KingDome Ranch

Working in the garden this morning! Carefully wedding a bed that has some amazing thisle that I don't want, but it's covered with ladybugs, so as I pull, I'm relocating the beneficials to my small tender veggies.

Then I look over, and I'm not even sure how to relocate the last one safely....

Well, I went to take the kitchen scraps to the chickens, and dropped a Casa Cielo Farms avocado seed in the hole in the ground- its Texas, hole is a summertime norm. I wonder if it will grow a tree??? Stay tuned! 🤪

Hey! We're so excited! Our peach tree and pear trees are full of ripe fruit and we finally have enough to share!

If you know you'll see me this week and want me to bring you some, message me!
At $3 per lb for either pears or peaches, or a mix of both, I can take cash or pretty much all of the money apps.

These are smaller than what you'll find at the store since this is one of our first crops from these trees, but they're full of flavor. No pesticides. Pollinated by our own bees, and all the happy other pollinators on our land.
-Heidi

Today's garden haul has turnips and beets (to make those turnips pretty when I pickle them) fresh mexican tarragon that is making my kitchen smell amazing, mint, dill, Swiss chard, beet tops (sorry, I composed the turnip tops. Should have cooked them. I love some greens!) A few cherry tomatoes, black berries, goji berries, and yummmmy seedless grapes.

And, my wild plum jelly set up yesterday. Had to add pectin. Can't wait to try it!

Why am I wearing a beesuit at 9pm? So glad you asked. See that hive behind me? We had it next to the barn last season. This spring, a feral bee colony found it and decided to move on in. So, yesterday we strapped it onto the tractor and tonight we will move it down to the bee yard. At night means all the bees that were out foraging today are inside the hive and hopefully won't get lost tomorrow when they leave the hive. Wish them luck!

Thought I would use up some jalapeños that came with our produce recently. Found a recipe for jalapeño infused honey. It's tempting to try it before its all done fermenting...

Today's potato harvest was beautiful! Purple, white and reds all harvested to make room for okra!

Wild plum harvesting/ foraging going on for days! What's your favorite wild plum recipe?

Had a very productive beekeeping day yesterday! Our hives look beautiful and strong, and we harvested frames on our largest hive. Rather than aggressively pulling off an entire box of honey, we pulled 4 frames (we have 8 frame boxes) and replaced with 4 empty frames for them to refill. We will likely pull 4 more later in June.

We also had 5 frames from last season that we kept in the deep freezer in case we needed to feed it to the bees after the winter. We didn't need them, so we processed those 5 frames and the 4 fresh ones and ended up with a little over 2 gallons of honey and a ton of wax caps that will need to be melted down.

Oh! And we discovered that we caught a wild swarm on one of our boxes that was just being stored on the side of the garage, soooo... now we have another hive that we will have to figure out how and when to move to the bee yard, lol.

Garden haul!
Turnips, turnip greens, peas, radishes, spinach, and Swiss chard! Not pictured, all the asparagus! So much asparagus right now.

The peach tree has been rejecting its runs to make room for the beauties that will keep growing the next few months for a summer harvest. I like to gather them up and throw them in with the chickens for an added treat!

I often try to find inspiration for my artwork at Heidi Tournoux Studios in nature, and lately I don't have to look very far! Check out this amazingly beautiful lily that just bloomed!!!

Caterpillars and lady bug babies on the catnip plant! I guess I'll wait to trim it back.

Harvesting a steady stream of asparagus!

Lots of work done in just a little time today, but it is beautiful outside! Harvested a few asparagus shoots to add to the earlier harvests. I think we'll eat some today.

Added some twine for the peas to grow up under the repurposed gazebo.

Added the w**d barrier and some soil to the new bed I got for mother's day last year. Will keep filling that up.

Geoff fixed up a few more beds. It's all coming together!

And our grapes are budding out!

What's everyone planting in their garden this spring?

Our bees will be super happy! The wild plums are blooming!

The orchard is all pretty with these new leaves and flowers!

I love spring, when I can grab the eggs before the chickens eat them because they're laying more now that the days are longer! Lol

The veggies are popping up! Potatoes, peas

Pear over achiever budding out!

Peach tree has blooms!

Aaah!! The first of the cut flowers! I love daffodils!

Not sure what we gave to the chickens as scraps, but I'm thinking it was the halloween pumpkins. Glad we are able to move our chicken coop so we get a fertilized orchard out here! Can't wait to see what else grows, lol!

The veggies checked in safe during this early morning thunderstorm! No hardening off for them right now!