Tag: brush fire

ARTfarm Tomato Pickups Sat. April 1st! Reservations 11 am – 1 pm LAST ONE for a while – No Foolin’!

Gorgeous freshly harvested ginger and turmeric can be used for so many healthy treats!

Wow. It got so dry so fast. First South Shore wildfire of this season happened on Tuesday, and our water reserves are dangerously low, so we have to take a break over the next few weeks to reboot, and do a rain dance. So sign up now to get your last delicious juicy tomatoes in tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) pickup! It will be our last distribution for at least a few weeks. Learn more about how climate change is affecting our region from NOAA’s Climate Hub. Looking forward to summer mangoes, pineapple and more!

Sign up below for one of 51 reserved pickup timeslots, for Saturday starting at 11 am! If you missed this signup, stay tuned… we are on a short hiatus due to lack of rainfall and staffing shortages. Volunteers still welcome to help us with farming tasks – see below.

Instructions below if you’re new. Can’t find the confirmation email? Click HERE. If you need to contact us, text or call the farm phone, (340) 514-4873. Welcome!

  1. Check out our different size preorder ‘farmshare’ selections listed below
  2. See details and a list of extra add-on items available first-come-first-served during your pickup time
  3. Click the link and fill in our quick reservation form. (Reserve an earlier pickup time to catch these first-come-first-serve items)
  4. More details for newbies below!

Brisk farm workouts in peaceful breezy nature available: We’re looking for volunteers (non smokers). Luca could use a hand even if it’s only for two hours at a time, to do all kinds of farm tasks including garden bed preparation, building Hugel beds, and end-of-season garden maintenance. You can get a great ab and full body workout, mostly standing using rakes and hoes. There is also sifting of compost, hand weeding, late day transplanting and more. Delivery drivers too!

We are looking for handy folks to help us complete our walk-in cooler storage facility project. Learn about retrofitting shipping containers into eco-friendly food storage and more! We can promise you it is RIVETING work.

Learn about market gardening, construction, food prep. Fast walkers encouraged. Could convert to part-time employment depending on skills and efficiency.

Farmshare choices for Saturday, April 1st, 2023:

We will have 51 timeslots/farmshares available for scheduled pickup Saturday morning. You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order and theirs. The minimum order is one farmshare, and you CAN order more than one farmshare. At the farmstand, you can choose from remaining add-on extras and we’ll total your order. We are chronically understaffed and need to keep farmstand hours brief; add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a farmshare minimum purchase.

SWEET ‘n’ MATERS farmshare, $19, will include:
  • 1 bag sweet salad mix
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes
  • 1 lb. heirloom tomatoes
SLICERS ‘n’ HEIRLOOMS farmshare, $10, will include:
    • 1 lb. slicer tomatoes
    • 1 lb. heirloom tomatoes
MIXED TOMATOES 2LB farmshare, $8, will include:
  • 2 lb. 2nds and smaller mixed tomatoes (discount per lb.)
2LB GINGER ROOT farmshare, $12, will include:
  • 2 lb. fresh ginger root
Extra Add-Ons (non-reservable)

(Must accompany farmshare purchase, these items cannot be purchased individually. No reservations on these items, they are all first come first served during your pickup slot):

early birds:
    • CHERRY tomato pints
    • SLICER tomatoes
    • YELLOW WATERMELON
    • CARROTS with juicable tops
    • ONIONS with green scallionish tops
    • assorted COOKING GREENS
    • baby FENNEL
    • seasoning PEPPERS (smoky, not hot)
    • SWEET PEPPERS
    • various Winter SQUASH/PUMPKINS including Delicata!
plenty:
    • RADISHES in white and pink, with green edible tops
    • assorted HERBS bunches: $2 each
    • fresh GINGER: $3.50/bag ($7 half pound)
    • fresh TURMERIC: $3.50/bag ($7 half pound)
    • PINEAPPLE slips to grow-ur-own: $2-3 each as sized
Herb bunch choices for this distribution

(Available as EXTRAS or included in farmshare)

  • Kafir lime leaves
  • Lemongrass
  • Parsley

Please contact us immediately by TEXT or PHONE at (340) 514-4873 if you have reserved a farmshare and cannot pick it up. Supply is limited, demand is extremely high and someone else will gladly purchase your share, if given enough time to respond. We have limited time for distributions and they are scheduled. Our produce is harvested fresh and needs to go home with you same day. This is an honor system since we are not collecting payment until pickup. We do not have cold storage for uncollected shares.

