ARTfarm Q&A Wednesday 3-6pm: Hold My Tomatoes!

Today’s farmstand, 3-6pm: Sweet salad mix, baby spicy and regular spicy salad mixes, baby and regular arugula, microgreens, loads of cherry tomatoes, loads of tomatoes, onions, scallions, beets, Italian basil, Thai basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, purple Bodhi beans, assorted chili peppers, a couple cucumbers, baby carrots, escarole, a few bunches of kale, delicious Mediterranean figs and passionfruit. From our partner Errol Chichester’s beekeeping efforts we have local raw honey!

Radishes! Carrots! and Beets! Oh My!
Radishes! Carrots! and Beets! Oh My!
It's the scarecrow, the cowardly lion and the tin man. At the end of the yellow brick road, there was... freshly harvested MICRO!
It’s the scarecrow, the cowardly lion and the tin man. At the end of the yellow brick road, there was… freshly harvested MICRO!
Fresh oakleaf lettuces destined for ARTfarm's sweet mix!
Fresh oakleaf lettuces destined for ARTfarm’s sweet mix!

Q: Can you hold a couple of pounds of tomatoes/some dill/a few cucumbers/a bag of salad for me? I can’t make it to the farmstand on time today.

A: We hate to say no to good people. We love all our customers and supporters. We appreciate and applaud how important fresh, organically produced food is in your lives! This is one of our most common questions – we field several requests per week from customers to hold items from the farmstand.

Our policy for retail sales has always been that we are a first-come, first-served farmstand. We may have good intentions and want to say yes to you, but we do not have the manpower, the infrastructure, the time or the space to set aside produce on request. If you start to consider the logistics, we simply can’t accommodate custom retail pre-orders. We lose money on them. And they’d reduce the early-bird limited-supply offerings we want to have available for customers who came on time or even waited in line.

We are a family farm – mom, pop, and grandpa – with a couple of part time employees and loyal volunteers. Maybe someday we’ll be bigger with more staff, but for now we are tiny. We work literally from pre-dawn until after dusk, six to seven days per week year round, to care for the gardens and livestock and accomplish what you see at the farmstand and appearing on the menus of local restaurants. Our profit margins are narrow because of all the labor costs and handwork that goes into our harvesting and processing work and our organic gardening and resource conservation techniques. We love what we do and are dedicated to it, but it leaves us with very little downtime. Additional tasks and projects pull Luca and Christina away from the art studio. We have to limit the services the farm can offer.

We ARE open three farmstands per week in winter and spring, and at least once a week through most of the summer/fall months. We live in a modern world that values efficiency over all else, but coming to the farmstand is, we hope, a qualitative experience and not just another errand to rush through. If you can’t make it, there is always the next farmstand… we, and our family and friends, thank you for understanding and appreciate your support!

ARTfarm Saturday Excitement!

ARTfarm is open this morning on the South Shore from 10 AM – 12 noon. We still have a broad range of items at this cool time of year, so come out and get your fresh greens and produce for the week ahead! Today we have tons of cherry tomatoes, lots of heirloom and slicer tomatoes, sweet salad mix, microgreens, teen and baby spicy salad mix, teen arugula, a few young cucumbers, kale, dandelion greens, yard long beans, beets, onions, scallions, carrots, cilantro, dill, chives, mint, Italian basil, lemon basil, holy basil, Thai basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, Mediterranean figs, freshly harvested ginger root, passionfruit, mangoes, and fresh-cut zinnia flowers.

From our partners: Wanda of the Wright Apiary will be on hand today for the sampling and sale of handmade honey meads in a range of amazing fruit infusions. She also has a fantastic honey mustard dressing/marinade in different configurations to suit your taste. Personally we love the “zesty” version with lots of garlic in it! Bees are a huge part of our success in the gardens, honey products are just the icing on the cake.

We also have a fresh batch of I-Sha’s homemade vegan coconut-based ice creams coming in today in local fruit flavors, ready to enjoy in a perfect little one scoop size. Bring a little cooler and some ice and take home a few for a great ending to a locally sourced meal! The coconuts are locally harvested and processed for the ice cream, not from a can! A serious labor of love!

Speaking of love, we love you guys and appreciate your continued encouragement of our efforts to grow organically and sustainably. Thanks for being a part of what we do, we could not continue without our wonderful and supportive customers.

Don’t forget about the 44th Annual Orchid Show open at the Great Hall at UVI today!

A pair of lavender, purple-spotted orchid flowers spread their roots across the bark of a plum tree.
Farmer Luca’s mom, Valeria, is a talented cultivator of tree orchids. Visitors who stay at her vacation rental at the ARTfarm (LongfordHideaway.com) enjoy discovering all the orchids in the trees around the property!

Happy Valentine’s Day from ARTfarm, 10-12 Saturday. You Look RADISHING My Dear!

Red onions are red,
The skies are blue,
If you seek a special Valentine treat,
We’ve got a lot of figs for you!

Mediterranean figs grown at ARTfarm! A romantic treat for yourself or a loved one!
Mediterranean figs grown at ARTfarm! A romantic treat for yourself or a loved one!

We have a lot of beautiful RED and PINK things from the farm to make a special Valentine meal or gift for yourself or someone else that you love dearly. What could be a more meaningful and romantic way to say “I love you (and want you to be healthy and live a long time)” than to offer lovingly grown, freshly harvested farm food?

Brilliant red radicchio, perfect for a valentine's day salad.
Brilliant red radicchio, perfect for dressing up a Valentine’s Day salad.

Mediterranean figs are nature’s bonbons. When ripe they are so tender and delicate that the velvety, paper thin skin needs to be handled with kid gloves. Inside you’ll find pastel shades of pink, or gold, or even a deep ruby red, depending on the variety. They are fragrant and flavorful in a contemplative way, so they are best enjoyed out of hand when on the beach at sunrise, in a candlelit bath, or over the pages of a slow burn, sensuous novel or some poetry.

Today’s Valentines to you, our BELOVED customers: Sweet salad mix with RED leaf lettuce, teen spicy salad mix with PURPLE mustard greens, baby spicy salad mix with RED mustard greens, teen arugula, baby arugula, microgreens with RED amaranth, sweet sweet SWEETHEART corn, RED beets, carrots, RED and white bulb onions, RED radishes, scallions, PURPLE yard long beans, sweet bell peppers, RED HOT chili peppers, kale, dandelion greens with RED stems, Italian basil, holy (Tulsi) and Thai basil with PURPLE flowers, lemon basil, cilantro, parsley, garlic chives, dill, mint, thyme, fresh harvested SPICY ginger, escarole, RED radicchio, PASSIONfruit, mangoes, ripe black sapote (CHOCOLATE pudding fruit) and fresh SWEET Mediterranean figs. Of course, on this day of all days, we will have fresh-cut zinnia flowers in many shades of PINK and RED for sale from the fields and gardens.

And from our partner I-Sha, perfect little LOVE cups of vegan ice cream including everyone’s favorite, HOT PINK beet-ginger flavor!!

Don’t forget, an ARTfarm gift certificate can also be a great way to show someone you care.

Delicious Saturday: 10am – 12 noon

It’s the height of tomato season and the time of year where we have the most variety! Swing South on your way to your weekend and get some beautiful locally, sustainably and organically grown produce straight from the farmer!

Sweet salad mix, spicy and baby spicy salad mix, arugula, baby arugula, cucumbers, beets, carrots, yard long beans, all sorts of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, kale, dandelion greens, escarole, endive, radicchio, onions, pumpkin, radishes, ginger, Italian basil, lemon basil, Thai basil, holy basil, garlic chives, dill, cilantro, parsley, passionfruit, a few bags of fat fresh Mediterranean figs, fresh cut zinnia flowers!

Our pumpkins were petite but incredibly flavorful this year. They have a very pungent, dry flesh that holds up beautifully to cooking. By the slice!

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Luca is always up before the sun on farmstand days to harvest and sort.IMG_8100.JPG