Wednesday, June 11, 2003 | 8:13 a.m.
Tall and tan and young and lovely, Luana Conklin lives on the outskirts of Pahrump, where she operates a boutique farm called Gardens of Cristiani. The next time you eat that salad, exotic soup, or interesting garnish in one of our top local restaurants, there's a good chance it was Luana who grew the micro greens, herbs, or unusual vegetables that make it distinctive.
The knock on Vegas restaurants, from foodies who don't know the area as well as we locals, is that nothing grows or is cultivated in the desert, hence products aren't always as fresh as in larger-market cities. This simply isn't true anymore. This column has done many stories on local food producers -- Gilcrease Orchards on the north end of town being just one -- and the numbers seem to be increasing.
The down-to-earth Conklin, who does double duty as a homemaker and mother of three, is one more example. Pulling up to her stucco home, which sits on an acre-and-a-half of ground she uses to cultivate her crops, one is instantly assaulted by the perfumes of manure, roses and mint.
Most of what she grows is behind her home in large plots or in a cozy, bright greenhouse attached directly to her kitchen. In the living room, there is a rubbing of the original headstone of Buffalo Bill Cody in a frame and toys strewn across the floor -- in short, similar to most typical suburban homes.
"It's tough being a farmer," says Conklin, pouring a couple of glasses of iced tea. "I grow year round, but this year, we've had a very difficult year for the crops, a warm winter, far too much rain, and lots of beetles eating my lettuces. There will be a big grasshopper invasion this summer, I can feel it."
Conklin is in her seventh season, and grows for chefs such as David Feau of Lutece, Michael and Wendy Jordan, owners of Rosemary's, Charlie Palmer of Aureole and Charlie Palmer Steak, the steakhouse 3950 in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, and Emeril's New Orleans Fish House. A friend got her started eight years ago, and Emeril's was her first account. But gardening was always in her life. She grew up in rural Georgia, and in her words, "I always tended our gardens."
In the beginning, her crops were designated Certified Organic by the USDA, but this status, which she held for the first two years, proved to be a major hassle to maintain. To be organic, there must be no pesticides or man-made fertilizers (like Miracle Gro), and inspectors come to check with regularity. "They looked in my trash cans and audited my receipts," she said.
And being organic didn't bring her any benefit.
Today everything she grows is essentially the same, but without the official distinction. In her greenhouse, there are three shelves on two sides, each one lined with planters and exotic herbs.
"What I grow varies from year to year because it is whatever the chefs ask for," she said. In the small greenhouse are boxes of basil, micro-sage, cilantro, pea shoots, sunflower shoots, micro fennel and some chervil, plus Asian greens such as tatsoi (Japanese bok choy) and mizuna, a cultivar in the mustard family. One of her most popular items is a blend of eight different micros that she calls her "Fantasia" blend. She also grows baby lettuces, baby arugula, and a variety of other things there.
Proudly, she pulls up first a pea shoot, and then a sunflower shoot, offering them for tasting. They both tasted of the soil they were grown in, and both were delightful.
But most of the action here is outside. Conklin has divided up her gardens by the use of concrete blocks, which separate the individual beds. Most of the beds have nets covering them, and they are watered by means of sprayers and a drip system of irrigation, which provides a constant supply of water in the heat.
Walking out to the gardens behind the house, there are cages for the sheep and white pheasant she raises. Near to the house, there are edible flowers, calendula, borage, and the fragrant bachelor button. On the side of the house are huge sprigs of mint, already in full bloom. Every week, Conklin's mint plants yield around 2,000 mint tips from cross breeds such as pineapple mint, ginger mint, pear mint and lemon mint.
She should have her heirloom tomatoes ready by the Fourth of July. She grows five different varieties of heirlooms, like Cherokee purple, brandywine and zebra. A bed of bull's blood beets is nearby, and so is red cabbage, garnet amaranth and opal basil, all in great demand from Las Vegas chefs.
The chefs can be demanding, too. At the moment, she is also growing huge Cinderella pumpkins for chef David Feau of Lutece, who plans to use them for pumpkin soup, and micro bok choy for chef Mark LoRusso at Bellagio's Aqua.
But it isn't all for the chefs. She is experimenting with Alpine strawberries to see how they grow in the desert, and cultivating French Charantais melons. Charantais are small- to medium-sized, globe-shaped fruits with thick, deep-orange flesh, and are extremely sweet and flavorful. They are great with prosciutto.
So what is the advantage for a chef in using these products, as opposed to just buying them from a large produce distributor? In Conklin's own words, "what I produce is all cut for the chefs on the same day or on the day before, resulting in a better, fresher product."
Unfortunately, at the moment, Conklin doesn't sell to the public, but perhaps she will someday. For further information about her products, call (775) 751-1023.
archive
