The Caimito (star apple) fruit tastes like a sweet and juicy cross between a cantaloupe and lychee. They become slightly soft when ripe with a sweet smell. It can be eaten out of the skin, added to salad, made into ice cream or jam, or added to smoothies. Lurking in the background are two kaffir limes. These are delicious and they have plenty of rind if you need fragrant citrus peel.
Have you tried a star apple? Not a star fruit (carambola) or a malay apple (wax jambu) but a star apple (caimito)! It’s in the sapote family, and we have some sweet ones. The sweet juicy flavor has been described “…as if a cantalope and a lychee had a fruit baby!” They are often purple, but we have the green ones and they are ripe and ready!
Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mid-morning are starting to be more regular. Still holding off on the timeslot reservations at this point. It will be first come first served Wednesday. If the crowd looks thick, Farmer Luca may ration some items so no one goes home empty handed.
As we keep saying in these cooler months, it’s a great time to ask about volunteering on the farm, or tell a friend if you know someone who might be interested in learning more about sustainable, regenerative gardening practices — we would love some help in the gardens and with a few other tasks as well. Volunteers have always been crucial elements of our system.
If you have reached out to us about volunteering and we haven’t gotten back to you yet please be persistent. This is our busiest time of year. We could still use your help. Just reach out again!
No reservations; first come, first served. We really appreciate your support.
Pomegranate fruits! Sweet, tart, juicy and healthy Crunch the little seeds.
Wednesday pop up stand, Sweet yellow watermelon, Freak out your taste buds.
Malabar chestnuts, or saba nuts, can be cooked or eaten raw. Yum!
All kinds of fruit are delicious on salads (and maybe, some malabar chestnuts too!). We have so much salad! The perfect little rain showers and cooler days have made it possible. Come on out for a one hour Wednesday afternoon pop-up farmstand from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at ARTfarm on the South Shore. Thanks again to Chef Lisa Coates for the haiku inspo.
As last week, there are farm goodies to be had as the tomato season wanes and we get into the fruitier time of year. Try a small bag of malabar chestnuts – these hazelnut sized treats are pre-hulled for you – beautiful to handle and look at, with a delicious delicate soft nut inside the stripy outer skin (you can easily crack on a solid surface and peel with your fingers). They can be enjoyed raw or roasted or cooked or made into flour… a fun snack.
Early Birds
Pomegranates Cherry tomatoes Small tomatoes Malabar chestnuts Baby bok Choy French breakfast radishes Eggs, pastured, from Mongoose&Zinnia Carrots Fennel Dill Parsley Italian basil
Malabar chestnuts! Green tops on things is over, It’s getting drier.
Wednesday pop up stand, First come first served vegetables, Five to Five Thirty.
Come on out for a brief Wednesday afternoon pop-up farmstand from 5pm – 5:30pm at ARTfarm on the South Shore. We got some lovely rain showers last night. Thanks to Chef Lisa Coates for the haiku inspo.
There are farm goodies to be had as the tomato season wanes and we get into the fruitier time of year. Try a small bag of malabar chestnuts – these hazelnut sized treats are pre-hulled for you – beautiful to handle and look at, with a delicious delicate soft nut inside the stripy outer skin (you can easily crack on a solid surface and peel with your fingers). They can be enjoyed raw or roasted or cooked or made into flour… a fun snack.
Early Birds
Small tomatoes Cherry tomatoes Bunched arugula Pink and white Radishes Turmeric Ginger Hot peppers Fennel Scallions Onions Herbs
Plenty
Carrots Baby bok choy Malabar chestnuts Sliced and whole pumpkin
Luca’s been hard at work this week finishing our new moveable chicken tractor coop – ready to put the recycled billboard roof on!
ETA: This farmshare pre-order signup is now closed. If you’re new, you should still read through this information to find out more about the process and the types of produce we currently have. New farmshare pre-order signups appear here and via farm email subscription, usually on Fridays around 10-11am. Stay safe, stay cool, see you soon!
Pineapples are starting, gorgeous salad greens, onions with green tops, papayas. It’s true, we’ve harvested and sampled the very first pineapple of the season, we’ll have some for early birds as an extra at pickup! To celebrate Earthday, our littlest farmer moved her hens into their new digs this week and they should start laying beautiful eggs in the next few weeks! Thanks to Spencer Fulkerson for welding up the frame to withstand tropical weather! We are also continuing progress with our WCK grant project. We’ve been saying it for a while, but seriously folks we’ll be winding down the big distributions in May for the summer (unless the weather shifts dramatically) and shift to pop-up stands for any remaining bursts of produce. Wednesday distributions are curtailed for now.
Finding farm email subscriptions or pre-orders confusing? Check out our help page for some DIY tips, or contact local techie teen Wyatt B., to help you troubleshoot any email or ordering issues. You got this!!
Still not open for retail. If you’re new to ARTfarm or haven’t been to see us since the COVID-19 pandemic began, please read on to familiarize yourself with our new socially distanced pre-order arrangements. We are not holding regular retail farmstands at this time.
Masks are STILL mandatory. Please help us protect our at-risk family members and customers!
New to ARTfarm pandemic procedures? Welcome. Here are the details:
It’s not the usual farmstands at ARTfarm since the 2020 pandemic. By popular demand, we’ve stuck with ‘pandemic’ pre-reserved pickup times in the busy season. We are only accepting pre-sized pre-orders called ‘farmshares,’ plus add-on items, with pre-reserved pickup time slots for a minimum of waiting or mingling in these COVID-19 times. (We know you’d prefer to set your own schedule and shop for just one or two items, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience. This system is to prevent our typical long tightly packed customer lines and to protect you and us, the farmers and our family, from exposure, while maximizing distribution of healthy food to the community.)
Pineapples are typically a spring-summer treat that appear on the harvest list as the tomatoes begin to wane in the heat!
We will have 10 small farmshares, just 5 large farmshares, and 20 greens farmshares available for scheduled pickup Saturday. You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order. The minimum order is one farmshare, and you CAN order more than one size farmshare.Add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a farmshare purchase; to minimize community contact during the pandemic.
Large farmshare, $25, will include:
2 bags of sweet salad mix
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 lb. mixed heirloom and slicer tomatoes (some unripe)
Small farmshare, $12, will include:
1 bag of sweet salad mix
1 lb. mixed slicer tomatoes
Greens farmshare, $14, will include:
2 bags of sweet salad mix
(Add this on to another share if you like!)
Additional Limited Quantity Reservable Add-Ons*
(please add to your total)
1 bag of sweet salad mix: $7 1 bag fresh ginger: $4 1 bag red Hawaiian turmeric: $4 1 bag white/mango turmeric: $4 1 bunch extra garlic chives: $2 1 bunch extra Italian basil: $2 1 bunch extra Thai basil: $2 1 bunch of nine bright assorted color zinnia flowers: $5
*(if these are sold out on the order form – or you’d like more than one of an item – there are often additional extras available at the time of pick-up, so if you can’t reserve, leave a note in the comments, bring some extra cash or wait to write your check total. Bring a pen.)
Extra Add-Ons (no reservations)
(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):
the first PINEAPPLES of this season: $3/lb. as marked
bunched mature ARUGULA: $3
sweet SALAD GREENS: $7
lots of extra ONIONS fresh harvested with green tops: $5/bunch
sweetest you ever tried PAPAYA: $3/lb. as marked
assorted WINTER SQUASH: $3/lb. as marked
KOHLRABI, a healthy cabbage-like vegetable: $3-4
BOK CHOI and Swiss CHARD: $3/bunch
extra sweet late season CARROTS: $3
HERBS bunch: $2
extra TOMATOES of all types: prebagged, as marked
Herb bunch choices for this distribution
(Available as EXTRAS, not included in farmshares this time.)
Garlic chives
Italian basil
Thai basil
Kaffir lime leaves
Rosemary
Lemongrass
Please contact us immediately by text and 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.
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, inbox tabs, and ‘all mail’ folders for the confirmation email, as 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 limit any one customer from cleaning us out. 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)
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!
ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI 