Wednesday farmstand – Break out your salsa recipes, your tomato bisque recipes, pico di gallo, tomato sandwiches, red gazpacho, Manhattan clam chowdah, fried green tomatoes, Grandma’s marinara sauce, tomato salad, tomato sorbet, and Lady Gaga style tomato fashion accessories. It’s that time of the year!

From 3-4:30pm we have for you: Amazing amounts of tomatoes all types — including lots of beautiful heirlooms, slicers, black plums and cherry tomatoes and a few green ones because Lisa asked. We’ve also got loads of sweet salad mix, some teen arugula and teen spicy salad mix, lots of fresh Mediterranean figs, some cucumbers, watermelons in yellow and pink, baby ginger, lettuce heads, cooking greens, Italian basil, lemon basil, garlic chives, cilantro, dill, various spicy peppers, some deliciously pungent not-hot seasoning peppers (the first for the season), butternut squashes small and large, Thai pumpkin, and zinnia flowers.

Speaking of sweet delicious plump red juicy fruits, Surinam cherry young trees for sale. Come after the first half hour, we will definitely have tomatoes and salad mix all the way until 4:30pm!

ARTfarm Saturday 10am — 12 noon down the South Shore:

The St. Croix Environmental Association will be on hand to distribute free native shade and drought resistant trees! Two per family, first come first served. Species include lignum vitae, divi-divi, pink poui, desert cassia, and a few calabash.

The farmstand will have: loads of tomatoes of all types (beautiful heirlooms and large and small slicers plus cherry tomato pints), lots of sweet salad mix, lots of teen arugula and teen spicy salad mix (we ran out of arugula and spicy salad mix on Wednesday, but Farmer Luca says we will not run out of it Saturday because we harvested a lot), lettuce heads, cucumbers, baby carrots, large radishes, sweet bell peppers, Serrano peppers, Indian and Thai chili peppers, watermelons, fresh Mediterranean figs, a few musk melons, Japanese melons, lots of beautiful butternut squashes, lots of Thai pumpkin, baby ginger, an assortment of fresh picked cooking greens, dandelion greens, bok choy, plus fresh herbs: Italian basil, cilantro, dill, a few bunches of parsley, lemon basil, Thai basil, and zinnias. Goat cheese should return next week.

The St. George Village Botanical Garden is also having a plant sale tomorrow for rare plants.

Planting a tree is a simple and easy way to:

• Recover natural habitats & wildlife pollinators
• Reduce floods, soil erosion and water runoff
• Increase aesthetic views and property values
• Improve the quality of air in our environment
• Keep St. Croix beautiful with trees and shade

Wednesday farmstand: loads and loads of tomatoes (all types), cherry tomatoes in new colors and shapes, loads of figs, tons of sweet salad mix, a few bags of baby spicy and arugula greens, lettuce heads, bok choy, cooking greens, dandelion greens, lots of watermelon (bagged cut chunks), beautiful red and yellow mini bell peppers, serrano peppers, Thai chili peppers, cucumbers, small and large butternut squash, Thai pumpkin, baby ginger, cilantro, dill, Italian basil, Thai basil, lemon basil, large radishes with green tops, and zinnias.

We’ve mostly been getting awesome feedback on our watermelons, but it has come to our attention that a couple of watermelons accidentally went out at the last farmstand that were not fully ripe and ready. (When cut open, the flesh appeared white and the seeds were also white.) If you got one of these melons please bring it back to the farmstand for a replacement — and we will give the unripe melon to our chickens and turkeys, who will be thrilled. We grow new varieties every season and it is always a challenge to learn to pick each type at its optimum ripeness. We apologize for any inconvenience.