After many months of green abundance and tomatoes galore, the season is naturally starting to slow down. We have experienced extreme dryness and drought conditions this spring, which are bringing the “summer” season to us a few weeks sooner than usual, perhaps.
We have a limited range of items today in a small quantity, due both to weather conditions and because Farmer Luca is feverishly preparing for his art show which opens on Friday. (Please come and enjoy his new paintings of the farm and island, and new works from Mike Walsh, from 5–8 p.m. at the Walsh Metal Works Gallery in Peters Rest this Friday evening!)
So, this will be our last Monday farmstand for this season. We will only be open for an hour this afternoon, from 3-4pm. (We will be open regular hours Wednesdays and Saturdays for another month or two, then just Saturdays through the summer!) We have small amounts of salad greens, tomatoes, basil, garlic chives, onions, and giant zinnias today. And from our partner I-Sha we will have vegan ice cream in a virtual rainbow of different local fruit flavors!
Thank you as always for your support of local farmers and producers, and local artists!
Farmer Luca harvesting herbs. The zinnias have gotten to a pretty ginormous size this week! Treat yourself to a few happy blooms for spring!
ARTfarm Saturday of Relative Solitude: Between the rainy weather, the holiday camping weekend, and the general time of year, you can enjoy a summer-like meditative quiet as you shop at ARTfarm on a Saturday morning. Talk to yourself! No one will even notice.
Sweet salad mix, microgreens, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, a few cucumbers, cherry, slicer and heirloom tomatoes, dandelion greens, long beans, ginger, cilantro, a few bunches of beets, onions, scallions, basil, dill, parsley, carrots, a few radishes, and zinnia flowers.
And from our partner I-Sha we have vegan ice cream.
Watercolor (c)2015 by Luca Gasperi, exhibiting at the “Men Of Industry” show with opening reception Friday, April 10th, 2015 5-8pm at Walsh Metal Works Gallery.
Save this coming Friday April 10th for Farmer Luca’s art exhibition with Mike Walsh (“Men Of Industry”) in Peters Rest at the Walsh Metal Works Gallery. The reception is from 5-8pm, and the show will hang for several weeks. Luca has been working on a collection of new watercolors, this time a number of paintings in smaller sizes. Mike is working on some new sculptures. Join us for this free art event!
The sun is pretty blazing hot these days, drying up the South Shore and turning everything golden. Except, of course for our irrigated crops, who are still sipping rainwater reserved from a few months ago. Come enjoy some of the greenery and savor the memory of rain… Sweet salad mix, arugula, spicy salad mix, microgreens, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and slicer tomatoes on the small side, lots of yard long purple Bodhi beans, a handful of cucumbers, scallions, Italian basil, and radishes with yummy green tops.
The grass on the South Shore of St. Croix has gone golden and crunchy, but the irrigated crops are looking healthy as they sip stored rainwater from months prior!
We’ve got really good ice cream from I-Sha! Honey soon come from Errol. He’s waiting on bottles. (Please note you can bring back clean honey bottles for sterilization and reuse by the beekeeper!)
Delicious local fruit flavors in single-size cups – coconut-based vegan ice cream from I-Sha is made with handmade local coconut cream, brown sugar, spices and local fruits and veggies! We’ve got spoons to lend at the farmstand, so take a moment and cool off with a little treat!
We’re open today, 10am – 12 noon with salad and lots of tomatoes! Here’s this morning’s list of fresh: Sweet salad mix, teen spicy salad mix, teen arugula, heirloom/slicer/cherry tomatoes, beets, red and white bulb onions with green tops, purple Bodhi beans, a few cucumbers, radishes with delicious green tops, dandelion greens for cooking or juicing, fresh ginger root, scallions, Italian basil, Thai basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, and zinnia flowers. We also have a fresh batch of vegan ice cream from I-Sha in a rainbow of flavors including jojo, mango, papaya/ginger, passionfruit, beet ginger, banana…
Big beautiful beets at ARTfarm. The tops are great in your green juice, as a cooked green, wilted over eggs… chopped into your salad… don’t neglect the beet greens!
Our thanks go out again to the VI Fire Service shifts C and D out of Richmond/Christiansted, with trucks from Grove and East End, and VIPD for coming back to Longford a third time this week. Tuesday evening’s fire flared up again on Wednesday afternoon, sending out a new fire crew headed by Captain Henry Joseph; it continued on its previous trajectory toward the beach and burned over a hundred acres of pasture and fencing belonging to our neighbors and killed another cow on Wednesday. A second blaze was set in ARTfarm pastures about 3/4 of a mile away from the initial fires just before 8pm Wednesday night at a curve in the road where the streetlight is out. We had a number of people offer help again and had a crew of employees, customers and fellow farmers on hand to move sheep, manage gates and direct the fire trucks. It was dark and smoky, and we were too busy to take pictures, but it was an incredible scene. After the Captain Joseph and his VIFS team departed for a second time with the trucks, Luca and a neighbor we’ll call “Water Mike” were out containing and extinguishing smaller fires until 2am Thursday morning.
Our neighbor who took these pictures acted as our fire tower during the fires and helped us locate problem areas from a higher vantage point. Wednesday afternoon.This image captures Wednesday night’s situation; the rekindled original fire headed south to the beach, and in the foreground the second fire started a mile away up on South Shore Road on ARTfarm pasture.By Wednesday afternoon, the original fire had rekindled and burned south throughout the day across the pastures toward the beach, killing one cow. It burned eastward along the beach through Thursday morning, when the Fire Service came back and extinguished the spread.VIFS pumper trucks from Richmond C shift, East End and Grove Fire Stations helped us out Wednesday afternoon, and came back Wednesday night to assist with the new roadside fire.
We’d appreciate brushfire awareness from all of our customers. Please never throw cigarettes or other burning material from a vehicle; do not allow chains on trailers to drag on the ground; and keep a neighborhood watch. If you see someone stopped on the side of the road, slow down and offer assistance; if suspicious, snap a picture of the vehicle and license plate. And share this information with others in the dry season. We thank you!
ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI 