Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

In March 2021, Stephen Janak, a program specialist for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, which provides research and training to growers across the state, drove across Texas, crisscrossing farm-to-market roads from Madisonville to Bandera. The previous year had seen a bumper crop of olives—the largest production year to date, the culmination of a decade-long boom in the Texas olive oil industry.But as Janak visited growers—as he did regularly to check on variety trials—he saw fields full of dead trees. Instead of the shiny, green, feather-shaped leaves that had filled orchards only a month before, he saw acres and acres of brown. Winter Storm Uri had just gripped the state in a brutal and unrelenting cold, breaking records for the longest below-freezing streak in the state’s…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The November day had dawned chilly and damp, the sun bundled in gray cloud banks. Now, in the early afternoon, the air has warmed only a few degrees, and a persistent mist slicks the limestone—horrid conditions for rock climbing. But I must try. I’ve spent three months training hard in the gym, torturing myself on a finger-strengthening device called a hangboard and doing weighted pull-ups like a maniac. I’ve gathered two friends to assist, and a drone will soon be sent aloft to capture what I have imagined, in my daydreams, as a triumphant romp to the top after nearly four years of trying to conquer this route and falling, falling, falling.The goal seems straightforward: I must scale a vertical rock face for about seventy…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

More than 1,200 Americans have been charged with federal crimes for their roles in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, but among the marauding hordes, a few faces have left an indelible impression on the American psyche. There is, of course, Jacob Chansley, the bare-chested, bison horn–wearing Arizonan who is better known as the “QAnon Shaman.” Kevin Seefried, a 53-year-old Delaware drywall mechanic, will forever be remembered for marching a Confederate flag through the Capitol. And how could we forget Richard Barnett, the Arkansas window salesman  photographed propping his foot up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk? Then there’s 44-year-old Dallas filmmaker and actor Luke Coffee, a.k.a. the #HighFiveCowboy. Nicknamed for a viral photo of him in which he stretches his hand skyward during the…

The post He Stormed the Capitol and Hid From the Law at a Hill Country Resort. Now He Has a Day in Court. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

For the past several years, the names of the biggest stars in Texas music have been familiar. There’s Beyoncé, of course, plus Miranda Lambert, Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves, and Travis Scott. Willie Nelson and George Strait, if you’re looking at legacy acts. All of them are still at the top of any list, but take a look through the lineups of this year’s spring and summer music festivals, and something else becomes clear: There’s a new guard coming in. An updated crop of Texas musicians are being set up for stardom, emerging from the bottom of the bill to the names in big fonts right near the top. A good number of the ever-expanding circuit of American music festivals have now released their lineups. The pools…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

A 106-year-old World War II veteran beat his own record as the oldest person to tandem skydive when he jumped out of a plane over Fentress—and was joined in the endeavor by Governor Greg Abbott. Someone allegedly stole a city-owned wildlife camera in Live Oak without realizing it was still sending photos to the police, who identified the man from images of him sitting half-naked in bed and promptly arrested him. The City of San Antonio offered residents H-E-B gift cards, ranging in value from $50 to $300, in exchange for each gun they surrendered, though the drive-through exchange set a strict limit of twenty weapons per vehicle. University of Texas at Austin quarterback Quinn Ewers dedicated the team’s win against Oklahoma State University to…

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