Blackwood Living
Our passion is bringing people together.
On 33 acres near Hempstead, Texas, is the headquarters for our farm—Blackwood Educational Land Institute, the beautiful, natural facilities of Blackwood Living, the spectacular commercial kitchen for Longspoon Catering, and the gardens for the Blackwood Bounty CSA.
At Blackwood Living, our goal is to provide an experience of gathering as a reflection of our customer’s values. We balance an aesthetic of natural and manicured and pride ourselves in creating events with purpose. Blackwood Living offers a venue for private events, corporate retreats, weddings, and a number of other celebrations.
Serving Houston, Austin, Brenham, Chappell Hill, College Station, and Bryan, Texas for three decades!
Blackwood Living is about people and community, and a life based on the essentials. Less about minimalism, more about celebrating who and what we value most. Food, water and shelter may be the tenets of survival, but our need to connect and to belong to a community is just as significant. Blackwood reconnects adults and children to nature through food grown right, the value of community and collaboration, and the pleasure of being outdoors.
Everything we do reflects the importance Blackwood places on nutrient-dense food, regenerative farming, and a vibrant, sustainable environment as the foundation for a healthy life.
Blackwood’s indoor-outdoor event spaces provide unique event venues for school programs, workshops, retreats, and seminars to experience our interdependence on the land. When Blackwood Land is not hosting a Texas farm education event or experience on site for kids and families, Blackwood Living and Longspoon Catering are creating luxurious experiences, including:
• Texas weddings
• Private outdoor parties
• Cooking classes and high end catering
• Texas farm-to-table dinners
• Corporate retreats near Houston
• And anything else you can imagine!
Our Space
Whether you are having a rustic Texas wedding, an outdoor farm-to-table family dinner, or a weekend family reunion, our facility ideally accommodates your unique event.
A long gravel road lined with trees passes the hopscotch garden and high tunnels, the 10,000 square foot gathering hall, and a commercial kitchen. Further along, the road leads to the heart of the farm: a 5,000 square foot environmentally friendly straw-bale house, fondly known as Baleyfield House. This home anchors our learning environment, provides shelters for overnight activities, and serves as command central for weddings, retreats, and family gatherings. Just steps from the back door is our kitchen garden, an orchard, spiral garden, a greenhouse, and even an outdoor pizza kitchen!
Surrounding Baleyfield House is a sustainably managed farm—our living classroom of fields and forest, native grasses, three distinct and interconnected ecosystems, a pond teeming with water life, a labyrinth, beehives, chickens, private cabins… and more.
Our goal is to provide the blank canvas upon which you create your unique event. You won’t find a more beautiful, enchanting, unique place to enjoy your special occasion.
Click toggles below to discover our other spaces.
Our Farm
The land that Blackwood is on near Hempstead, Texas, was once a forest of trees and brush struggling to grow in poor soil. Now it has been transformed into a living classroom—Blackwood Educational Land Institute.
Of the 33 acres that make up Blackwood, about four are cultivated as the Hopscotch and Kitchen gardens. The gardens at Blackwood are managed with regenerative agricultural practices, informed by multiple disciplines and perspectives. The Kitchen Garden has been growing nutrient-dense food since the early 1990s, and the Hopscotch Garden was built in 2010. Two high tunnels in Hopscotch enable us to experiment with growing specialty crops in the harsh Texas climate.
We grow healthy food to inspire the next generation and to connect us all. We are dedicated to harvesting and producing our food in restorative and environmentally-conscious manner, often employing key concepts of the day. Whether it’s biomechanics or permaculture, we’re integrating resiliency into our farming methods.
