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They may not be famous like Lewis and Clark. But for people who love blackberries, Jim Moore and John Clark of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station have blazed a trail just as important. They’ve developed new blackberry types that are ideal for the home garden. Some don’t have any thorns. And one produces fruit so big that a falling berry could dent your car. Why grow blackberries at home? Well, for one thing, blackberries sold at the supermarket cost about the same as cosmetic surgery....

When Texas Hill Country calls, we listen. Especially if it beckons with a glamping retreat set on the idyllic Montesino Ranch in Wimberley. About 45 minutes outside of Austin, the unique vacation rentals, which debuted in September 2018, are situated on a 225-acre ranch and organic farm. Each of the 12 lavish tents (from $400/night) provide ample shade thanks to their positioning below oak and juniper trees, and are handsomely decorated with local furniture and accessories....

To those in the motorsports’ community, Martha Earnhardt was the matriarch of one of NASCAR’s most famous families. Mother to the Intimidator, NASCAR Hall of Famer, the late Dale Earnhardt, and grandmother to his equally famous son. But to Dale Earnhardt Jr., his siblings, and his cousins, she was “Mamaw.” Martha Earnhardt died Christmas day at the age of 91. The news was confirmed in a statement released by her grandchildren, Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Dale Earnhardt Jr....

If there were a college curriculum in Learning How To Be a Southern Cook, the Senior-level class would be on Baking Stately Layer Cakes. Along with the ability to turn out moist pound cakes, juicy fruit cobblers, and savory chicken casseroles, a Southern baker measures her culinary value on the height and straight sides of her layer cakes. Producing such perfection takes trial and error, many lop-sided cakes, and perhaps even a few tears....

Muscadines just make the season sweeter. As they ripen in August and September, clusters of pinks, purples, greens, blacks, or bronzes hover among the vines. The air oozes with the fragrance of their nectar. Life is good. Getting Started These native Southern grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) are the perfect fruit for the backyard gardener. Though the best time to plant the vines is during late fall or early winter, you can go ahead and look at catalogs and nurseries now to choose the types you plan to use....

Calling all aspiring detectives! Put on your walking shoes, turn off Law & Order, and head on down to Austin to help solve a real-life master robbery. That’s right, y’all. Art Heist, a buzzy true crime walking show, is coming to the Texas capital just in time for Halloween. The immersive experience explores the still-unsolved case of the world’s biggest art caper: when half a billion dollars in paintings disappeared from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990....

Oprah has her Gayle. Jenna has her Hoda. Hoda has her Jenna. And now we have Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb in our friendship circle, too. Well, at least starting on February 6th if you can travel to New York City, where fans will be treated to live tapings of the fourth hour of the TODAY show once a week. On Thursday, the duo made the announcement on-air, clearly excited that they will get to share their show with people in a live audience....

If you have extra hard-cooked eggs leftover from a batch of deviled eggs or egg salad, you don’t have to eat them on the spot a la Cool Hand Luke or feed them to the dog. You can store them in the refrigerator—and maybe even a bit longer than you might think. How to Safely Store Hard-Boiled Eggs According to the Food and Drug Administration, you can keep hard-cooked eggs in the refrigerator for up to seven days after they have been cooked....

No question about it: The holidays are an incredibly fun time of year. There are so many things to love, from the first snap of football season to the clinking of glasses on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, the stretch between late September and early January means literal months of time for our homes to get neglected as they suffer the brunt of our busy-ness (we all have that one…or five…piles that we’ll “get to” at some point, right?...

In Atlanta, a resident’s zip code reveals more than meets the eye. Where you choose to live in this network of historic squares and quirky communities is meaningful—a point of pride. Connected now more than ever before, Atlanta’s in-town neighborhoods are the intersection of perseverance and progression. Cruise down North Highland in the heart of Inman Park and the tug of war between preservation, reinvention, and development couldn’t be clearer. Victorian homes and historic storefronts have found friends in new-age restaurants and apartment buildings that seem to have risen overnight....

