Todd Boatwright

1 month ago | spectrumlocalnews.com | Todd Boatwright

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin chef Nicole Patel works hard to bring back the taste and smell of Easter from years ago. She owns Delysia Chocolatier in Austin. Patel makes chocolate bunnies and other confections the old-fashioned way. "So if you were a kid in the 70s and 80s, you remember that pure cacao, pure chocolate smell at Easter time. That has gone by the wayside with a lot of mass produced chocolate that has a lot of fillers and additives," said Patel. She started her chocolate business 17 years ago.

2 months ago | spectrumlocalnews.com | Todd Boatwright

AUSTIN, Texas — Jim Watson owns Watson Piano Works, a piano restoration business in San Marcos. Although he started out playing pianos, Watson was more interested in the mechanics and how the piano worked. “I used to take things apart as a kid. At that age, I didn’t put them back together. I’ve since learned how to put stuff back together,” said Watson. A mentor helped him fine-tune his skills. Now, Watson has been restoring pianos for the last 20 years.

Sep 1, 2024 | spectrumlocalnews.com | Todd Boatwright

“You’re in a building that was a hospital for this community of Cuero at a time period when there were no hospitals. Surgery was done here. People died here. We have snake oils and quackery devices, narcotics and poisons; all things of the past people were using as treatments,” said museum historian Jeremiah Ford. Ford enjoys showing visitors what medical treatment was like more than 100 years ago.

Aug 25, 2024 | spectrumlocalnews.com | Todd Boatwright

“We’ve got stuff going back to the '50s, even as far back as 1927. It’s pretty old stuff, so we want to make sure we’re getting a really nice scan of it,” said intern Robbie Lopez. Lopez takes those old films and loads them onto a large machine which scans the images and saves them. Twice a year, the nonprofit holds an event where Texans can send in their old home movies. The films and videos are saved digitally at the archive. Submitters get their original materials back along with a digital copy.

Aug 18, 2024 | spectrumnews1.com | Todd Boatwright

MCGREGOR, Texas — Valerie Lieberman and her husband own Blue Hills Ranch in McGregor, about 20 minutes from Waco. The property is home to all kinds of wildlife, including giraffes, zebras and kangaroos. What You Need To KnowThey had so many animals the ranch turned into an African-style safari.