It's a sunny Wednesday in Summerlin, and smart local shoppers are taking self-guided tasting tours at the springtime Las Vegas Farmer's Market. It's an epicurean, inexpensive way to while away a bright afternoon. No wonder the smiles are contagious all around. One of the best starting places is the stand operated by grower Tom Schulte, who has made the trip here from Visalia, in California's Central Valley. Schulte sells lush, sweet low-acid tangelos for 75 cents a pound, as well as beautiful beefsteak tomatoes that are actually grown for him in a local hot house, 99 cents a pound.

If you haven't tasted tangelos, they are a treat. They are brightly colored, aromatic and richly flavored, with loose rinds. Schulte also stocks exotically flavored roasted nuts from various Central Valley growers, one of the best being peach honey almonds sugar crusted nuts that are hard to stop eating. Naturally, you may taste anything Schulte sells. That is the way almost all of the 30-odd vendors here conduct their businesses, by the way. Nearby Schulte you'll find Volker Ritzinger, the Austrian-born baking whiz from Volker's Bakery of Salt Lake City, Utah. Simply stated, these are the best commercially available breads you are likely to taste anywhere in these parts, and the variety is quite impressive. All Volker's dozen-odd breads are made using a 48-year-old sourdough starter.Just a few of the top choices among these crusty loaves are a yeasty, pungent Greek olive, a dense Asiago cheese, an airy lemon sage and a terrific seeded nine-grain baguette. All the breads are either a loaf. Volker, please open a bakery here, so we can eat your delicious breads year 'round. If all the bread tasting has made you thirsty, head over to the vendor called Best Apples, from Nipomo, Calif. This is where you can buy the nicely perfumed and almost insipidly sweet Red Fuji apple for a pound, or, better yet, a quart of the delicious cider squeezed from this apple. These folks are quick to tell you that their apples contain no wax or pesticides.

All of these vendors come to the Thursday market in Henderson as well the market is virtually identical to the one in Summerlin, with only a couple of exceptions.) The Henderson market is held in downtown Henderson, at the Civic Center Plaza, and while there aren't picnic benches here as there are at Bruce Trent Park, there are plenty of benches for al fresco eating.Ethel M. Chocolate Botanical Cactus Garden:The Ethel M. Chocolate Botanical Cactus Garden has been part of the Las Vegas scene since 1981. Forrest Mars, creator of the Mars bar, Milky Way and M&Ms, came to Vegas when he retired and opened this specialty gourmet company. He wanted to honor his mother, Ethel, who along with his dad, were also chocolate makers. Inside, visitors can take a self-guided tour of the chocolate factory. Outside, they meander through a three-acre collection of 350 different varieties of cacti, succulents and other desert dwelling plants.

Morgan Garden:Victoria and Dennis Morgan have created a colorful desert oasis in their Las Vegas home. In the midst of the hot desert sun, Italian cypress and vibrant mosaics surround a cooling fountain. But this is only part of the Morgan's desert parterre garden. Yellow lantanas define the walk that leads into the garden, and apricot, apple and pear trees are just some of the trees that compose the 200-tree orchard.University of Nevada-Las Vegas Xeric Garden: The University of Nevada in Las Vegas offers a wealth of knowledge not just to their students, but to any one interested in desert gardening.

The UNLV Xeric garden is a study in what to grow in dry, hot climates. All the plants here are drought tolerant. Of course there are cacti and succulents, but to the surprise of many, there are also colorful blooms here such as pink autumn sage and licorice marigolds. Heckler Garden:Brent and Susan Heckler's backyard is a stage of welcoming color. Blue and white petunias, yellow and purple pansies add splashes of color to their desert oasis. Although the flowers appear delicate, they are in fact hardy and drought tolerant. In addition to the flower garden, the Hecklers also grow vegetables and fruit trees. Acacia Demonstration Gardens:The City of Henderson's Acacia Demonstration Gardens provides ideas for water-efficient home landscaping. Created through a cooperative partnership between the City of Henderson and the Conservation District of Southern Nevada, the Gardens features a variety of drought-tolerant landscaping options on nearly 3 acres. Trails, kiosks and interpretive displays provide information about turf planting, xeriscape, irrigation systems and ways to conserve and avoid water waste.The Gardens offers workshops about landscaping and conservation. North Las Vegas Desert Demonstration Garden:The City of North Las Vegas recognizes the importance of water conservation in Southern Nevada.

In an effort to promote and achieve water efficiency, the city converted an acre of turf into a water-efficient desert garden. The North Las Vegas Desert Demonstration Garden showcases more than 75 plant species common to the Las Vegas landscape, including native desert plants as well as shrubs from around the globe. This dynamic setting grows and changes with each season. Take a journey through this lush, colorful water-efficient garden, which includes a seating area, walking paths and a sensory garden.Desert Demonstration Gardens:Since 1982, the garden has functioned both as a model for xeriscape gardening and a testing ground for new plants that might do well in the harsh southern Nevada climate. Workshops help interested gardeners duplicate results in their own backyards. Even for those with no gardening ambitions, or no backyards, the landscaping and flowering plants are reason enough to visit.

