Queensland Vineyard Bed & Breakfast was the primary subject of our presentation on Agritourism at this year’s Small Farm Conference held in Reno, Nevada last week. We had the opportunity to address Nevada farmers and detail our progress in developing our alfalfa farm, vineyard and lavender garden as a tourist destination. Thanks to Ann Louhela at Western Nevada College, Nevada Department of Agriculture and the USDA for including us in this year’s conference.

Our vines are visible from the highway and one day a school administrator called us about bringing the kids for a tour. We had a couple of weeks to prepare.

The tour included viewing the alfalfa field, the lavender, the grapes, the trellis, water source, irrigation and the equipment needed to plant and harvest.

Winter is fast approaching, Thanksgiving leftovers are exhausted. We take stock of an incredible year of bounty and progress. Our bed and breakfast has welcomed many guests this year. The Trebbiano vines in the picture above grew at an amazing rate. These vines were planted in June…and look how they’ve grown. Just a couple of the many things for which we are thankful.

This year is our third grape harvest for the original 400 vine test plot. Last year we were fortunate enough to take five of the eight varieties of our fruit to the Pahrump Valley Winery. We will take all eight this year. Seven have already been harvested and delivered to the winery for crush. The Mouvedre (a delicate and slow ripening red) will get picked this Friday. Above is a picture of our Riesling variety. Our original 50 vines produced over 1000 lbs. of fruit this year. We planted 600 more Riesling vines this year which will bear fruit in 2017.