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Mark Simon, farm manager at Hilltop Gardens in the rural Lower Rio Grande Valley community of Lyford, can testify to the unexpected advantages of living and working close to 40 acres of aloe vera plants. “I burned my hand once, getting off of a piece of machinery,” he recalled, almost flinching at the memory of…

Aside from the soldiers and supplies that Texas provided to the Confederacy, the state’s most important contribution to the Civil War might have been the salt processed at the Swenson Salines in Lampasas County, near Lometa. While the Confederacy lasted, the place was one of several across the country known as the Confederate Salt Works….

This corner of the Hill Country retains its European flavor.

The smell is the first thing everyone notices. It’s unmistakable–a combination of wood burning down to coals, sizzling fat and cooking beef. It brings back a thousand memories, all at once and yet still distinct, memories of families and backyards and Boy Scout cookouts and neighborhood barbecues with little kids running all over the place….

Texas’ shiny new rest stops are attractions in themselves