Wednesday ARTfarm Produce Pickups 12/23/20: Winta WhattaMELON!

ETA: We found a few typos on the previous version of this post, corrections include clarifying the share sizes, also please note small shares do not come with herbs this week, but you can purchase some as extras at pickup.

Farmer Luca’s been Walkin’ In the Winta Whattamelon and harvested almost 360 lbs. of watermelons last night. Sign up now for a pre-Christmas pickup slot on WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON and swing by tomorrow to put some red and green on your holiday table! We have increased the share options to include just a whole watermelon, small and large shares – and you can combine up to three different farmshares.

We’ll be closed for the Christmas/Boxing Day weekend, and we’ll send out the email/signup link for available farmshares on Tuesday, December 29th, and distribute reserved farmshares on Wednesday, December 30th.

As promised, our holiday gift to you from the ARTfarm elves, recipes and garden fun:

Once again, we are only accepting pre-sized pre-orders of farmshares, plus extras, for our customers with preselected pickup time slots for a minimum of waiting or mingling in this pandemic season. (We know you’d like to shop for just one or two items, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience. This system is to prevent pile-ups of customers and to protect us, the farmers and our family, from long long customer lines where we’d be more exposed.)

Who is that masked farmer? Farmer Luca at our socially distanced pre-reserved farmshare distribution during COVID times in spring 2020.

New here?

Please read our safety guidelines below on how to reserve your produce and pickup time. To understand WHY we are doing what we do, click HERE to read about ARTfarm LLC and COVID-19 precautions we are taking.

CUSTOMERS are required to:

  • meet an order minimum of one farmshare size
  • arrive ON TIME, not early!! Do NOT jump your timeslot please
  • consistently maintain 10-15 feet of distance between all individuals
  • wear masks to keep each other safe
  • sanitize hands before you exit your vehicle
  • bring exact change or a check and pen
  • be patient with us and each other during pickups
  • bring your own boxes, bags, baskets to pack up your order
  • wait to bag produce until we have completely assembled and totaled your order on the table

We require everyone picking up a box to wear a mask and please sanitize your hands before exiting your vehicle/arriving at the distribution table, and we will do the same.

We will have 20 large, 15 small and 10 whole watermelon ‘farmshares’ of produce available for Wednesday (a few of those available as “double small” orders). You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order. The minimum order is one farmshare, but for today you can order more than one size. Add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a farmshare purchase; to minimize community contact during the pandemic.

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.

Here’s how to get ARTfarm produce during the pandemic:

  1. Wait ’til Friday morning around 10am *schedule may shift to Tuesdays/Wednesdays for major holiday weekends*
  2. Visit artfarmllc.com or check your farm email for the fresh-from-the-field weekly signup page
  3. Sign up with our online form (a link at the bottom of the weekly signup page like this one)
  4. Using the current online order form, choose a minimum of one farmshare size of pre-selected, pre-priced ARTfarm produce (contents listed below, either small or large – in high demand times 1 share may be set as the maximum)
  5. Commit to a pick-up time slot
  6. Choose any add-on items (limited supplies)
  7. Add a comment for special requests, extras, preferences, or whatever’s on your mind
  8. Check your email for a confirmation! (the email you used on the order form is the one you should check – it is an automated response and is sent out immediately)
  9. Arrive promptly but NOT EARLY for your pickup appointment on Saturday in the ARTfarm parking lot on Saturday. If early, wait inside your vehicle and decide what herbs you want! Sanitize your hands when getting out of your vehicle. Please maintain plenty of space between customers, and between us and you when you approach the pickup table for your appointed pickup time. We’ll be wearing masks and ask that you do the same.
  10. Bring exact change or a check to drop in the bucket – we are not handling any money.
  11. There may be unadvertised extra items available to add to your box at pickup time, so you may wish to bring some extra small bills or wait to fill in your check amount. Please bring your own pen.
  12. Bring your own bags or box to put your produce into. We’ll place your items on the sanitized table, some things will be pre-bagged, you’ll pack your own bags or box for the rest. Wait to bag until we do a final count of your items to make sure we don’t forget anything. We are trying to reduce the number of shopping bags we distribute, so please bring an extra bag, box or basket to your pickups this season.
  13. No substitutions or price adjustments. To maintain sanitation and keep things moving, we are not swapping items, handling payments or making change. (As always we’ll be flexible where we can within reason.)
  14. YOU ARE AWESOME for supporting our small family farm and accommodating our needs for COVID safety.