Signup form for
SaturDAY PICKUP
APRIL 1st, 2023!

New to ARTfarm? HOW TO ‘ORDER’:

During the COVID era we switched to a pre-order system instead of open farmstands, and customers preferred the predictability and drastically shorter wait times. So we’ve stuck with it, for now.

1. Order/reserve at least one of our different sized farmshare selections (minimum purchase) and choose your timeslot ahead on our website form (the link above)

2. The signup form will show you a “Thank You” page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. If you don’t find it, please check your spam/junk, trash, inbox tabs, and ‘all mail’ folders for the confirmation email, and search for noreply@jotform.com (JOTFORM IS SINGULAR, no ‘S’)– this has been a common problem for several customers and with a little searching they typically find it. For more tips, visit our Help page.check for your confirmation email so you know your name will be on the list!

2. Please arrive in our parking lot on time but not more than 10 minutes early to prevent traffic jams and longer wait times. We appreciate your cooperation!

3. At the stand, if you’re at all not feeling well, please bring a mask and wear it while upwind of the farm staff. We’ll call your name during your timeslot in order of signup. Let the farmer handle the produce for you; Choose extras from first-come-first-served availability; Wait to bag until we’ve totaled up your items; Bring change, cash or check and pen; drop payment in the blue bucket, we try not to handle cash.

Please note: With Farmer Luca caring for his elderly folks who are immune compromised, we’d appreciate if all customers would help us stay healthy and working, and PLEASE wear a mask if your’e not feeling well, and maintain social distancing when interacting with us at the ARTfarm stand this 2022-23 season. Please help us healthy at work, and protect our family and friends! We shall do the same! We are all one! Grateful for life!!

ARTfarm is a tiny mom and pop family farm who have been growing food with sustainable organic and permaculture methods on St. Croix since 1999. See our FAQs for more info!

Thank you!

The signup form will show you a “Thank You” page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. If you don’t find it, please check your spam/junk, trash, inbox tabs, and ‘all mail’ folders for the confirmation email, and search for noreply@jotform.com – check the spelling, jotform has no ‘s’… this has been a common problem for several customers and with a little searching they typically find it. For more tips, visit our Help page.

Need help with the pre-order signup form? (Click here):
Q: I can’t seem to order more than one item.

A: We have designed our order form not to allow any one customer to purchase all of one extra. Sharing is caring. If you’d like extra of something (beyond what you could reserve through our order system), put it in the comments with your order, and remind us at your pickup time: if we can supply it to you we’ll do our best. If you are in the food service industry and looking for bulk availability, please contact us; our order form is for individuals and families to place a single order for a scheduled pickup.

Q: My order isn’t going through.
  • if the automated confirmation email is not immediately found, check your spam folder
    • and the ‘all mail’ folder
  • make sure all required fields are filled/selected
  • just try again
  • use a cellular device (smartphone or tablet) that isn’t using WiFi internet
  • restart your browser/device
  • clear your cache and cookies in your browser/device
  • reboot your router (unplug it for a minute and plug in again)
  • visit our “help” page for additional tips
Q: The form says I didn’t enter my email, but I did.

Our pre-order form requires everyone to type their email in twice, and makes sure the two match exactly. We had a lot of customers in such a rush to get their order in that they’d spell their own email incorrectly and then complain that they could not find the confirmation email. Our ‘type it in twice’ system ensures that you’ll find any email mistakes before you submit the pre-order form.

Q: I ordered before, but I’m not getting your emails.

Our pre-order form does NOT automatically sign you up for an ARTfarm email subscription. Do that HERE!

Monday Brushfire, Saturday Sweet Mix

The color contrast of a Valencia Pride mango, with a gradation of hot pink to a warm yellow, stands out atop a pile of green and orange mangoes.
Valencia Pride mangoes are a “Technicolor sunset” hue.

Saturday, 10am – 12 noon: Sweet salad mix, limited amounts of microgreens, dragonfruit, passionfruit, papaya, mint and lemongrass. From our partners we have a varied selection of top mangoes including Nam Doc Mai, Madame Francis, Valencia Pride and Haitian Kidney from Dennis Nash, Viequen Butterball mangoes from Tita, and vegan coconut ice cream from I-Sha.

 

We heard you could smell it in Frederiksted. Dozens of acres of bull pasture that are part of UVI’s Senepol cattle operation burned early Monday morning, right across the road from ARTfarm. The fire was started by vandals who stripped a stolen pickup truck and then set it on fire halfway up Spring Gut Road’s south side at 3 AM.

Looking north from the road near the ARTfarm entrance, Monday's reignited brushfire is seen here progressing west. Note the blackened hillside east of the smoke.
Looking north from the road near the ARTfarm entrance, Monday’s reignited brushfire is seen here progressing west. Note the blackened hillside east of the smoke.

The blaze quickly spread west across the arid pasture. The VI Fire Service was on the scene by 3:10 AM and managed to extinguish most of the blaze by around 7:30 AM. It reignited soon after and burned all the way to Many Paws Road with flames up to 20′ visible from the South Shore Road, destroying more pasture forage, threatening nearby homes and our neighbor’s sheep pastures. VIFS returned and battled the brushfire again, putting it out again with the assistance of a sudden and very welcomed rain shower that arrived about an hour later.

Can you spot? A fire truck surrounded north and south by blazing pastures? Fire crawling up the hill toward houses? Two Senepol bulls being pushed into the next pasture by UVI cattlemen? A patch of flames much closer to the bulls? At times the grey and yellow smoke was so thick you could not see to move a vehicle.
Can you spot? A fire truck surrounded north and south by blazing pastures? Fire crawling up the hill toward houses? Two Senepol bulls being pushed into the next pasture by UVI cattlemen? A patch of flames much closer to the bulls? At times the grey and yellow smoke was so thick you could not see to move a vehicle.

A clearer image of the firetruck up in the bush. A team of firefighters were working to extinguish the north head of the fire that was moving toward homes up the hill.
A clearer image of the firetruck up in the bush. A team of firefighters were working to extinguish the north head of the fire that was moving toward homes up the hill.

Arriving just behind this 3,000 gallon pumper truck: well-timed backup from Mother Nature. The dark clouds approaching from the east brought a brief but heavy rainshower that helped to extinguish the blazing pastures.
Arriving just behind this 3,000 gallon pumper truck: well-timed backup from Mother Nature. The dark clouds approaching from the east brought a brief but heavy rainshower that helped to extinguish the blazing pastures.

ARTfarm Wednesday, 3–6 p.m.: Groove to the Beet

There was a substantial brushfire at Castle Nugent just east of us last night, and though we went to help our neighbors, we did not experience any active fire on our farm last night. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern, offered help or simply checked in with us yesterday and today!

We’ve got lots of beautiful lettuce and quite a few bunches of gorgeous beets with delicious leafy tops today! Come down the South Shore 3-6 pm today and enjoy this flavorful early summer produce! Sit in our breezy shaded farmstand and enjoy a little cup of ice cream!

Freshly harvested early this morning for you: Sweet salad mix, teen arugula, microgreens, macrogreens, a few cucumbers, beets, carrots, onions, Italian basil, tons of beautiful scallions, a few tomatoes, a few passionfruits, a few pineapples, a handful of brave and resilient zinnia flowers, and from our partner I-Sha, locally handmade vegan fruit flavored coconut-based ice cream. Enjoy!

You can't beat beets for nutrition and "delicion". These hot weather beets are so sweet and delicious! Raw or cooked, you need them!! And we never tire of taking pictures of beets and subjecting our customers to them! Feast your eyes on this beauty!
You can’t beat beets for nutrition and “delicion”. These hot weather beets are so sweet and delicious! Raw or cooked, you need them!! And we never tire of taking pictures of beets and subjecting our customers to them! Feast your eyes on this beauty!

ARTfarm Saturday: Smoke Flavor!

We’re open today, 10am – 12 noon with salad and lots of tomatoes! Here’s this morning’s list of fresh: Sweet salad mix, teen spicy salad mix, teen arugula, heirloom/slicer/cherry tomatoes, beets, red and white bulb onions with green tops, purple Bodhi beans, a few cucumbers, radishes with delicious green tops, dandelion greens for cooking or juicing, fresh ginger root, scallions, Italian basil, Thai basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, and zinnia flowers. We also have a fresh batch of vegan ice cream from I-Sha in a rainbow of flavors including jojo, mango, papaya/ginger, passionfruit, beet ginger, banana…

Big beautiful beets at ARTfarm. The tops are great in your green juice, as a cooked green, wilted over eggs... chopped into your salad... don't neglect the beet greens!
Big beautiful beets at ARTfarm. The tops are great in your green juice, as a cooked green, wilted over eggs… chopped into your salad… don’t neglect the beet greens!

Our thanks go out again to the VI Fire Service shifts C and D out of Richmond/Christiansted, with trucks from Grove and East End, and VIPD for coming back to Longford a third time this week. Tuesday evening’s fire flared up again on Wednesday afternoon, sending out a new fire crew headed by Captain Henry Joseph; it continued on its previous trajectory toward the beach and burned over a hundred acres of pasture and fencing belonging to our neighbors and killed another cow on Wednesday. A second blaze was set in ARTfarm pastures about 3/4 of a mile away from the initial fires just before 8pm Wednesday night at a curve in the road where the streetlight is out. We had a number of people offer help again and had a crew of employees, customers and fellow farmers on hand to move sheep, manage gates and direct the fire trucks. It was dark and smoky, and we were too busy to take pictures, but it was an incredible scene. After the Captain Joseph and his VIFS team departed for a second time with the trucks, Luca and a neighbor we’ll call “Water Mike” were out containing and extinguishing smaller fires until 2am Thursday morning.

Our neighbor who took these pictures acted as our fire tower during the fires and helped us locate problem areas from a higher vantage point. Wednesday afternoon.
Our neighbor who took these pictures acted as our fire tower during the fires and helped us locate problem areas from a higher vantage point. Wednesday afternoon.

This image captures Wednesday night's situation; the rekindled original fire headed south to the beach, and in the foreground the second fire started a mile away up on South Shore Road on ARTfarm pasture.
This image captures Wednesday night’s situation; the rekindled original fire headed south to the beach, and in the foreground the second fire started a mile away up on South Shore Road on ARTfarm pasture.

By Wednesday afternoon, the original fire had rekindled and burned south throughout the day across the pastures toward the beach, killing one cow. It burned eastward along the beach through Thursday morning, when the Fire Service came back and extinguished the spread.
By Wednesday afternoon, the original fire had rekindled and burned south throughout the day across the pastures toward the beach, killing one cow. It burned eastward along the beach through Thursday morning, when the Fire Service came back and extinguished the spread.

VIFS pumper trucks from Richmond C shift, East End and Grove Fire Stations helped us out Wednesday afternoon, and came back Wednesday night to assist with the new roadside fire.
VIFS pumper trucks from Richmond C shift, East End and Grove Fire Stations helped us out Wednesday afternoon, and came back Wednesday night to assist with the new roadside fire.

We’d appreciate brushfire awareness from all of our customers. Please never throw cigarettes or other burning material from a vehicle; do not allow chains on trailers to drag on the ground; and keep a neighborhood watch. If you see someone stopped on the side of the road, slow down and offer assistance; if suspicious, snap a picture of the vehicle and license plate. And share this information with others in the dry season. We thank you!