Farmers Markets Grown in Nevada

From the date stand, sample more desert fare, at Lindsay, the stand of California's olive grower extrordinaire, Susan Denni. Here you can buy Denni's golden colored, fruity olive oil, optimistically named Oil of Joy, at either for a large bottle, or for a picnic-sized bottle. Five dollars also gets you a wonderful jar of Denni's terrific garlic stuffed olives, giant green olives stuffed with whole cloves of garlic. Needless to say, this is one of the more popular tasting venues at our farmers market. As we count down the months the sugar in strawberries increases, ever so gradually toward summer. Right about now the Eady Family of Harvest Barn in Highland, Calif, is selling their huge, tart berries at the market, but they swear that by early April these berries will be full of concentrated sugar. You can buy a sleeve of them for a half flat for reasonable.

Our farmers market is also a paradise for people who come purely to snack. Super Soynuts serve a menu of flavored, roasted soy beans, which are grown, harvested and dusted with salty flavored powders. None of these beans have been genetically altered in any way. Just a few of the flavors of this high protein snack are onion and garlic, jerky, honey mustard, barbecue and jalapeno cheddar. For the truly health conscious, they are also available unsalted and unflavored. There is also Krafty Korn, a slightly sweet, slightly salty popcorn that is kettle cooked as you watch. It's fun to watch the corn being stirred with an old-fashioned-looking wooden paddle, and when freshly popped, this is fairly addictive stuff. A small bag, which contains approximately six cups. A large bag, approximately 40 cups, is a steal. The longest lines at either farmers market, though, are at Walter's Louisiana Cajun Barbecue.

Everyone loves barbecue, obviously, and these drum smoked, penetratingly woodsy meats can't be produced or chopped up fast enough to shorten these lines. Well, why not? Bellard, a real Louisianan, uses hardwoods such as hickory and mesquite, a mild Cajun spice rub and a bunch of homemade side dishes to please his customers. Pork roast is the best bet, because it is tender when compared with the tough but flavorsome pork ribs. There is a delicious smoked Lousiana hot link for only huge turkey legs for and a chicken dinner with two sides. The latter is a good value especially when one of the sides is the murky, moist Cajun aka dirty rice, which is shot through with chopped-up liver.

Bellard will also smoke anything you bring, within reason. Then you take your meat, some of his good potato salad or baked beans, and create your own picnic here at Bruce Trent Park (or in the Henderson Civic Plaza if it is Thursday. For dessert, try some of Gourmet Goodies and Gift's buttery homemade lemon or coconut pecan cookies, which Donna Pressel-Eaton makes with all natural ingredients. On Thursdays only, in Henderson, you can assuage the kiddies with a confection called Sandy Candy: sweet tart sugar-based powders that are poured into little plastic tubes, creating a rainbow of colors. Blue-fruit punch, red, wild cherry and white-apple are just three flavors sure to bring out the inner child in you. But your mother would rather you had an apple for dessert, that's for certain.

We have the pleasure of visiting farmers markets all the time. Recently we made a trip to one in an area you might not expect. When you think of Las Vegas, you think glitz, glamour and of course gambling—not garden-fresh produce. But that is what you’ll find at the Las Vegas Farmers' Market. It`s actually located in the suburb of Henderson, Nevada, one of the fasted growing cities in America. We started in April of 1999, and it was a huge success. We wanted to increase our traffic in the downtown and since this is a redevelopment area, we thought a farmers' market was perfect, said Market Manager Michelle Romero. Romero adds that the challenge was to find farmers who would come sell their wares in the desert. But they are coming and many are from California.

Fiji Dwarf Coconuts a Jewel in US Landscaping

A coconut improvement program involving Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Miami has focused on the "Fiji Dwarf" variety to combat a shortage of coconut in the Florida landscape trade. Valued for their fruit and processing by-products, these trees are also in high demand as a signature landscape element. But in the 1970s, the lethal yellowing (LY) phytoplasma began attacking the South Florida coconut canopy and had destroyed about 100,000 coconut palms by 1983.

As a result, Florida's Division of Forestry initiated a coconut-breeding program at the ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station (SHRS) in Miami. Fiji Dwarf (also known as Niu Leka) emerged as the prized jewel among varieties because of its heavy, dense crown of short, dark leaves--features especially sought by ornamental growers, landscapers and gardeners.

Since 2001, researchers have been using molecular tools to investigate the genetics of Fiji Dwarf and other varieties. Horticulturalist Tomas Ayala-Silva wants to know if it's possible to distinguish an LY-resistant Fiji Dwarf genotype. So far, data show that Fiji Dwarf has the second-highest genetic diversity among coconut varieties, after the tall varieties such as the "Panama Tall," and the largest number of unique variations, or alleles, of any cultivar group within the study. In the past six years, not a single Fiji Dwarf has died of LY at the SHRS.