Farmshare choices for Wednesday, December 23rd 2020:

Whole Watermelon farmshare, $16-25 (as marked), will include:

Just a whole watermelon in this farmshare! Plus any add-ons you would like. You can also add another size farmshare!!

Small farmshare, $10, will include:
  • 1 bag of sweet salad mix
  • 1 lb. cucumbers
Double Small farmshare, $20, will include:

As listed above, but double: one for you and one for a friend. Take distribution into your own (recently washed) hands, deliver to a neighbor or loved one!

Large farmshare, $37, will include:
  • 1 bag of sweet salad mix
  • 1 bag of baby spicy OR baby arugula salad mix (your choice as available)
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes
  • 2 1/2 lb. watermelon quarter
  • 1 bunch of baby carrots OR scarlet turnips (your choice as available)
  • 2 herb bunches (you choose; please consider your choices before you arrive at the table)
Additional Limited Quantity Reservable Add-Ons*

(please add to your total)

2 lbs. sliced pumpkin: $6
2 lbs. zucchini: $6
1 bunch extra garlic chives: $2
1 bunch extra Italian basil: $2
1 bunch of nine bright assorted color zinnia flowers: $5

Heirloom tomato plants (potted up): $5 each:

  • Black Plum tomato
  • Mystery (random variety) slicing tomato

Dragonfruit cuttings: $15 each:

  • Natural Mystic (red inside)
  • Physical Graffiti (pink inside)

Saman (rain) tree: $20
Sandbox (monkey-no-climb) tree: $10

*(if these are sold out – 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

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

  • WATERMELON!! – approx 2 lb. watermelon quarter: $2/lb. (around $4, as marked)
  • sweet salad mix – $7
  • cherry tomatoes, pint: $6
  • pumpkin, cut quarters: $3/lb. (around $6, as marked)
  • cooking greens – $3/bunch (kale varieties, dandelion, swiss chard, collards)
  • 2 lbs. zucchini – $6
  • 2 lbs. cucumber – $6
  • loose zinnias – $0.50/ea
  • extra herb bunch – $2
  • bag Thai chiles – $2
  • bag green cayenne peppers – $2
Herb bunch choices for this week

(Large share = 2 herb selections. Choose from what’s available at pickup, or we’ll pick some for you, but these are the basic options we should have, you can start mulling it over 🙂

  • Garlic chives
  • Italian basil
  • Lemon basil
  • Cilantro
  • Dill
  • Rosemary
  • Lemongrass
  • Kaffir lime leaves

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 ask at your pickup time: if we can supply it to you we’ll do our best.


The signup form will show you a “Thank You” page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. One order per customer, please.

Problems with the online signup form? Workarounds our customers figured out (thank you!!) were to:

  • just try again
  • use a cellular device (smartphone or tablet) that isn’t using WiFi internet
  • clear your cache and cookies in your browser/device
  • reboot your router (unplug it for a minute and plug in again)

This pre-order signup form does NOT sign you up for an ARTfarm email subscription.

Here’s the link to Wednesday December 23rd’s SIGNUP FORM
(opens a new window).

Signup for Saturday ARTfarm Produce Boxes 12/19/20: Drag On, Fruit

New this week at ARTfarm: The holidays are upon us! Need a quick gift? We’ve got some dragonfruit cuttings on the add-ons list today! Makes a great gift! As the pandemic “drags on”, you can stay home and plant some “drag-on” fruit vines, and enjoy the fruits of your own labor! Here’s our how-to-grow-dragonfruit guide!

The ARTfarm holiday schedule for the next two weeks will be announced shortly after this post goes out, along with a fun article on things you can do with pumpkin. Stay tuned!

Once again, we are only accepting pre-sized pre-orders of farmshares, plus extras, for our customers with preselected pickup time slots for a minimum of waiting or mingling in this pandemic season. (We know you’d like to shop for just one or two items, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience. This system is to prevent pile-ups of customers and to protect us, the farmers and our family, from long long customer lines where we’d be more exposed.)

We’d like to remind everyone to pay extra attention to your time slot and don’t come half an hour early. There should be less than 10 cars in our lot at any given time if customers are following the schedule. People coming early or late slow EVERYONE down and confuse our system. Come at your appointed time slot, five minutes early at the most. Don’t jump your timeslot please.