Chris Dier is Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year and a finalist for national Teacher of the Year, and he has a message for the thousands of high school seniors who find themselves spending their last semester stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. “This was supposed to be your year,” Dier writes in an open letter published on his personal blog. “Let’s be abundantly clear—you were robbed, and it’s unfair....

It’s go time for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry! Buckingham Palace confirmed on Monday that the Duchess of Sussex is in labor. “The Duchess went into labour in the early hours of this morning. The Duke of Sussex was by Her Royal Highnesses’ side. An announcement will be made soon,” the statement read, per People. Unlike Princess Diana and Kate Middleton who made the steps of the Lindo Wing famous, Meghan has decided to take a more private approach to welcoming her first child....

Jewelry designer Monica Rich Kosann is one of millions of parents who read The Little Engine That Could to their children. Even now that her two daughters have left home, Kosann still has a soft spot for the iconic book. “I had read The Little Engine That Could to my children when they were young and it sort of stayed in our lives ever since, no matter if they were going on a big date, or applying to college, or starting a job, it was always ‘I think I can,’” she explained to Town and Country....

Lafayette, Louisiana, is known as the heart of Cajun country, with its music influenced by the early Acadian settlers, traditionally sung in French. Performers play carefully crafted violins like the ones made by Anya Burgess, owner of Sola Violins. Burgess grew up in Boston, studying at Indiana University and later apprenticing under luthier Otis Tomas in Nova Scotia. Her background in classical music prepared her for this line of work and she started her company out of her home in 2002....

Scientists have accomplished an incredible feat. Thanks to one of the biggest data studies of its kind, researchers have managed to put a number on how many wild birds inhabit the planet. Care to venture a guess? According to the study by UNSW Sydney, there are roughly 50 billion individual birds in the world. That’s approximately six birds for every human on the planet. “Humans have spent a great deal of effort counting the members of our own species—all 7....

Gone are the days of the 20-pound turkey. As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic pushes hosts around the country to begin planning pared-down Thanksgivings, turkey farmers are preparing themselves for an unprecedented shift in demand. All signs point to significantly smaller celebrations this holiday season. Experts fear that this could lead to a run on small turkeys, increased demand for parts like whole breasts, and higher prices overall, The New York Times reports....

If you need to take a dessert to the church potluck, an after-school function, or a family reunion, you just can’t go wrong with a delicious and easy pound cake, such as this Lemon-Lime Pound Cake. Not nearly as fussy as tall layer cakes or fragile as elegant pavlovas, a pound cake is one of the first desserts a Southern cook learns to make. Even though a pound cake recipe has a simple ingredient list and the instructions are easy to follow, there are still a few tricks of the trade a novice baker needs to know before she ties on her apron....

JoAnna Garcia Swisher has all the answers to Sweet Magnolias’ heart-pounding season one cliffhanger, but she has no intentions of spilling the beans. With the premier of season two fast approaching, Garcia Swisher is understandably reluctant to reveal too much, but in a recent interview with US Weekly, she was kind enough to offer a few tantalizing details about what the next installment of the Netflix hit has in store. And by the sounds of it, we’re in for a doozy....

Southern women in crisis tend to get mighty verbal. We’ve just got so much on our minds that we can’t hold it all in, and if we don’t let it out, we’re liable to have a hissy fit. Nobody wants that. We polled our Facebook Brain Trust to see what Southern Mamas have to say about our current situation. Listen, my children, and ye shall hear, of a Mama who’s close to slipping a gear....

Everyone who vacations on the Outer Banks knows that it’s not only the superb beaches and stellar restaurants that make this group of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina so special. With a fascinating history (pirates, the Wright Brothers, “The Lost Colony,” to name a few chapters in the Outer Banks records) and an even more fascinating cast of characters, the people and unique tales hailing from this region make the OBX even more captivating....