack off – yes, indeedy, we would go off and do something interesting – the Saturday Farmer’s market in New Braunfels, and a pit-stop at Granzin’s Meat Market  . . .  that’s the meat and grocery store tucked cunningly away behind Bluebonnet Ford, on IH-35N  . . .  which offers the most divinely delicious sausages and frankfurters around. We found out about Granzin’s almost by accident, by the way – when I went up to the Sophienburg earlier this spring, to do some publicity for one of my book appearances. There was an estate sale my…

Herbal Remedy

Ah, at long last - respite from the customary brutal heat of summer in south Texas, when that glorious day dawns. The low temperature at night drops into the fifties, the high of the day is maybe for about twenty minutes in late afternoon when the thermometer crawls up to the mid-eighties, and all over the city one can hear the sound of windows being raised, cranked open and flung wide to admit the delicious fresh and unfiltered air . . . yes, the woman rushing from window to window last week and screaming ‘fresh air, fresh air, good…

Texas Made, Texas Good

Follow me on Twitter @satx_randy

Doing the rounds of various local farmer's markets, special events and festivals over the last year or so around San Antonio has really brought it home to me that there is an incredible bounty of locally-produced and locally grown foods out there. It's gone, way, way beyond just Texas-made wines. Local olive-oil, sheep-milk cheeses, pastas and BBQ sauces, smoked meats and sausages . . . it just never ends, even just keeping to a limit of that which is available within a day's drive of San Antonio. Some of my favorite places and venders are strictly local; that is, you actually have to get up and go there, as mail-order is not an option and - for…