Farmer Luca at our Socially Distanced Farmshare Distribution. Homemade cloth mask by Rose Boyan!
Who is that masked farmer?

New here?

Please read our safety guidelines below on how to reserve your produce and pickup time. To understand WHY we are doing what we do, click HERE to read about ARTfarm LLC and COVID-19 precautions we are taking.

CUSTOMERS are required to:

  • meet an order minimum of one farmshare size
  • arrive ON TIME, not early!! Do NOT jump your timeslot please
  • consistently maintain 10-15 feet of distance between all individuals
  • wear masks to keep each other safe
  • sanitize hands before you exit your vehicle
  • bring exact change or a check and pen
  • be patient with us and each other during pickups
  • bring your own boxes, bags, baskets to pack up your order
  • wait to bag produce until we have completely assembled and totaled your order on the table

We require everyone picking up a box to wear a mask and please sanitize your hands before exiting your vehicle/arriving at the distribution table, and we will do the same.

We will have 20 large and 35 small ‘farmshares’ of produce available for Saturday (a few of those available as “double small” orders). You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order. The minimum order is one farmshare. Add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a farmshare purchase; to minimize community contact during the pandemic.

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. We will hold your produce for you at your timeslot, and we expect to hear from you. We understand life happens, but please do not leave us hanging, waiting for you, with your food! 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.

Here’s how to get ARTfarm produce during the pandemic:

  1. Wait ’til Friday morning around 10am
  2. Visit artfarmllc.com or check your farm email for the fresh-from-the-field weekly signup page
  3. Sign up with our online form (a link at the bottom of the weekly signup page like this one)
  4. Using the current online order form, choose one farmshare size of pre-selected, pre-priced ARTfarm produce (contents listed below, either small or large)
  5. Commit to a pick-up time slot
  6. Choose any add-on items (limited supplies)
  7. Add a comment for special requests, extras, preferences, or whatever’s on your mind
  8. Check your email for a confirmation!
  9. Arrive promptly but NOT EARLY for your pickup appointment on Saturday in the ARTfarm parking lot on Saturday. If early, wait inside your vehicle and decide what herbs you want! Sanitize your hands when getting out of your vehicle. Please maintain plenty of space between customers, and between us and you when you approach the pickup table for your appointed pickup time. We’ll be wearing masks and ask that you do the same.
  10. Bring exact change or a check to drop in the bucket – we are not handling any money.
  11. There may be unadvertised extra items available to add to your box at pickup time, so you may wish to bring some extra small bills or wait to fill in your check amount. Please bring your own pen.
  12. Bring your own bags or box to put your produce into. We’ll place your items on the sanitized table, some things will be pre-bagged, you’ll pack your own bags or box for the rest. Wait to bag until we do a final count of your items to make sure we don’t forget anything. We are trying to reduce the number of shopping bags we distribute, so please bring an extra bag, box or basket to your pickups this season.
  13. No substitutions or price adjustments. To maintain sanitation and keep things moving, we are not swapping items, handling payments or making change. (As always we’ll be flexible where we can within reason.)
  14. YOU ARE AWESOME for supporting our small family farm and accommodating our needs for COVID safety.

Farmshare choices for Saturday, December 19th 2020:

Small farmshare, $14, will include:
  • 1 bag of sweet salad mix
  • 1 lb. cucumbers
  • 2 herb bunches (you choose; please consider your choices before you arrive at the table)
Double Small farmshare, $28, will include:

As listed above, but double: one for you and one for a friend. Take distribution into your own (recently washed) hands, deliver to a neighbor or loved one!

Large farmshare, $34, will include:
  • 2 bags of sweet salad mix
  • 1 bag of teen spicy salad mix
  • 2 lb. cucumbers
  • 2 herb bunches (you choose; please consider your choices before you arrive at the table)
Additional Limited Quantity Reservable Add-Ons*

(please add to your total)

  • 1 bag fresh Mediterranean figs: $5
  • 1 bag teen arugula: $10
  • 1 bag tiny baby arugula: $13
  • 2 lbs. zucchini: $6
  • 2 lbs. cucumbers: $6
  • 1 bag sweet frying or stuffing peppers: $3
  • 1 bag green chiles, assorted types: $2
  • 1 bunch extra garlic chives: $2
  • 1 bunch extra Italian basil: $2
  • 1 bunch of nine bright assorted color zinnia flowers: $5

Heirloom tomato plants (potted up): $5 each:

  • Black Plum tomato
  • Mystery (unmarked) tomato

Dragonfruit cuttings: $15 each:

  • Natural Mystic (red inside)
  • Physical Graffiti (pink inside)

Saman tree: $20
Sandbox tree: $10

*(if these are sold out – there are often additional extras available at the time of pick-up, so if you can’t reserve, bring some extra cash or wait to write your check total. Bring a pen.)

Extra Add-Ons

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

  • CHERRY TOMATOES!! pint: $6
  • WATERMELON!! – approx 2 lb. watermelon quarter: $2/lb. (around $4, as marked)
  • BUTTERNUT!!! tender and sweet! Small/minis: $3.50/lb. (around $7, as marked)
  • PUMPKIN!! so versatile!! Cut quarters: $3/lb. (around $6, as marked)
  • cooking greens – $3/bunch (kale varieties, dandelion, swiss chard, collards)
  • beet bunch with tops – $5
  • 2 lbs. zucchini – $6
  • 2 lbs. cucumber – $6
  • loose zinnias – $0.50/ea
  • extra herb bunch – $2
  • bag Thai chiles – $2
Herb bunch choices for this week

(Large share = 2 herb selections, Small share = 2 herb selections. Choose from what’s available at pickup, or we’ll pick some for you, but these are the basic options we should have, you can start mulling it over 🙂

  • Garlic chives
  • Italian basil
  • Lemon basil
  • Cilantro
  • Dill
  • Mint
  • Rosemary
  • Lemongrass
  • Kaffir lime leaves

We have designed our order form not to allow any one customer to purchase all of one extra. Sharing is caring. If we have extra, we’ll do our best to let you know. 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 if we can supply it to you we’ll do our best.


The signup form will show you a “Thank You” page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. One order per customer, please.

Problems with the online signup form? Workarounds our customers figured out (thank you!!) were to:

  • just try again
  • use a cellular device (smartphone or tablet) that isn’t using WiFi internet
  • clear your cache and cookies in your browser/device
  • reboot your router (unplug it for a minute and plug in again)

This pre-order signup form does NOT sign you up for an ARTfarm email subscription.

Here’s the link to Saturday December 19th’s SIGNUP FORM
(opens a new window).

Signup for Saturday ARTfarm Produce Boxes 12/12/20: Cool like a Cucumber

How about this ‘freezing cold’ weather we’ve been having? In addition to more sweet watermelon and pumpkin, we’ll have more cukes and zukes, and more young tomato plants again for Saturday! Once again, we are only accepting pre-orders of farmshares, plus extras, for our customers with preselected pickup time slots for a minimum of waiting or mingling in this pandemic season. (We know you’d like to shop for just one or two items, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience. This system is to prevent pile-ups of customers and to protect us, the farmers and our family, from long long customer lines where we’d be more exposed.)

We’d like to ask everyone to pay extra attention to your time slot and don’t come half an hour early. The parking lot was jammed up with people who came early and stood around waiting last week. Come at your appointed time slot, five minutes early at the most. Having too many customers standing around gives us stress, and makes us have to yell across the parking lot through a mask to figure out who’s who. There should be less than 10 cars in our lot at any given time if customers are following the schedule. People coming early or late slow EVERYONE down and confuse our system. Don’t jump your timeslot please.

We’re doing the same “new normal” again this season:

ARTfarm will:

Farmer Luca at our Socially Distanced Farmshare Distribution. Homemade cloth mask by Rose Boyan!
  • NOT be open for retail walk-in shopping
  • run pre-reserved online ‘box sales’
  • offer socially distanced pick up shifts of 10 people max – you make your appointment online
  • avoid creating long waits, lines, crowds, traffic jams
  • wear masks, sanitizing hands and surfaces even more than usual
  • not handle cash or make change – you drop payment in the bucket

CUSTOMERS are required to:

  • meet an order minimum of one farmshare size
  • arrive ON TIME, not early!!
  • consistently maintain 10-15 feet of distance between all individuals
  • wear masks to keep each other safe
  • sanitize hands before you exit your vehicle
  • bring exact change or a check and pen
  • be patient with us and each other during pickups
  • bring your own boxes, bags, baskets to pack up your order
  • wait to bag produce until we have completely assembled and totaled your order on the table

We require everyone picking up a box to wear a mask and please sanitize your hands before exiting your vehicle/arriving at the distribution table, and we will do the same.

We will have 20 large and 35 small ‘farmshares’ of produce available for Saturday (a few of those available as “double small” orders). You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order. The minimum order is one farmshare. Add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a farmshare purchase; to minimize community contact during the pandemic.

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. We will hold your produce for you at your timeslot, and we expect to hear from you. We understand life happens, but please do not leave us hanging, waiting for you, with your food! 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.

Here’s how to get ARTfarm produce during the pandemic:

  1. Sign up with our online form (a link at the bottom of the weekly signup page is posted on our website and sent out to the farm email list on Fridays, usually by 10am).
  2. Using the current online order form, choose one size of pre-selected, pre-priced ARTfarm produce (contents listed below, either small or large)
  3. Commit to a pick-up time slot
  4. Choose any add-on items (limited supplies)
  5. Add a comment for special requests
  6. Check your email for a confirmation!
  7. Arrive promptly but NOT EARLY for your pickup appointment on Saturday in the ARTfarm parking lot on Saturday. If early, wait inside your vehicle and decide what herbs you want! Sanitize your hands when getting out of your vehicle. Please maintain plenty of space between customers, and between us and you when you approach the pickup table for your appointed pickup time. We’ll be wearing masks and ask that you do the same.
  8. Bring exact change or a check to drop in the bucket – we are not handling any money.
  9. There may be unadvertised extra items available to add to your box at pickup time, so you may wish to bring some extra small bills or wait to fill in your check amount. Please bring your own pen.
  10. Bring your own bags or box to put your produce into. We’ll place your items on the sanitized table, some things will be pre-bagged, you’ll pack your own bags or box for the rest. Wait to bag until we do a final count of your items to make sure we don’t forget anything. We are trying to reduce the number of shopping bags we distribute, so please bring an extra bag, box or basket to your pickups this season.
  11. No substitutions or price adjustments. To maintain sanitation and keep things moving, we are not swapping items, handling payments or making change. (As always we’ll be flexible where we can within reason.)

Box choices for Saturday, December 12th 2020:

Double Small farm share, $28, will include:

As listed above, but double: one for you and one for a friend. Take distribution into your own (recently washed) hands, deliver to a neighbor or loved one!

Large farm share, $40, will include:
  • 2 bags of sweet salad mix
  • 1 bag of teen spicy salad mix (heavy on the arugula this week)
  • 2 lb. cucumbers
  • 2 lb. pumpkin slice
  • 2 herb bunches (you choose; please consider your choices before you arrive at the table)
Additional Limited Quantity Reservable Add-Ons*

(please add to your total)

  • 1 bag fresh Mediterranean figs: $5
  • 1 bag teen arugula: $10
  • 2 lbs. zucchini: $6
  • 2 lbs. cucumbers: $6
  • 1 bunch radishes with green edible tops: $2
  • 1 bag green chiles, assorted types: $2
  • 1 bunch extra garlic chives: $2
  • 1 bunch extra Italian basil: $2
  • 1 bunch extra lemon basil: $2
  • 1 bunch of nine bright assorted color zinnia flowers: $5

Heirloom tomato plants (potted): $4 each:

  • Black Plum tomato
  • Great Rainbow tomato
  • Mystery (unmarked) tomato

Saman tree: $20
Sandbox tree: $10

*(if these are sold out – there are often additional extras available at the time of pick-up, so if you can’t reserve, bring some extra cash or wait to write your check total. Bring a pen.)

Extra Add-Ons

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

  • WATERMELON!!! winter sweet!! lots of approx 2 lb. watermelon quarter: $2/lb. (around $4, as marked)
  • BUTTERNUT!!! tender and sweet! Whole or cut quarter: $3/lb. (around $6, as marked)
    PUMPKIN!! so versatile!! Cut quarters: $3/lb. (around $6, as marked)
  • dragonfruit – $8/lb.
  • cooking greens – $3/bunch
  • 2 lbs. zucchini – $6
  • 2 lbs. cucumber – $6
  • loose zinnias – $0.50/ea
  • extra herb bunch – $2
Herb bunch choices for this week

(Large share = 2 herb selections, Small share = 2 herb selections. Choose from what’s available at pickup, or we’ll pick some for you, but these are the basic options we should have, you can start mulling it over 🙂

  • Garlic chives
  • Italian basil
  • Lemon basil
  • Thai basil
  • Dill
  • Mint
  • Rosemary
  • Lemongrass
  • Kaffir lime leaves

We have designed our order form not to allow any one customer to purchase all of one extra. Sharing is caring. If we have extra, we’ll do our best to let you know. 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 if we can supply it to you we’ll do our best.


The signup form will show you a “Thank You” page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. One order per customer, please.

Problems with the online signup form? Workarounds our customers figured out (thank you!!) were to:

  • just try again
  • use a cellular device (smartphone or tablet) that isn’t using WiFi internet
  • clear your cache and cookies in your browser/device
  • reboot your router (unplug it for a minute and plug in again)

This pre-order signup form does NOT sign you up for an ARTfarm email subscription.

Here’s the link to Saturday December 12th’s SIGNUP FORM
(opens a new window).

Order Socially Distanced Saturday ARTfarm Produce Boxes 12/5/20: Plus WATERMELON & PUMPKIN

1:30pm Friday:
Sorry folks, box shares for Saturday are sold out. It’s early in the season and we will have more boxes each week to serve more families, so please try again next week.

Hey farm supporters. It is SO nice to be back in touch! We got some great rain this fall, finally, and things are green and happy on the South Shore. Luca and Christina and family are hard at work on some farm improvement projects, Kiko is weeding, mowing and weedwacking nonstop, Bob is rocking out at ARTfarm a few days a week, and we are planting food like crazy! So crazy in fact that we seeded too many heirloom tomato plants, and will be selling young tomato plants on Saturday! Plus early watermelon and beautiful sweet pumpkin in new varieties for Saturday!

Thanks to everyone’s amazingly careful participation last season, we were able to manage pre-orders for our customers with a minimum of waiting. We’ll be doing the same “new normal” this season:

ARTfarm will:

  • NOT be open for retail walk-in shopping
  • run pre-reserved online ‘box sales’
  • offer socially distanced pick up shifts of 10 people max – you make your appointment online
  • avoid creating long waits, lines, crowds, traffic jams
  • wear masks, sanitizing hands and surfaces even more than usual
  • not handle cash or make change – you drop in the bucket

CUSTOMERS are required to:

  • meet an order minimum of one box size
    consistently maintain 10-15 feet of distance between all individuals
  • wear masks to keep each other safe
  • sanitize hands before you exit your vehicle
  • bring exact change or a check and pen
  • be patient with us and each other during pickups
  • bring your own boxes, bags, baskets to pack up your order
  • wait to bag produce until we have completely assembled and totaled your order on the table

We are going to keep running food distribution socially distanced, as we’ve done from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s more work but your safety and ours is paramount. As more COVID surges emerge globally and travel increases in and out of the territory, we thank you for continuing to stay the course in this marathon to protect the less immune-robust members of our community!

We require everyone picking up a box to wear a mask and please sanitize your hands before arriving at the distribution table, and we will do the same.

We are obsessed with this pumpkin this winter. Offspring of Calabaza Taina Dorada from PR’s Desde Mi Huerto. It’s sweet and tastes great in EVERYTHING. We cut big chunks, steam them cut side down in half an inch of water in a covered skillet for 10-12 minutes until soft, and then… 1. Eat like a slice of pizza with a little butter, salt and pepper (skin is edible too!) 2. Scoop into any savory dish (OMG pasta! rice! casserole! beans!) to sweeten and thicken sauce 3. Save in the fridge and toss big spoonfuls into a smoothie or other snack 4. Use in pies, cakes, breads, muffins, homemade pasta… ours never lasts that long…

Here’s how to get a box of ARTfarm produce:

  1.    Sign up with our online form (a link at the bottom of the weekly signup page is posted on Fridays, usually by 10am).
    • Using the current online order form, choose one box of pre-selected, pre-priced ARTfarm produce (contents listed below, either small or large)
    • Commit to a pick-up time slot
    • Choose any add-on items (limited supplies)
    • Add a comment for special requests
    • Check your email for a confirmation!
  2.   Arrive promptly for your pickup appointment on Saturday in the ARTfarm parking lot on Saturday. If early, wait in your vehicle and decide what herbs you want! Sanitize your hands when getting out of your vehicle. Please maintain plenty of space between customers, and between us and you when you approach the pickup table for your appointed pickup time. We’ll be wearing masks and ask that you do the same.
    • Bring exact change or a check to drop in the bucket – we are not handling any money.
    • There may be unadvertised extra items available to add to your box at pickup time, so you may wish to bring some extra small bills or wait to fill in your check amount. Please bring your own pen.
    • Bring your own bags or box to put your produce into. We’ll place your items on the sanitized table, some things will be pre-bagged, you’ll pack your own bags or box for the rest. Wait to bag until we do a final count of your items to make sure we don’t forget anything. We are trying to reduce the number of shopping bags we distribute, so please bring an extra bag, box or basket to your pickups this season.
    • No substitutions or price adjustments. To maintain sanitation and keep things moving, we are not swapping items, handling payments or making change. (As always we’ll be flexible where we can within reason.)

We will have 16 large and 20 small ‘farmshares’ of produce available for Saturday (a few of those available as “double small” orders). You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order. The minimum order is one box. Add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a box purchase; to minimize community contact during the pandemic.

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. We will hold your box for you and we expect to hear from you. We understand life happens, but please do not leave us hanging, waiting for you, with your food! 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.

Box choices for Saturday, December 5th 2020:  SOLD OUT  😦

Small farm share, $17, will include:

1 bag of sweet salad mix
1 lb. cucumbers
1 lb. zucchini
2 herb bunches (random selection)

Double Small farm share, $34, will include:

As listed above, but double: one for you and one for a friend. Take distribution into your own (recently washed) hands, deliver to a neighbor or loved one!

Large farm share, $50, will include:

2 bags of sweet salad mix
1 bag of baby spicy salad mix
1 bag of baby arugula
1 lb. cucumbers
1 lb. zucchini
2 herb bunches (random selection)
1 bag of mixed chili peppers (from mild to hot)

Additional Limited Quantity Reserved Add-Ons*

(please add to your total)
1 bag fresh Mediterranean figs: $5
1 bag ‘Strawberry Tree’ fruit (like a tiny seedless guava the size of a blueberry): $6
1 bunch extra garlic chives: $2
1 bunch extra Italian basil: $2
1 bunch extra lemon basil: $2
1 bunch of nine bright assorted color zinnia flowers: $5

Heirloom tomato plants (potted): $4 each:
Black Plum tomato
Great White tomato
Persimmon tomato
Cherokee Green tomato
Big Beef tomato
Paul Robeson tomato

Saman tree: $20
Sandbox tree: $10

*(there are often additional extras available at the time of pick-up, so if you can’t reserve, bring some extra cash or wait to write your check total. Bring a pen.)

Extra Add-Ons (must purchase box share)

(first come first served during your box pickup):

  • WATERMELON!!! lots of approx 2 lb. watermelon quarter: $2/lb. (around $4)
  • PUMPKIN!!! lots of approx 2 lb. pumpkin quarter: $3/lb. (around $6)
  • dragonfruit – $8/lb.
  • perhaps cooking greens – $3/bunch
  • radishes – $1.50/bunch
  • maybe extra cukes and zucchini – $3/lb.
  • loose zinnias – $0.50/ea
Herb bunch options

(Large share = 2 herb selections, Small share = 2 herb selections. Choose from what’s available at pickup, or we’ll pick some for you, but these are the basic options we should have, you can start mulling it over 🙂

  • Garlic chives
  • Italian basil
  • Lemon basil
  • Thai basil
  • Dill
  • Rosemary
  • Lemongrass
  • Kaffir lime leaves
  • This signup form will show you a Thank You page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. One order per customer, please.
  • Three people reported having problems with the online signup form telling them incorrectly that they had already placed an order. It’s an overzealous security feature to prevent multiple orders from the same customer. Workarounds our customers figured out (thank you!!) were to
    • just try again
    • use a cellular device (smartphone or tablet) that isn’t using WiFi internet
    • clear your cache and cookies in your browser/device
    • reboot your router (unplug it for a minute and plug in again)
  • We are asking that people ration, by designing our order form not to allow any one customer to purchase all of one extra. Sharing is caring. If we have extra, we’ll do our best to let you know. If you’d like extra of something, put it in the comments with your order.
  • This pre-order signup form does NOT sign you up for an ARTfarm email subscription.

Here’s the link to Saturday December 5th’s SIGNUP FORM
(opens a new window).