Juniper Hills Farm between Dripping Springs and Blanco takes advantage of the rich culinary culture of the Hill Country to combine a cooking school with overnight cabins for a unique weekend getaway.
“The business has just evolved,” says Travis “Sibby” Barrett. “The project drove us rather than us driving the project.” Her vision for the future has the business, which published its first schedule of classes last spring, offering even more opportunities to mix food and a weekend in the country.
Barrett began her career in Dallas where she owned Dallas Affaires Cake Company and Cafe Georgia. The bakery soon eclipsed the neighborhood restaurant and became Barrett’s focus. After more than 19 years, the cake company (2307 Abrams Rd., Dallas) has become known for its designs using fresh flowers, ribbons of white chocolate, edible gold leaves, and miniature fruit.
“I was lucky to find a wonderful staff that can manage the day-to-day activities very well without me,” Barrett says. “They’re probably better off with me not looking over their shoulders all the time and helping with the long-range planning from a distance.”
With family in Austin and San Antonio, the Hill Country was Barrett’s first choice for a country home. She purchased the rocky, juniper- and oak-covered land in 1997. Her two-story rock home, which she calls “Hill Country Tuscany-style,” wasn’t completed until 2002.
Barrett began hosting cooking classes soon after she moved into the house overlooking the Blanco River Valley. Family and friends who attended the informal gatherings in her kitchen needed a place to stay as the wine flowed and the meals lasted into the evening, so Barrett added two cabins with three small apartments to accommodate her guests.
You don’t have to participate in a cooking class to stay in one of the rooms, nor do you have to stay overnight if you take one of Barrett’s classes, but the combination could make for an exciting culinary experience. The farm’s location is an ideal jumping-off point for exploring the Hill Country and beautiful enough to just sit back and enjoy.
The cabins are tastefully decorated and furnished without being cluttered or pretentious. Each room (two are on the ground floor and one is upstairs) has its own sitting room, private porch, and small kitchenette. One of the apartments comes with a fenced yard for pets. “City dogs love it out here,” Barrett says.
Barrett’s yoga studio is being converted into two adjoining rooms until the new kitchen and pavilion are built. “I’ve found that a lot of couples like to travel together,” she says. “The new cabin will have a common area as well as two bedrooms.” All guests have access to a sauna, fire pit, bocce ball court, and wood-fired oven.
From appetizers to cobbler, Barrett has prepared entire meals using the wood-fired pizza oven that looks like a brick toolshed behind her house. “You have to learn a whole other way of cooking using the oven,” Barrett says.
The cooking classes are more of a dinner party where everyone helps out in the kitchen. Each class is limited to 10 cooks. The curriculum ranges from beginners classes to expert speciality courses covering everything from stocking a pantry to making soups and tarts. Groups can even develop their own menu of foods they would like to experiment with. “I want everybody to come away with a new basic skill,” Barrett says.
In addition to food classes, Barrett is hosting a series of workshops with local growers discussing organic gardening. “This area of the Hill Country is such a food-lover’s paradise,” she says. “We have fresh vegetable farms, wineries, and even an olive-oil maker.”
Juniper Hills Farms is about 40 minutes south of Austin off of U.S. 290. The rooms rent for $110 per night with a two-night minimum on the weekends. The cooking classes usually happen on Saturdays or Sundays, although a series of international cuisine classes will be held on Thursday evenings in March. Most classes are $55, with the Farmers Series running $45 for each workshop. For more information on upcoming classes go to www.juniperhillsfarm.com or call 830/833-0910.
761st in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
This article appears in January 13 • 2006.
