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

As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? The rains don’t come like they used to, and Glenn Schur can’t rely on the once bountiful water beneath the clay loam soil of the South Plains—the largest cotton-producing area in the world. In the past, his pumps pulled up as much as he needed to irrigate his crops. But recent years have brought drier weather to Schur’s 2,500 acres near Plainview, a town of 20,000 between Lubbock and Amarillo. The Ogallala Aquifer yields less and less. “My granddad dug the well. My dad pumped the well,” said the 65-year-old farmer. “And I’m going to be the generation that capped the well.”The Ogallala,…

The post As the Ogallala Aquifer Dwindles, West Texas Farmers Face a Future Without Irrigated Crops 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.

As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? As climate change continues to shift eastward the dividing line between our nation’s arid plains and wetter climes, more of Texas will likely resemble the state’s desert regions in the coming decades. Cities will be forced to adapt to this new reality as they manage water resources. With only 9 inches of annual rainfall—compared with the statewide average of 27 inches—El Paso offers them a glimpse of the future.Until the late eighties, El Paso relied heavily on groundwater extracted from the Hueco Bolson aquifer. But after decades of overpumping caused water levels to plummet, municipal leaders changed course. Since the city implemented an aggressive…

The post El Paso Reuses Every Drop of Water It Can. The Rest of Texas Could Heed the Lesson. 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.

As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? To reduce waste, common sense suggests rescinding water’s current exception from the law of supply and demand. Typically in a market economy, if there’s not enough of a resource, its price goes up, encouraging conservation. Yet while water grows increasingly scarce, it remains relatively cheap.In Texas, unlike in most other states, we treat water both as a public good and as private property, depending on where it comes from and who’s pumping it. Landowners drawing water from their own wells pay almost nothing beyond the price of a permit and a pump. There’s little financial incentive to cut back on water use.The Legislature would…

The post Why Don’t Water Wasters Pay Much More Per Gallon? 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.

As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? Every day buried pipes across Texas spill water into the soil, through breaks large and small. Roadwork and digging to lay fiber-optic cable often damage water mains. Extreme temperatures can shift the ground, creating fractures in decades-old lines. Some crack simply because they’ve met the end of their useful life—typically 50 to 75 years.Enough water seeps from these broken pipes each year to meet the needs of Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo, and Lubbock combined. It’s more than enough—186 billion gallons—to put Dallas County under a foot of H₂O.Texas should invest in repairing leaky pipes and replacing aging ones before paying for new…

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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 Italian digestifs known as amari date back to the thirteenth century, when monks began making them for medicinal purposes. These bracing after-dinner liqueurs—“amaro,” the singular of “amari,” means “bitter”—are at once ubiquitous and highly localized in Italy, with towns creating proprietary mixes of macerated herbs that are then fermented in neutral liquor. Consumption of amari, whether it’s mixed into drinks or served neat, gained traction in the United States during the craft-cocktail boom of the early aughts, with brands such as Aperol, Campari, and Fernet-Brancabecoming especially popular. Eventually, distillers in the U.S.—and Texas—began to make their own versions. “Amari give the distiller free rein,” says Brian Meola, the chief executive officer of Revolution Spirits Distilling Co., which debuted the first Texas amaro, Amico Amaro, in…

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