Happy 2023! Resolve to Eat Local! ARTfarm Pickups Wednesday January 4th! 4:30pm – 5:45pm

Let’s keep eating healthy in 2023! We’re open for scheduled pickups on Wednesdays. Still splitting up the crowds with pickup times: Click to sign up below for one of 38 ‘health-bubble’ pickup timeslots, for Wednesday starting at 4:30pm! If you missed this signup, there will be another one next week and we’ll be adding Saturdays soon.

Please wear a mask at the pickup table. Instructions below if you’re new. Welcome!

Beautiful sweet ripe figs for the early bird customers! Pick an early time slot for these.

Wednesday afternoon we’ll have preorder selections that include bags of sweet salad mix, sweet potatoes, longan fruits, herbs and half pints of cherry tomatoes. Extras to add on at your pickup time will include: beautiful bunched white mild radishes with edible green tops, red-stemmed turnips, small young onions, sweet potato greens for cooking and planting, assorted fresh herbs including cilantro, Italian basil, garlic chives, lemongrass, kefir leaves, baby ginger, baby turmeric, and sweet Mediterranean figs, some sugar apples, our ridiculously sweet, vitamin C-charged longan (aka dragon eye fruit) and some lil’ health bombs we call jojo plums. A few dozen pastured eggs from our subsidiary on-farm chicken wrangler, Mongoose & Zinnia!

World Central Kitchen project ongoing! We’re still chipping away at ARTfarm’s new World Central Kitchen funded processing center, with lots of banging and clanging, and the help of some fantastic volunteer helpers. This 40 foot container is getting a retrofit as walk-ins and workspace. We’ve had some stops and starts while learning about thermal transfer, and making sure our new walk-in coolers will be fully insulated and maximally efficient.

Brisk farm workouts in peaceful breezy nature available: We’re looking for volunteers (non smokers). Luca could use a hand even if it’s only for two hours at a time, mainly to do final garden bed preparation. This is a great ab and full body workout, mostly standing using rakes and hoes. There is also the mesmerizing sifting of compost with Bob’s incredible electric tumbler, meditative hand weeding, late day transplanting and more. You’ll learn about market gardening, construction and/or food prep. Fast walkers encouraged as there’s always a lot to do. Could convert to part-time employment depending on skills and efficiency.

The tomato season is ramping up! Here come the little cherry Ts, sweet as can be!

Farmers Luca and Christina want to take a moment to encourage everyone to support local farmers. If you can’t make it to our farmstand, don’t forget about Sejah Farm, another wonderful mom and pop farm/market that sells their own produce plus lots of produce from all over St. Croix. They have a wide selection and are open more hours and days than we are, and run amazing educational programs too. There is also the Saturday farmers market at the Department of Agriculture grounds where you can buy directly from farmers. And there are many farms with a stand out front.

Remember the best way to support agriculture in the US Virgin Islands is to buy produce directly from farmers.

Hop down to the South Shore and see Farmer Luca!

New to ARTfarm? WELCOME!

During COVID times we switched to a pre-order system instead of open farmstands: Order/reserve at least one farmshare (minimum purchase) ahead on our website; check for your confirmation email so you know your name will be on the list! Please arrive in our parking lot on time but not more than 10 minutes early to prevent traffic jams and longer wait times. We appreciate your cooperation!

At the stand, please bring a mask. We’ll call your name during your timeslot in order of signup. Let the farmer handle the produce for you; Choose extras from first-come-first-served availability; Wait to bag until we’ve totaled up your items; Bring change, cash or check and pen; drop payment in the blue bucket, we will not handle cash.

Please note: With all the flu and viral infections circulating and effects of the “tripledemic”, some of which we have experienced, and Farmer Luca caring for his elderly folks who are immune compromised, we’d appreciate if all customers would help us stay healthy and working, and PLEASE wear a mask and maintain social distancing when interacting with us at the ARTfarm stand this winter season. We shall do the same! We are all one! Grateful for life!!

ARTfarm is a tiny mom and pop family farm who have been growing food with sustainable organic and permaculture methods on St. Croix since 1999. See our FAQs for more info!

Thank you!

Farmshare choices for Wednesday, January 4th, 2023:

Freshly dug sweet potatoes at ARTfarm.

We will have 38 timeslots/farmshares available for scheduled pickup Wednesday. You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order and theirs. The minimum order is one farmshare, and you can order more than one farmshare. At the farmstand, you can choose from remaining add-on extras and we’ll total your order. We are chronically understaffed and need to keep farmstand hours brief; add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a farmshare minimum purchase.

sweet PO-TAY-TOE farmshare, $20, will include:
  • 2 bags of sweet salad mix
  • 1 lb. sweet potatoes
TO-MAH-TOE farmshare, $19, will include:
  • 2 bags of sweet salad mix
  • half pint of cherry tomatoes
SMALL farmshare, $10, will include:
  • 1 bag of sweet salad mix
  • 1 fresh herb bunch, your choice
LONGAN LOVER farmshare, $10, will include:
  • A bag of 50 longan fruits
Extra Add-Ons (non-reservable)

(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):

early birds:
  • SUGAR APPLES
  • fresh Mediterranean FIGS
  • LONGAN fruits, $3/bag of 15ct
    cherry TOMATO half pint
  • JOJO plums, small bag
plenty:
  • young tender sweet TURNIPS with green tops, $3/bunch
  • mild white RADISHES with green tops, $3/bunch
  • SWEET POTATOES $4/lb.
  • sweet potato COOKING GREENS $3/large bag
  • assorted HERBS bunches: $2 each
  • baby GINGER/TURMERICS: $3.50/bag ($7 half pound)
  • PINEAPPLE slips to grow-ur-own: $2-3 each as sized
  • heirloom TOMATO plant starts to grow-ur-own: $4 each
  • NATIVE TREES in pots, priced as marked by size/variety
Herb bunch choices for this distribution

(Available as EXTRAS or included in farmshare)

  • Italian (Genovese) basil
  • Cilantro
  • Garlic chives
  • Kafir lime leaves
  • 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.

During this flu and cold “tripledemic” season, due to family members and customers who are immuno-compromised, we’d appreciate everyone wearing masks at ARTfarm during pickups. We went maskless for a while, and hope to loosen restrictions again soon, but for now please help us protect our family and friends!

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)
  • visit our “help” page for additional tips
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 First 2022 Farmstand! 4:30 – 5:30pm Wednesday 1/5/2022!

ARTfarm early winter season! Yellow and green zucchinis, cucumbers, sweet corn and long beans. We’ve also got plenty of salad mixes and herbs, and a few tomatoes starting!

Here we are in 2022! We are back to weekly (socially distanced) farmstands: ARTfarm will be open every Wednesday afternoon 4:30–5:30pm. This week our farmstand will be a hybrid of first-come, first-served socially distanced shopping, and 15 online pre-reservable farmshares for pickup at 5:15pm. Your feedback is always welcomed, and we are always experimenting to maximize your convenience. Saturdays will be added at some point later in the season…

Wednesday afternoon 1/5/22… Starting at 4:30pm, we’ll have sweet salad mix, baby and teen spicy salad mixes, baby and teen arugulae (pretty sure that’s the plural for arugula right?), cucumbers, long green beans, summer squash, scarlet turnips, radishes with cookable green tops, cilantro, dill, garlic chives, Italian basil, baby ginger, baby turmeric, chili peppers, Swiss chard, kale, baby bok choy, dandelion greens, SWEET CORN and a few SLICER TOMATOES, and zinnias…

If you don’t want to wait in the seasonally lengthening line on Wednesday afternoon, there will be 15 large ‘late bird’ farmshares, reservable for pickup at 5:15pm Wednesday. $44 will include:

LATE BIRD farmshare – $44, 5:15pm pickup, reserve online:
2 bags sweet
1 bag baby arugula -or- baby spicy
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 lbs. cucumbers
1 lb. summer squash (zucchini)

No reserved add-ons for these boxes, but there’s a good chance we will still have some extra special goodies off the main list for our late birds, so feel free to bring extra cash or wait to fill in your check. Traffic has been a little slow this winter so far.

Click below and fill out a short form to reserve a farmshare. You must receive a confirmation email to know for sure that we got your reservation. If you can’t find the confirmation email, please read these tips and do some extra searching before you contact us!

Mongoose & Zinnia fresh pastured eggs! The rainbow comes from the diversity of handpicked heritage breed hens, all of whom are talented foragers and help the gardens with both fertility and pest control. They also help close nutrient loops by eating plenty of discarded salad greens and other ARTfarm byproduct produce!

We’ll have eggs from Mongoose & Zinnia (still just one or two cartons, as our chickens are STILL on a laying strike). And…

Looking to grow some food at home? Farmer Luca still has a few extra Black Plum tomato slips ready for transplanting into your garden or container (this is a cherry-sized oval shaped sweet, flavorful and rich tomato for eating and cooking). We’ll also have pineapple slips available. If you want seedlings, please text us ahead so Farmer Luca can prep them and bring them up to the gate ahead of time for you. Text your name and number, variety and quantity to the farm phone at (340) 514-4873.

Ms. Eurythrma Mongoose in her Finery, ca. 1889. Mixed media on paperboard, 10” x 12.5” ©2021 Marina Gasperi.

