Caroline’s Shiny Penny this week is Diana’s Specialties, Savory Smoked Salmon, Smoked Rainbow Trout & Other Delectables. My mouth is watering, just thinking about it! There is usually a line for Diana’s smoked trout and salmon at the local farmer’s markets. If you have tasted it, you understand why.

Diana did not intend to start a business that would be written up in magazines like Atlanta Magazine and Perimeter North Lifestyle magazine. She started out as a stock broker and compliance officer but had become a stay-at-home mom when her children were born. On vacation, she and her father, whom she was visiting at his North Carolina farm, decided to smoke some fresh trout with his smoker and some twigs from his apple trees. The trout tasted amazing and her father sent her home with the smoker and more apple chips. Diana started learning about brining and smoking fish, and started smoking salmon as well as trout, while her father continued sending her apple chips. She discovered her applewood smoked salmon was a huge hit when she brought it to parties or gave it as a gift. Along the way she created a recipe for aioli sauce that she says “can make cardboard taste good.”

She resisted her friends’ urging that she sell her fish until at the end of 2009, one of her friends insisted on buying eight pieces of salmon to give as Christmas gifts. Since Diana’s does nothing half-way, she jumped right in! She purchased a commercial smoker and started letting all of her friends know that she was open for business. Her friend, Libby Patrick, an interior designer, designed a simple logo that she sketched on a cocktail napkin. Diana started selling at the local farmer’s markets, including Lucy’s Market in Buckhead. She now smokes over 100 pounds of fish weekly and still sells out.

This is not a matter of just sticking some fish in a Big Green Egg. Her process takes two days (brining one day and then smoking/drying/cooking the next). She uses Norwegian salmon, Georgia rainbow trout, and, when in season, wild Alaskan salmon. She brines the fish overnight, rinses and “racks” it to dry. Then she smokes it at a low temperature (all of this, following FDA food codes). Once it cools, she vacuum packs it, keeping the fish fresh for three to six weeks in the refrigerator.

My favorite is the smoked trout pate, which is sold only during the holidays. I can literally eat the entire container in one sitting. But all of it is wonderful.

Currently, Diana’s Specialties are sold at the following locations:

Lucy’s Market in Buckhead

Simply Fresh Market in East Cobb

4 weekly farmers markets ,

Tucker Farmer’s Market, Thursdays from 4-8 pm (April-Dec)

Sandy Springs Farmer’s Market, Saturdays 8 am- 12pm (April-Oct)

Roswell Farmer’s Market, Saturdays 8 am- 12pm (April-Oct)

Marietta Farmer’s Market, Saturdays 8 am- 12pm (year round)

She does not ship products because the cost is prohibitive, but customers can pick up orders at her Sandy Springs smokehouse.