ARTfarm Saturday: Fig Trees & Cukes!

ARTfarm Saturday: FIG TREES, cucumbers, recao, garlic chives, lemongrass, pineapple, fresh figs. Mangoes and carambola from Tropical Exotics farm, papaya from Reuben at Solitude Farm, bread and bagels from Tess, honey from Wanda, ice cream from I-Sha.

Sorry, no salad greens today, we’ll have some micro available on Wednesday.

ARTfarm nursery sale: FIG TREES, cacao trees, moringa trees, ginger plants, star apple, papaya, pineapple slips. Native/landscape trees: white cinnamon, sandbox, Jamaican caper, lignum vitae, black olive (gri-gri).

20130803-093109.jpg
Reuben is a familiar, friendly face to east enders and to anyone who visits the Department of Agriculture. He produces huge papayas and dragon fruit at Solitude Farms and we are thrilled to be able to bring you the fruits of his labors at ARTfarm.
20130803-093636.jpg
Poor Farmer Luca is very sad to have to sell some of his young fig trees, but he just doesn’t have enough room for all of them at ARTfarm. Stop by today and adopt one of these little guys, and give it a loving home. Reasonable adoption fees.

ARTfarm Wednesday 3-6pm: Cool and refreshing

Luca was up in the early cool this morning and picked for you: cucumbers, microgreens, sweet teen and spicy teen salad mixes, bunched arugula, garlic chives, recao, Mediterranean figs, lemongrass and Thai basil. Plus hearty loaves from Tess, papaya from Reuben, sweet mangoes and carambola from Alex and I-Sha’s vegan ice cream in local fruit flavors. Ahhhhh, a cucumber salad is like a dip in a cool swimming pool. Refreshing.

ARTfarm Saturday 10am-12noon: Sweet Potato Trending

ARTfarm Saturday stand, 10am – 12 noon: Sweet teen salad mix, loads of cucumbers, sweet potato leaves/shoots*, sweet corn, two types of basil, lemongrass, garlic chives, recao, sage, thyme, Mediterranean figs, bananas, dandelion greens, pineapple slips, mangoes and carambola from Alex at Tropical Exotics, papayas from Reuben at Solitude Farm, raw honey from Wanda’s Wright Apiary, bread from Tess, ice cream from I-Sha.

*You thought it was the sweet corn, but sweet potatoes are the ‘it girl’ of summer 2013. White, purple and orange fleshed potatoes will be here later in the summer, but right now you can enjoy the crazy sweet and delicious greens and shoots from the top of the sweet potato plants. I kid you not, these are the tastiest greens you have ever eaten. Practically suitable as a dessert item because they are so very yummy braised or sautéed, sweet potato greens will make you forget every spinach nightmare you had as a five-year-old. You can even plant some of the shoots you get in your bunch of greens – and you can continue to perpetuate and enjoy these highly nutritious leaves of sweet goodness in your own garden. If you can manage to leave just a few leaves uneaten (for photosynthesis purposes) in just 120 short summer days you will have your own delicious sweet potato tubers to bake/roast/mash and enjoy.

20130727-091512.jpg

ARTfarm Summer Lovin’…YOU! 3-6pm Today

Open 3-6pm today. We are nowhere near to selling out at the end of the farmstand at this time of year, so feel free to come later in the afternoon and get fresh greens, herbs, flowers, fruit etc.!

This is an unusual summer for us: in the last three years, we have not had large leaf lettuce or cucumbers for sale in July. At our location, it takes more water and nutrition per pound of harvested food to keep the vegetable plants happy in the summer months. We are experimenting more this year (have you all been enjoying the sweet corn?) to see which crops will survive and thrive during the hotter summer months. It also helps our farm to be more sustainable in supporting our family if we can continue to market more items during the summer months. It’s a delicate balance between working ourselves into burnout vs. having a good seasonal break as farmers. Part of what makes it worthwhile to continue to hustle in the summer is the appreciative customers we see at the farmstands on Wednesdays and Saturdays. A big thanks to all of you who continue to visit us during the summer!
20130724-103621.jpg
Today’s farmstand, 3-6PM this afternoon: Lots of cucumbers, four salad mixes (teen spicy, teen sweet, baby arugula, microgreens), garlic chives, two types of basil, recao, lemongrass, figs, sweet corn, pineapples, bananas, papayas from Solitude Farm, mangoes and carambola from Alex, vegan ice cream from I-Sha, breads from Tess, honey from Wanda. Come down to the South Shore and see us this afternoon!