ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI

When your farmers are tired after a long day and don’t have the energy to cook dinner, and we still have a bag of salad greens, we prepare a Supersalad. We take a bag of sweet mix, a handful of seeds, a handful of nuts, and crack open a can of beans and toss in about half. If we have any leftover cooked grains, we throw in a handful. If we have any leftover cooked veg like steamed beets or sweet corn or sweet potato we throw that in too. Dried fruits like apricots or figs are great, or we might open a can of sardines. We toss all that in a bowl, throw in a little salt and pepper, pour on some olive oil and apple cider vinegar, and sprinkle the whole thing liberally with folic acid-rich nutritional yeast.

It’s not the most elegant dish you’ve ever seen, but it’s delicious and quick and requires no cooking and almost no cleanup.

I am sitting here on Friday afternoon surveying an abundance of sweet salad mix that we harvested early in the morning from a field of rapidly drying earth, and recalling the nearly five months that we went without the electrical power which makes this delicious treat possible to produce and store. I hope we are not all lulled back into taking for granted both the old and new fangled technology that makes our modern farming and food distribution system possible. We hope that all of our readers and customers will continue to conserve energy, shop local, reduce and reuse, fly less, and vote for policy change that will reduce climate change. If nothing else, then conserve because you love our sweet salad mix and tomatoes: because climate change makes it harder to produce.

Saturday, 10am – 12 noon: Sweet salad mix, teen arugula, teen spicy salad mix, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, some tomatoes and heirlooms, assorted cooking greens, garlic chives, a few root veggies including sweet potatoes, beets, onions and carrots, cilantro, dill, parsley, Italian basil, lemon basil, holy basil, new young radishes, lettuce heads, rat tail radishes, loads of ginger and turmeric, lots of beautiful seasoning peppers, Serrano peppers, small poblano peppers, assorted butternut squashes, Jojo plums and zinnia flowers.

The crowds are slowing way down and the crazy lines are rapidly shrinking. Many of our seasonal customers have said goodbye for the season… Thanks to all of you for your support this winter!

Sweet salad mix, teen arugula, teen spicy, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, some tomatoes and heirlooms, assorted cooking greens, garlic chives, cilantro, dill, parsley, Italian basil, lemon basil, radishes, lettuce heads, rat tail radishes, loads of ginger and turmeric, lots of beautiful seasoning peppers, Serano peppers, small poblano peppers, assorted butternut squashes, a few figs, and zinnia flowers.

Don’t forget, we are closing earlier on Wednesdays now, please join us between 3 PM and 4:30 PM, thank you!

So farming is a bit like weather forecasting. Only without the sophisticated radar and satellite systems and algorithms. We have tried in the past to predict when we will have certain crops or how many hours into a farmstand we will still be having certain items. We are not always correct, and the customer crowds have surprised us this year, but it is fun to try. With this caveat in mind, here are Farmer Luca’s predictions for this Saturday’s farmstand:

Lots and lots and lots of sweet salad mix, teen arugula, and teen spicy! Will have those three all the way till 12. We will also have some tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, beets, sweet bell peppers, poblanos, loads of Serranos, seasoning peppers, other chilies, cilantro, Italian basil, lemon basil, lots of parsley, garlic chives, dill, dandelion greens, bunches of rat tail radish pods, lettuce heads, some figs and some watermelon but not much of those last two, zinnia flowers, lemongrass, lots and lots of ginger and turmeric, assorted butternut winter squash slices, a few bunches of radishes, a few bunches of broccoli, and assorted cooking greens!

You may spy some of our Thai or Hawaiian baby ginger at Sejah Farm market on Saturday or at Quality Foods next week!

See you down the South Shore from 10 AM – 12 noon on Saturday! Thank you for your support!

Our apologies but we are going to make this one a little shorter than usual. We will be open tomorrow, Wednesday February 28th, from 3pm until 4:30pm. Not too many customers are showing up in the last hour and we have a long list of projects we need to get to during the precious daylight hours.

Wednesday’s list: sweet salad mix, teen arugula, teen spicy salad mix, a fair amount of cherry tomatoes, a few slicing and heirloom tomatoes, a few cucumbers, some watermelon, Italian basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, baby carrots, a few bunches of cooking greens, assorted chili peppers, sliced butternut, bunched rattail radish pods, garlic chives, scallions, zinnia flowers, and loads of our ginger and turmeric!

About those radish pods: they are delicious chopped up raw in a salad or thrown into a stirfry. They add a mildly spicy mustard-like kick plus texture and crunch.

We are located on the South Shore Rd. of St. Croix: due south of Canegata ballpark as the crow flies (between Ha’Penny Beach and the Boy Scout Camp). If you miss us today, come back on Saturday morning between 10 AM and 12 noon when we’ll have more fresh goodies for you!

Thanks for everyone’s continued support!