Celebrate biodiversity on Earth Day! Try one of Luca’s favorite heirloom watermelons: Ali Baba is a famous variety selected for taste and drought resistance by Iraqi farmers.A long row of “Candy” Walla Walla variety onions at ARTfarm. They should be mild, juicy and sweet. Try some and let Farmer Luca know what you think!Happy Earth Day! It’s a great day to renew your commitment to conservation and sustainability: turn off lights, fans and a/c, remember your reusable bags and containers, buy less packaged stuff from far away, and reduce, reuse, repair, recycle! Also, Science March on the F’sted Pier this morning at 9am in congruence with the much larger one in Washington DC.
Saturday from 10am to 12 noon we’ll have a similar lineup to this past Wednesday’s stand: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, all of our tomatoes, extra cherry tomatoes, all of our peppers, beautiful big onions, beets, lots of young, tender but huge red-skinned orange fleshed sweet potatoes, Italian basil, dill, parsley, recao garlic chives, radishes, cooking greens, dandelion greens, loads of papaya, a few pineapples, sweet juicy watermelons, lots of pumpkin, a few passionfruit…and the return of the zinnias as well. Farmer Jimmy will be on hand with fresh lamb, but only for the first half hour or so.
We had a nice mention and link in Frommers.com this week. ARTfarm has been photographed or mentioned in a number of articles this year, including in Travel and Leisure magazine, Coastal Living (pictured here) and other print/online lifestyle news outlets. The hot topic for these travel writers is St. Croix transforming into a foodie’s paradise, but Frommers’ writer, Alexis Flippin, seems to capture it in a way that is really succinct and well researched.
We love this focus on a more sustainable, tourist friendly, picturesque and healthy industry direction on St. Croix. We are proud to be a small part of the greater agriculture community here and grateful to our fantastic chefs and tourism department who are directing attention toward this topic.
Wednesday stand, 3 – 5:30 PM: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, all of our tomatoes, all of our peppers, beautiful big onions, beets, sweet potatoes, Italian basil, dill, parsley, recao garlic chives, radishes, cooking greens, dandelion greens, loads of papaya, a few pineapples (it’s not over, but it’s just not abundant at the moment), watermelons, lots of pumpkin, a few passion fruit.
No zinnias today – they all are attending a wedding!
Can you find Farmer Luca?Happy Passover and Easter! Renew the mind body and spirit with healthy food! Open Saturday, 10 AM – 12 noon on the South Shore Road: Sweet salad mix, spicy salad mix, teen arugula, loads of sweet tasty papaya, a few pineapples, all of our tomato types, French breakfast radishes, dandelion greens, Italian basil, dill, parsley, recao (culantro), freshly harvested ginger root and turmeric, all of our peppers, cooking greens, and a few zinnia flowers. Oh and sliced pumpkin, oh and watermelon! and a few passionfruit. Farmer Jimmy will be on hand with fresh cuts of lamb as well. Enjoy the holidays!
Pineappleheads from the ARTfarm photo archive. We’ll have sweet pineapples for earlybirds tomorrow at the farmstand!A pineapple plant takes up to two years to form a single fruit on a central stalk. Mango trees blooming in the background! Fruit season is almost here!As the tomato plants begin to wane in the spring, we see summer fruits starting to ripen! A few dragonfruit vines are starting to set fruit, and we have some pineapples for sale! Luca made a fantastic pineapple hot sauce the other day, see below for the recipe.
Wednesday’s bonanza: Sweet salad mix, teen spicy salad mix, teen arugula, all our types of tomatoes, all five kinds of hot & sweet peppers, red-jacketed orange fleshed sweet potatoes, dandelion greens, onions, Italian basil, parsley, garlic chives, dill, recao, baby radishes, loads of sweet papaya, lots of rich dry heirloom pumpkins, pineapple, a few bags of early bird figs, fresh ginger and turmeric root, and locally produced Fiddlewood Farm’s fresh mild creamy goat cheese!
Farmer Luca’s Pineapple Hot Sauce
This tastes best if all of the ingredients are from the ARTfarm, but do what you can! This version is mildly spicy but you could add a few chilies to make it even hotter or other peppers of your choice.
1 C. red or green serrano peppers, washed and stems removed. For a milder sauce use the riper, red serranos and remove the seeds. The color of the peppers will make your sauce either a greenish or pinkish concoction. The flavor is not drastically affected either way.
1/2 C. pineapple, skinned and coarsely chopped
1/4 C. green coriander seed
1/4 C. onion, bulb and tops coarsely chopped
1/2 C. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. salt
Purée everything in a blender and add a bit of water as needed to thin the sauce to your desired consistency. Store in the refrigerator and enjoy!
ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI 