The strange and wonderful pitaya, or dragonfruit, grows at the end of a primitive, spiny climbing vine. Early summer is typically the season for the dragonfruits to flower and ripen.
Pitaya, also known as dragonfruit, has one of the most strange and dramatic presentations of all the crops we can think of.
Today’s haul: Loads of tender sweet salad mix, Ethiopian kale, bunched arugula, mint, lemongrass, Italian basil, rosemary, zinnia flowers, a few pineapples, a few passionfruit, and red fleshed dragonfruit!
Dragon photo-bombing the dragonfruit. We also have pineapples and passionfruit today for your inner fruit monster! OM NOM NOM NOM
From our partners we have raw local honey from Errol and vegan ice cream from I-Sha.
That’s 10 AM to 12 noon today, folks! ARTfarm is currently open just once a week during this drought.
Happy Saturday everyone! We are open regular hours today, 10 AM – 12 noon. Today’s harvest: Lots of salad greens! Sweet salad mix, lots of microgreens, arugula, teen arugula, spicy salad mix, cucumbers, onions, beets, carrots, watermelon radishes, the beginning of the end of the cherry tomatoes, medium sized tomatoes, a few pounds of baby sweet potatoes, radicchio, escarole, dandelion greens, sweet potato greens, ginger, Serrano chili peppers, Italian basil, Thai basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, zinnia flowers, and from our partners: limes and sour oranges from Spring Gut Gardens, and I-Sha’s vegan fruit ice creams to cool you down during these hot, dry days before the rainy season.
“South Shore Dragon”, 9 x 12″ watercolor (c)2015 Luca Gasperi
Last night was the opening reception for “Men Of Industry”, a new art collection from Mike Walsh and Luca Gasperi at Walsh Metal Works Gallery here in St. Croix. So many of our wonderful farmstand customers and fellow artists came out to support Luca and Mike’s creative efforts, and we appreciate all of you who were able to make it last night! It was really packed!
If you missed it, or you’d like to go back and enjoy it without quite so many people there, the exhibition will run through May 9, 2015. Call the numbers listed below for exhibition open hours, or to make an appointment. For those of you off island who cannot attend in person you may view each piece through the link below! And if so inspired, purchase artwork by phone. The link is through the WalshMetalWorksVI.com website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the information about the art exhibition and pieces for sale.
The phone numbers to call are:
Office: 340-773-8169
Barbara: 340-332-2504
Mike: 340-332-2682
Please note, all credit card purchases will have a 4% service fee added to the price listed with the work. Shipping arrangements can also be made with The Walsh Metal Works Gallery.
The muse for the painting. An outlier early-season dragonfruit ripens on the vine at ARTfarm.
Thanks, all of you who did such a heartfelt raindance. Unfortunately the quantity and velocity of the precipation over the last few days has cost us some lettuce production.
On offer for Saturday morning: Microgreens, mint, garlic chives, lemongrass, thyme, zinnias, a few cucumbers, and treats from partner farms: creamy, fiberless Nam Doc Mai mangoes from Tropical Exotics, dragonfruit from Solitude Farm, local raw honey from Errol, and beautiful avocados from Smithen the Cane Man!
All this rain makes it a sensible time of the year to plant. We have pineapple slips and various native trees for sale — also a few vegetable starts.
Summer continues to roll on with more treats coming ripe from various fruit trees across the island. Last Saturday we enjoyed some avocados from Diego (grandson) and Tita (abuela). What we DIDN’T KNOW about those avocados is that they turn a brilliant (and, if unexpected, slightly alarming) shade of purplish red at the moment they are ripe and ready to eat. Ours was ready on Thursday. We have more of those avocados this week, and some of them are at the ripe stage. They are a local seedling variety, so we welcome your creative ideas on what to name them. How about “mood ring avocados”?
ARTfarm fields produced this week: Sweet salad mix, microgreens, baby arugula, teen arugula, teen spicy salad mix, freshly harvested beets with green tops, sweet crispy cucumbers, freshly harvested onions, sweet potato greens, cooking greens, radishes, Italian basil, Thai basil, holy basil, lemon basil, lemongrass, thyme, recao, mint, big sweet soursop fruits. From our partner farmers and friends: mamey sapote from Tropical Exotics, more magic-color-change avocados and big ‘threadless’ mangoes from Diego & Tita, Haitian kidney mangoes from Dennis Nash, a few dragonfruit from Solitude Farm, coconut based vegan local fruit ice cream from I-Sha, and fresh baked breads from Tess!
