We may not have current, but we are far from ‘powerless’! Bounty begins for the season! Sweet salad mix, red and green leaf lettuce heads, lots of slicing tomatoes, a few heirloom tomatoes, lots of cherry tomatoes, lots of fresh crunchy sweet just-picked cucumbers, lots of green bell peppers, baby ginger, baby turmeric, baby carrots, onions, various plethora of cooking greens, two kinds of butternut squash, radishes, Italian basil, garlic chives, cilantro, dill, parsley, holy basil, lemongrass, red fleshed watermelon, Sakata sweet melons, and lots of figs!

We had a fantastic farmstand last Saturday. With the customer entrance area under repair, we are still setting up tables in the parking lot. We started with a full pickup bed of produce, and everything was gone except for a few cucumbers by the end. It seems like just about every one of our familiar customers stopped by (including several chefs!), thank you so much everyone! It gives us such a lift to see that people appreciate our efforts. We have suddenly raised over $20,000 (thanks to one large anonymous donor!!!) on our GoFundMe campaign (total goal of $23,000) and are moving ahead with rebuilding our seedling house, and seeking help designing an off grid power system for the farm refrigeration units.

We still have not gotten electricity back on the South Shore. We are guessing it might be spring before we get our grid power restored here at the far end of feeder 3A. We have frankly been enjoying the starry skies at night without the sodium-vapor glare of the streetlights. If anyone with their current restored has extra solar lights they are willing to pass on, our farm workers could use them so they can stop stubbing their toes on the furniture at night.

Speaking of farmworkers, Roi is back! We were so happy to have our familiar friend return. He will be here for a month or two working on restoring gates and fences that were damaged in the hurricane.

We have also welcomed newcomer Todd to the farm this winter. He is a vegan farmer with a big heart from Boulder Colorado who wanted to come down and offer some hurricane relief volunteer work. He loves St. Croix’s reggae music and is excited to learn about subtropical farming techniques!