CATEGORIES

Forging a Legacy - A Fredericksburg, Texas, couple is creating a new class of heirloom cast-iron cookware

When Jay Mallinckrodt pitched the idea of crafting cast-iron cookware to his wife and business partner, Heather, in 2020, she was hesitant. I immediately said no, she recalls with a laugh. But I finally agreed as long as we made something that we would actually want to use ourselves. Like many others during the initial throes of the pandemic, their multigenerational family operation, Heartland Enterprises (which specializes in machining parts for jet engines and gas and oil equipment), was seeing a lull. “No one was flying; no one was drilling, says Jay. So we had time to try something different.

A Butterfly Haven - In the Texas Hill Country, a conservationist is helping monarchs adjust to the changing world

Twenty-four years ago, Monika Maeckle bought a small property on the Llano River in Central Texas as an escape from fast-paced San Antonio. A journalist and marketing professional by trade, she didn't at first realize the value of the location on which she and her husband would later build their ranch. She also had no idea how this decision would eventually transform her life.One October evening a few years later, a friend invited Maeckle to their nearby house, which sat on a watershed with several large cypresses. All these butterflies dropped from the sky and started to gravitate toward the trees, she recalls. Stronger people who could swing a big 12-foot-long pole began trying to capture them, and we waited. By the end of the evening, we'd tagged a couple hundred butterflies, and I left there enchanted.

Oktober Feast!

While I respect your right to serve spooky food in October, you won't find any gory grub at my house this month. Instead, I'm hosting a gathering that's inspired by biergartens across the pond. The focus of the menu is a fondue made with Gruyère cheese and crisp Riesling-like beer-cheese dip but more elevated. It's served with a smorgasbord of dippers such as smoked sausage, grapes, apples, and a few amped-up store-bought snacks, like Mustard-Glazed Pretzel Bites and Smoked Paprika Potato Chips. (Just one taste, and you'll want to add this spice to every bag you open.) Pour yourself a Cider Shandy, and get ready for a good time. Prost, y'all!

The Roast With the Most

Embrace the changing seasons with a cozy pork supper

Roll With It

Company's coming? Bake a batch of these apple-stuffed delights

VIRGINIA PASTORAL

IN MIDDLEBURG, THE COMMONWEALTH'S MOST STORIED SMALL TOWN, OCTOBER WELCOMES A HOST OF TREASURED TRADITIONS

TAKING ROOT

Turn the season's freshest veggies-beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots-into colorful fall sides

THE FAMILY PLACE

When it came time for a young Georgia couple to make an 1800s farmhouse their own, they took it apart piece by piece-then rebuilt it into a home ready to welcome the next generation

Loving Life in Fayetteville

This Northwest Arkansas college town is easy to love and hard to leave

The Road That Raised Me

This lesser-known drive offers the most breathtaking views in the Smoky Mountains

Texas Ranch Revamp

Blair Burton coaxed the cool out of a 1960s Austin house that was stuck in the past

The New Pumpkin Palette

Trade the standard jack-o'-lantern hue for a wide spectrum of shades, from deep green to blush pink

The Truth About Tomatoes

Here's how to store them the right way

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Chill out with this nostalgic no-bake dessert

She's Got the Scoop

In Richmond, Virginia, Rabia Kamara creates ice cream that celebrates Black culture and her heritage

More Is More

Designer Gray Benko isn't afraid of color, pattern, or dogs on the furniture

Changing the Game

For this North Carolina pair, pickleball is the ticket to a healthy lifestyle - and a social one

Stitched Together

For South Carolinian Andrea \"Annie\" Cayetano-Jefferson, sewing sweetgrass baskets ties her to generations of Gullah people, including her mother and daughter

Ciao Bella!

The founder of the Italianmade ceramics brand Vietri celebrates high summer with a pair of tables suited for all occasions

The Music of the Mountains

When warm weather arrives, Brevard, North Carolina's open-air concerts and cascading waterfalls fill the town with the song of summer

No Plant Sitter Required

These hardy groupings can stand up to the heat, even while you're away

A Folly Original

This young couple got scrappy to score the South Carolina beach house of their dreams

Use Your Melon

Refreshing recipes to showcase the versatile and sweet cantaloupe

From Aleppo to Za'atar

A FRESH TAKE ON SUMMER SIDES INSPIRED BY THE FLAVORS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Grumpy's Guide to Hummingbirds

How to attract these aerial acrobats to your garden-and then enjoy the show

The FRIENDLIEST Places in the South 2024

Hospitality is a hallmark of our region, but people define it in different ways. Is it a conversation in the checkout line? A bartender who knows your order before you sit down? The way a community welcomes people who are just passing through? So we asked you, our readers, to share the places that make you feel right at home on every level. Narrowing down thousands of nominations for hotels, restaurants, stores, nonprofits, and more was no small feat, but it was very uplifting. As these 20 standouts show, Southerners go above and beyond to take care of one another.

SAVING HOPSCOTCH

Rather than parting with their much-loved Lookout Mountain home, a Tennessee family renovated the spot to suit their evolving needs

Some Like It Hot

One of America's oldest national parks is both a geothermal marvel and a refreshing getaway in Central Arkansas

FAROUT

IN THE OBSCURITY OF THE WEST TEXAS DESERT, AN UNLIKELY ART TOWN CONTINUES TO DRAW ATTENTION

Southern Living THE SOUTH'S BEST 2024

HOW MANY TIMES have you been on a road trip and realized that you must have taken a left turn where you should have made a right and ended up in what felt like the middle of nowhere?