ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI

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.

Saturday farmstand: Lots and lots of farm fresh goodies with two check out lines set up to serve you. We have such insane amounts of stuff that you can easily come at 10:30am and still select from of 95% of our offerings.

Loads of sweet salad mix, lots of baby arugula, and lots of baby and teen spicy salad mix; slicer tomatoes, salad tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, sweet yellow cherry tomatoes, lots and lots of yellow and pink and red watermelons, beautiful sweet mini white bell peppers with thick flesh (use raw or cooked), cooking greens, radishes, lettuce heads, Serrano peppers, Indian hot peppers, Thai chili peppers, Italian basil, Thai basil, lemon basil, cilantro, dill, garlic chives, baby ginger and turmeric, a few bunches of onions, a few bunches of carrots, lots and lots of figs, and lots of cut flowers. We will also have a very fresh batch of Fiddlewood Farm goat cheese and I-Sha’s vegan coconut ice cream in mango-passion and gooseberry flavors.

On our Hurricane Maria recovery fundraising front, we’re up to $24,282 out of $44,000 total funds needed to restore farm buildings including our seedling house and gallery building, and ensure resilience for future events. Check out and share our GoFundMe page at gofundme.com/artfarmllc …and a huge thank you to everyone who has donated!