ARTfarmer, mongoose documenter and chicken wrangler Marina Gasperi recently had a solo art exhibition, “Small Life” at Café Christine Tues-Fri 10am-2:30pm (call for holiday open days). The exhibit is officially closed now as the collectors are picking up the purchased works, but we’ll leave a few available original artworks up through January 11th or so, and high quality art print greeting cards are still available. Marina has also created some adorable Chicken vs. Mongoose holiday ornaments out of recycled irrigation supplies. We are working on her website where her art can be viewed, coming soon! Please visit the Café in Christiansted over this holiday time and enjoy this ARTfarm production!

Love, ARTfarmers

Cover photo: We are a three generation family farm. Luca’s dad has farmed on this spot since the late 1960s, although when he was in charge it was a Senepol cow pasture! Nowadays in 2022, salad and radishes for all! And hoping for rain… the grass is slow to grow in these drought conditions!

ARTfarm got Half an Inch of Rain!!! More ART! See you 4:30 – 5:30pm Wednesday!

Lignum Vitae Gathering. Sumi ink and gouache on paper, 6” x 6” ©2021 Marina Gasperi.

Smile and say “season”! We are back to weekly (socially distanced) farmstands: ARTfarm will be open every Wednesday afternoon 4:30–5:30pm. For now these will be first-come, first-served socially distanced distributions, but we may revert to the online pre-order system and longer open hours, as the season gets underway and crowd sizes increase. Your feedback is always welcomed.

Farmer Luca is finally smiling underneath his COVID mask, because we have finally gotten a few early morning rain showers on the farm this week. It hasn’t exactly replenished our reservoirs, but it is a reprieve from the drought conditions that South Shore farmers have been experiencing this season.

Wednesday 12/8/21, come see Farmer Luca in the breezy parking lot. He’ll have plenty of fresh sweet salad mix, lots of radishes and garlic chives, turmeric, and zinnia flowers! Early birds will also get pick of: dragonfruit, yellow summer squash, cilantro, dill, baby bok Choi, turnips, baby ginger (super thin skin no fibers), Thai basil, lemongrass, green hot chili peppers, and eggs from Mongoose&Zinnia (just one or two cartons, as chickens island-wide have been on a laying strike during the extra warm autumn months). And…

Looking to grow some food at home? Farmer Luca will have a few extra tomato slips ready for transplanting into your garden or container: Black plum, Black cherry, Hawaiian slicer, Cherokee green varieties. We’ll also have pineapple slips available.

Extra thanks and shout out to super customer Jennifer Larkum for her sharp eyes and memory, she was able to connect a stray cat that showed up on the farm with its relieved owner via a several-weeks-old Facebook missing pet post. Awesome detective work! PSA: Please, please bring lost, found or unwanted pets to a vet clinic or the animal shelter. Do NOT drop animals at a farm, it is an unsafe environment for them and stray animals cost the farmers a lot of time. They will wind up at the shelter anyway, so save us the trip please!

The painting above is a new original artwork soon to be added to the current exhibition, “Small Life” showing at Café Christine Tues-Fri 10am-2:30pm, now through December 26th. Please visit the Café in Christiansted over this holiday time and enjoy this ARTfarm production!

Love, ARTfarmers

Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend; Also, Regular 4:30 — 5:30pm Wednesdays!

Garden of Small Lives. Sumi ink and gouache on paper, 6” x 6” ©2021 Marina Gasperi.

Happy Saturday!

We are saying goodbye to a loyal farm employee who has been with us for 22 hard working years. She joined us at Southgate and travelled with us to the ARTfarm on the South Shore. She is a Kenmore refrigerator, fondly known for years as “Left Fridge”. We are in temporary need of a household refrigerator to cool produce in. If any customer has a spare working (ugly is fine) full sized refrigerator they would like to loan for a few months or donate to the farm, please let us know via text or call at (340)514-4873.

Thank you!

So it’s finally becoming a “thing:” we will be holding regular (socially distanced) farmstands Wednesday afternoons 4:30-5:30. For now these will be first come first served, but we may revert to the pre-order system and longer open hours as the season gets underway and crowd sizes increase.

Looking to grow some food at home? Farmer Luca will have a few extra tomato slips ready for transplanting into your garden or container on Wednesday: Black plum, black cherry, Hawaiian slicer, Cherokee green. We’ll also have pineapple slips available. A full list of available produce will be published and emailed before Wednesday afternoon.

The image above is original artwork from the current exhibition, “Small Life” showing at Café Christine Tues-Fri 10am-2:30pm. Please visit the Café in Christiansted over this holiday time and enjoy this ARTfarm production!

Love, ARTfarmers