Wednesday Greens 3 – 4:30pm

Things have been exceptionally slow after 4 PM at the Wednesday farmstands, so until things start to get a little busier we will be closing at 4:30pm Wednesdays. Speaking of slow starts, the harvest amounts are getting up to speed a little more slowly than usual for this time of year, perhaps due to the heavy rains at the beginning of the month that washed away topsoil and stressed out the plants. So we are being patient.

Early morning harvest for the farmstand Wednesday afternoon: we’ll have lots of cucumbers (two types), baby spicy greens, baby arugula, teen spicy greens, teen arugula, sweet salad mix, some watermelon, some figs, some cooking greens, Italian basil, lemon basil, radishes, Thai basil, garlic chives, green onion tops with small onion bulbs, butternut squash, and chili peppers.

Luca’s amazing hot sauce: first he cooks down the ingredients and then throws it in the blender: Butternut, green onion, chilis and turmeric. All from ARTfarm!

Saturday 10am – 12 noon, Cukes & Watermelon

Sorry for the late notice! We just got in from transplanting more lettuce and some scallions for you folks by flashlight!!

Yes we will be open tomorrow (Saturday) December 1st for our regular Saturday hours, 10am – 12 noon.

You want the good news first or the bad news?

Good news: we have in the morning for ya: good quantities of three kinds of watermelon (including a yellow one!), TONS of delicious cucumbers (two kinds), butternut squash, a few bags of baby arugula and baby spicy salad mix, spicy radishes (become completely mild when cooked), turnip greens, Italian basil, lemon basil, Thai basil, garlic chives, dill, small amounts of cilantro, rosemary, lemongrass, holy basil, cheerful cut zinnia flowers, pineapple plants, and native trees

Bad news: lots of our lettuce is still too small after all the caterpillar carnage and rain damage, so no sweet mix until next week, probably Wednesday.

We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you in the morning!

Lettuce Catch Up on Wednesday! 3pm

We are finally starting to see the lettuce that survived the great caterpillar attacks and flooding start to reach a harvestable size. This year’s season seems to be starting in fits and starts, but it will eventually work itself out into a regular weekly schedule.

We will be harvesting salad greens Wednesday morning and will have them ready for sale for another special extra Wednesday 3 o’clock farmstand. After that we’ll be open every Saturday at 10am – 12pm. Hope you can join us, here’s the list:

Sweet salad mix, baby spicy greens, cucumber, watermelon (whole and cut), butternut squash, a few last dragonfruit of the season. A little bit of lemon, Thai & Italian basils, cheerful zinnias and marigolds.

If you’ve ever wished you could get Farmer Luca to visit your home and provide a consult on building or improving a small organic garden or orchard, here’s your chance – bid on this great auction item from the St. Croix Environmental Association’s fundraiser!

https://www.32auctions.com/SEA2018

Gratitude Season – OPEN Wednesday Nov 21st, 3pm

The epic rains of early November 2018 brought epic rainbows. In this case, leading to the arresting sculpture of Niarus Walker.

Halloween flew by like a tropical bat, Diwali brought us its hopeful message of good defeating evil, and the elongated election season is nearly over; it is time to turn our thoughts back to family, gratitude, the simple things.

We are thankful for the many dedicated customers who are eager for ARTfarm to reopen! And for eleven inches of rain that fell over the first two weeks of November, decisively ending our water shortage – but also destroying the first lettuce crop of the season and creating some other setbacks. (We’re seeing major damage to melon vines and papaya trees and possible crop failures on ginger and some of our tomatoes.) But staying grateful that some of our gardens are recovering from all of the drenching!

We will be open for a special holiday farmstand on Wednesday, November 21st, 3pm – 5:30pm with a bumper crop of beautiful cucumbers and smaller quantities of a few other things including a limited supply of salad greens. Here’s the full list:

  • Lemongrass, garlic chives, Italian basil, rosemary, spicy radishes, two types of cucumbers, some teen spicy greens, baby arugula, a few bags of sweet mix, green papaya, wild cucumbers, some small bulb onions with large green tops (use like scallions), a few marigold and zinnia flowers. And ARTfarm turkey and chicken eggs! Super fresh!
  • Need a thoughtful gift for the holiday? This is a great time of year to get plants in the ground. We’ve got pineapple slips, fig trees, and native drought resistant shade tree saplings available for sale!
  • Tomatoes will come in around December 15th.

    • Grandma’s Fabulous Cucumber Salad that Luca loves (as told to Christina)

    There is no recipe for this.

    First of all don’t measure anything.

    Mandolin a cucumber into thin slices and thinner than anything you’ve ever experienced in your life. Paper thin. Then cover them in water and add an unspecified amount of too much salt. Then go away and do other stuff. Come back in a couple of hours.

    Rinse the heck out of them when you come back from your other activities and make sure they’re not too salty.

    Rinse them again and again and squeeze them to get the salty water out.

    Let them drain in a colander for even longer. Do other things.

    Chop up a couple of scallions.

    Add a big spoonful of mayo per cuke. Dress with vinegar and basil. Toss.

    So just make sure you have:

    • Maybe about half a cucumber per person
    • A bunch of scallions (green onion tops or garlic chives work too)
    • A generous handful of salt
    • A few spoonfuls of mayo
    • A little basil (could be dried if you don’t have fresh)
    • A little vinegar
    • Fun people to share it with!
    We finally got one of our chicken tractors rebuilt after the hurricane. The hens are thrilled with their more comfortable quarters.
    Bok. Bok.