Category: weather

posts that discuss weather conditions affecting the farm.

❤️‍🩹 How to Help: Brushfire Recovery

We are still assessing the damage and our comprehensive fundraising needs, and will share progress and goals as we go, but for now we have some info on donating in several ways plus some volunteering opportunities.

Our east pond water catchment shed held all our fencing replacement supplies and had two water tanks for livestock watering and irrigating nearby fruit trees established about five years ago.

1️⃣ You can make a donation directly to ARTfarm. It is not tax deductible. Do this at the farmstand with the usual payment methods.

2️⃣ You can donate through the federally recognized non-profit 501(c)3 organization VIGFC (Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition)’s Emergency Response Fund tagged “Fire” and your donation will be tax deductible.

• You can make a donation online with a credit card through VI Good Food’s PayPal @goodfoodvi specifying “Emergency Support – Drought/Fire” in the pulldown menu. You’ll get a tax receipt. Please ALWAYS double check that the link is legitimate before making payments online!! Scams are out there to take advantage of disasters.

• You can also write a tax-deductible check to “Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition” with “Emergency Fund – Fire” in the memo, and snail mail to: Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition,‬‭ Inc.‬, PO Box 2902, Kingshill, VI 00851‬

VI Good Food is a non-profit farm advocacy organization helping us and other local farmers with disaster relief and other programs.

3️⃣ For volunteering info, check out our most recent farmstand post below for details. We’ll mostly plan these events (cleanups, assessments, rebuilding efforts) on weekends when people have more available time to help. We may post some online signups in the future.

~ Farmer Christina

ARTfarm DragonFruitstand Popup Wednesday 8/16/2023, 5-6pm! Plus, Perfect Mangoes!

Hot days call for ripe, sweet, hydrating cactus treats. We’ve got a bumper crop of bright, sweet pithaya (dragonfruit) in red, pink and white varieties, ready for you to enjoy. We’ve also got some primo mango varieties from Dennis Nash, fresh harvested lemongrass (aka fevergrass – a cooling tea to keep in the fridge these days), ginger and turmeric, and some pineapple slips for planting, so we will be open for a POP-UP (no reservations, first-come first-serve) farmstand in the afternoon, Wednesday, August 16, 2023, 5 – 6pm.

See you Wednesday!

ARTfarm Fruity Summer Popup Saturday 8/5/2023, 11:30 am – 12 noon! Longans!

Once again it’ll be short, but sweet. Will be open Saturday August 5th, 2023, for a POP-UP (no reservations, first-come first-serve) farmstand 11:30-12 noon.

Plenty of: Dragonfruit (both pink and red), Haitian kidney mangoes, fresh ginger and turmeric root, and pineapple slips

A few: longan fruit bunches, bunched small sweet onions with green tops, lemongrass, Italian basil, a few dozen eggs

First come first serve. Talk to Farmer Luca about volunteering! We have tasks in both sun and shade available to those who want to learn a little about organic gardening and have some reflective time getting grounded.

Because it’s a quieter time of year, we are not expecting a big crowd. Looking forward to seeing you! Thank you so much.

Juicy “dragon eye” longan fruits, related to rambutan and lychee, have a leathery outer skin that pops off to reveal a juicy sweet pulp over a hard, non edible black glossy seed that will sprout a new tree! These are very sweet fruits high in Vitamin C!

ARTfarm Farmstand Popup Wednesday 4/19/2023, 5-5:30pm! Salad Greens!

Hey BUUUUUUDDY! Little pink buds are appearing on the dragonfruit vines. They’ll be fruits in about a month or so.

How about those April showers? Right in the nick of time. ARTfarm has been keeping a little bit of lettuce alive with careful irrigation at night. We’ve got some sweet salad mix, radishes, ginger and turmeric, and some oregano and other herbs to share, so we will be open for a POP-UP (no reservations, first-come first-serve) farmstand in the afternoon, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 5 – 5:30pm.

We’d appreciate if you have any hint of ill health, send a friend to pick up, or wear a mask when you are interacting with Farmer Luca. We need that guy to stay healthy!

Because it’s a quieter time of year, we are not expecting a big crowd. Looking forward to seeing you! Thank you so much.

If you’re looking for someplace to donate your generous tax refund, The Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition, who tirelessly advocates and supports small farmers and farm to school programs in the US Virgin Islands, is a worthy cause. Go to their Facebook page now to learn more and make a donation: /goodfoodvi

Last year around this time, the VI Good Food Coalition distributed assistance to local farmers through their Farmer Drought Mitigation and Support program. Thanks to VI Good Food, ARTfarm ordered more water, worked on fire breaks and purchased extra water pumps.

See you Wednesday!