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).

Auspicious Dragonfruit Pop-Up Saturday!! Sign up for a pickup slot!!

It’s finally time for a pop-up stand for fruit bounty from ARTfarm! After a dry summer, we finally received some rainshowers in the last month or so and the dragonfruit vines woke up.

Once again we will NOT BE OPEN for retail shopping on Saturday. Until further notice, we are going to run socially distanced online ‘box sales’ like we’ve done since March 21st, with pre-reserved pick up shifts of 10 people max, to slow the spread of novel coronavirus in our island community. We want to avoid long waits, traffic issues and crowds forming. As per guidelines from Government House, we require everyone picking up a box to wear a mask, and we will do the same.

Getting a farm share box is as easy as S-A-N, as in SAN-ta’s watching you. Here’s what to do:

  1.   S  is for :  Sign up with our sign-up form (a link at the bottom of the weekly signup page is posted on Fridays, usually by around 10am).
    • Choose ONE pre-selected, pre-priced share of ARTfarm produce (minimum purchase, contents listed below)
    • Choose any add-on items (limited supplies)
    • Commit to a pick-up time slot
  2.   A is for :  Arrive on Saturday at (or wait in your car until) your appointed time in the ARTfarm parking lot on Saturday. Too many people showing up at the same time could risk exposure. Please maintain plenty of space between customers, and between us and you when you approach the pickup table. We’ll be wearing masks as an extra precaution and require that you do the same. We do it to protect you! Please protect us!
    • Bring exact change or a check to drop in the bucket – we are not handling any money.
    • There inevitably are 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.
  3.   N is for :  No substitutions or price adjustments. To maintain sanitation and keep things moving, we are not swapping items, handling payments or making change.
    • We’ll do our best to give you options at pickup if we can, to meet or exceed the value.
    • If desired, you can leave any unwanted items from your share on the table and we will pass them on to another lucky customer!

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 after hours, waiting for you, with your food! Our produce is harvested fresh before dawn, and needs to go home with you same day. This is an honor system since we are not collecting payment until pickup.

Choices for Saturday, October 10th 2020:


Dragonfruit Double Share, $20, will include:

3-5 dragonfruits (pre-weighed quantity, $8/lb)


Dragonfruit Single Share, $10, will include:

1-3 dragonfruits (pre-weighed quantity, $8/lb)


add-on items, limited quantities*

(please add to your total)
1 Haitian kidney mango: $2.50
1 bag red turmeric: $3.50
1 bunch garlic chives: $2
1 bunch arugula: $3
1 bunch Italian basil: $2
1 bunch lemongrass: $2

2 pineapple slips for planting: $4


there may be other last-moment additions available, as usual…

  • This signup form will show you a Thank You page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. One order per customer, please.
  • Having problems with the online signup form?
    • 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 helping people ration, by not allowing 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 and make it available at pickup. Put any additional wishes in the comments box.
  • This signup form does NOT sign you up for a farm email subscription.

Here’s the link to Saturday October 10th 2020’s SIGNUP FORM
(opens a new window).



Wednesday Watermelon Wonderment 3-6pm 

Water for watermelons! One of our ponds. This one replenishes the water table.
Water for watermelons! One of our ponds. This one replenishes the water table.

Compared to this time last year, things are blessedly moist right now. The 6+ inches of rain we got at the beginning of the month of May <insert happy dance> has continued to promote explosive growth all over the farm.

So here’s what it brought you for today at ARTfarm, 3–6 p.m.: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, bunched arugula, a few pints of cherry tomatoes, a few slicer tomatoes, dandelion greens, Italian basil, garlic chives, parsley, freshly dug ginger root, French breakfast radishes, sweet bell peppers, serrano peppers, Indian chili peppers, yellow seasoning peppers, fresh cut zinnia flowers, good quantities of yellow and red fleshed WATERMELONS, loads of sweet and yummy papaya, passionfruit, a few dragonfruit, a few pineapples, and very fresh, delicate and very mild local goat cheese from Dr. Bethany’s Fiddlewood Farm alpine goats!

Cray-cray...this watermelon is sweeeeeet! You can save the seeds for roasting like pumpkin seeds.
Cray-cray…this watermelon is sweeeeeet! You can save the seeds for roasting like pumpkin seeds.

ARTfarm Saturday morning! 10am-12noon

A bit of fresh sweet salad mix, kangkong (Asian water spinach – a cooking green), garlic chives, and fresh mint. From our partners: Solitude Farms dragonfruit, Haitian kidney mangoes from Tropical Exotics orchard, and vegan coconut ice cream from I-Sha.

A showy hot pink bud of a dragonfruit plant looks like a plant extra from a sci-fi movie or Little Shop Of Horrors.
Zamorano (Hylocereus polyrhizus) has one of the flashiest dragonfruit flowers. Luca pollinated two of these flowers tonight. If all goes well each flower will produce a ripe fruit in approximately 3-4 weeks.

We will not have salad mix next week, nor for the next several weeks. We will still have some dragonfruit and mangoes, if you would like to purchase those over the next couple of weeks feel free to call the farm and we’ll do our best to accommodate you off-hours.