Diane is a friendly face at the Farmers Market. You will find Diane & Tom behind the “Herbs by Diane” table at the indoor market at the Fresh 52 Farmers Market at Tivoli Village each Saturday. For 30 years Diane has been organic gardening. Her garden in Boulder City produces a wide variety of herbs, micro greens and vegetable that she not only brings to the farmers market, but are sought after by chefs at the fine restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip.
The variety of herbs is exceptional. She has multiple varieties; there is not just basil but cinnamon basil, dark opal basil (which is purple), lemon basil, sweet basil and Thai basil. In addition to Bay leaves, cilantro, oregano, parsley, sage and thyme you will find the more unexpected Shiso (an Asian herb that is part of the mint family) and Epazote (an herb used in many traditional Mexican dishes…often with beans, because of its carminative properties which is a fancy way of saying it keeps down gas!). She also brings in edible flowers, perfect for making that salad look stunningly beautiful. You will find fresh herbs for what ever is in season and dried herbs and herb blends year round.
We fell in love with her sunflower micro greens and she also carries radish greens, a variety of other micro greens as well as pea and corn shoots seasonally.
While she grows primarily herbs, she does bring in seasonal vegetables including garlic, greens, cucumbers, beans, peas, peppers and squash.
Herb Infused Vinegar
She also has a line of herb infused vinegars which are white wine vinegar based and they use all fresh herbs to infuse the vinegars. They use the herbs at the end of the season and let them sit in the vinegar for several months to absorb the flavors and fragrances. The basil and garlic go great with a little walnut oil and a little Dijon mustard for a simple salad dressing. Lemon mint orange mint pineapple mint are all infused in the vinegar to make their Tropical Mint blend. They find this goes well in soup. The Italian blend of Parsley rosemary and thyme goes well in dressings. The Opal Basil Vinegar has a lovely pink color from the purple basil leaves. The salad Burnet has a cucumber like essence and is populate with chefs for creating clean fresh dressings. It is often used in place of mint leaves in recipes. In Mexico they use the leaves to flavor their water. The bay leaf is a strong flavored vinegar that is great for marinades. They created both lemon balm & lemon basil vinegars to see which would be the most lemony. The lemon basil won out and was so popular they sold out. The Garlic chive blossom vinegar is very intense and a little spicy. They are still experimenting to see which are the most popular, so find them at the farmers market and test some of these out and give them some feedback!
Herb Infused Glycerine Soaps
Diane also has a line of herbal glycerine soaps. The soaps are glycerine based with herbs added. Some are available without added fragrance for those with allergies.
A Great Resource for Foodies
Diane has over 40 varieties of herbs and greens to keep the chefs happy. So if you are a foodie who wants to cook like the great chefs, check out her herbs and greens and start using some of these on your own! Diane is bound to have some great suggestions for you.
Look for her on Saturday’s at the Fresh 52 Indoor Market at Tivoli Village. Visit her Herbs by Diane Facebook page to see what she has that is seasonal that she will be bringing to the market as well as some great suggested recipes and some insider photos of the garden!
Here is a Gallery of Herb’s by Diane
This is a story we posted on our 4farm2mrkt.com site to see this story and more, click here
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