Happy Valentine’s Day from ARTfarm, 10-12 Saturday. You Look RADISHING My Dear!

Red onions are red,
The skies are blue,
If you seek a special Valentine treat,
We’ve got a lot of figs for you!

Mediterranean figs grown at ARTfarm! A romantic treat for yourself or a loved one!
Mediterranean figs grown at ARTfarm! A romantic treat for yourself or a loved one!

We have a lot of beautiful RED and PINK things from the farm to make a special Valentine meal or gift for yourself or someone else that you love dearly. What could be a more meaningful and romantic way to say “I love you (and want you to be healthy and live a long time)” than to offer lovingly grown, freshly harvested farm food?

Brilliant red radicchio, perfect for a valentine's day salad.
Brilliant red radicchio, perfect for dressing up a Valentine’s Day salad.

Mediterranean figs are nature’s bonbons. When ripe they are so tender and delicate that the velvety, paper thin skin needs to be handled with kid gloves. Inside you’ll find pastel shades of pink, or gold, or even a deep ruby red, depending on the variety. They are fragrant and flavorful in a contemplative way, so they are best enjoyed out of hand when on the beach at sunrise, in a candlelit bath, or over the pages of a slow burn, sensuous novel or some poetry.

Today’s Valentines to you, our BELOVED customers: Sweet salad mix with RED leaf lettuce, teen spicy salad mix with PURPLE mustard greens, baby spicy salad mix with RED mustard greens, teen arugula, baby arugula, microgreens with RED amaranth, sweet sweet SWEETHEART corn, RED beets, carrots, RED and white bulb onions, RED radishes, scallions, PURPLE yard long beans, sweet bell peppers, RED HOT chili peppers, kale, dandelion greens with RED stems, Italian basil, holy (Tulsi) and Thai basil with PURPLE flowers, lemon basil, cilantro, parsley, garlic chives, dill, mint, thyme, fresh harvested SPICY ginger, escarole, RED radicchio, PASSIONfruit, mangoes, ripe black sapote (CHOCOLATE pudding fruit) and fresh SWEET Mediterranean figs. Of course, on this day of all days, we will have fresh-cut zinnia flowers in many shades of PINK and RED for sale from the fields and gardens.

And from our partner I-Sha, perfect little LOVE cups of vegan ice cream including everyone’s favorite, HOT PINK beet-ginger flavor!!

Don’t forget, an ARTfarm gift certificate can also be a great way to show someone you care.

The Usual Deliciousness, 3–6 p.m. Today!

ARTfarm Wednesday afternoon stand: Sweet salad mix, teen arugula, spicy salad mix, microgreens, escarole, kale, cucumbers, beets, radishes, scallions, Italian basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, garlic chives, lemongrass, passionfruit, long beans, zinnia flowers, and loads of tomatoes: cherry tomatoes and all types of larger tomatoes! From our partner I-Sha, vegan ice cream in a multitude of local fruit flavors – we are starting to run a little low on spoons, so if you’ve borrowed one or two of ours, please bring us back one or two!
IMG_7801.JPG

Monday Q&A with Farmer Luca! Open 3-6pm Today!

Q. What’s your favorite thing to do with lots and lots of cherry tomatoes?

A. Besides snacking on them like popcorn, they can be great in recipes that call for cooked tomatoes. Take a few pints of cherry tomatoes, rinse and toss them with some crushed garlic and olive oil and roast them in the oven until they begin to soften and wrinkle a little. If you like anchovies, you can also mash a few of those into your olive oil and garlic dressing to help cut the sweetness of the cherries and add a little saltiness. (Most classic tomato sauce recipes call for a little sugar, but in this case, the sweetness is already in these little teeny tomatoes.) Once they’ve roasted and started to wrinkle a bit, run them through the food processor or blender until the skins and seeds have been pulverized and you’ve achieved a creamy and smooth consistency. We use a Vitamix – and you wind up with an incredibly delicious and creamy tomato sauce/soup that even little kids and people who say they hate tomatoes will love. You can bag it up in plastic zipper bags or your container of choice and freeze, or get out your mason jars and can this delectable creation, or use it immediately topped with a few leaves of basil and maybe some fresh Parmesan in a bowl or on a pizza or pasta dish!

Monday’s stand: Buckets of cherry tomatoes. Sweet salad mix, teen spicy salad mix, teen arugula, microgreens, tons of tomatoes (all types and sizes), cucumbers, Italian basil, cilantro, garlic chives, ginger root, long beans, radishes, mint, recao and zinnia flowers. And loads of homemade coconut vegan ice cream from I-Sha in crazy local fruit flavors!

Things were oddly quiet on Saturday, so we hope we didn’t scare anyone off with our roller derby joke! Looking forward to seeing you this afternoon, 3–6pm on the balmy and blue skied South Shore!

Love, ARTfarm

IMG_7939.JPG

IMG_7917.JPG

ARTfarm Saturday 10am – 12 noon…Fish!

Wishing our friends of the Jewish faith a very happy Chanukah. And a happy and restful winter solstice to everyone on Sunday!

This morning we have harvested off the ARTfarm fields: sweet salad mix, arugula, spicy mix, microgreens, cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, two types of radishes, Italian basil, holy basil, cilantro, dill, recao, rosemary, garlic chives, lemongrass, escarole, romaine and other lettuce heads, kale, beets, zinnia flowers, fresh ginger root, baby bok choy, sweet bell peppers and serrano peppers.

From our partners: Avocados and bananas from a friend, raw local honey from Errol and… Kim will be here with fresh caught wahoo and BLACK FIN TUNA!!

Looking forward to seeing everyone! For those of you new to the email list: ARTfarm is located on the south side of the South Shore Rd. You’ll find us at the end of the very long straightaway near the stone cattle pens, between Ha’penny Beach and the Boy Scout Camp (due south of the Canegata Ballpark in Christiansted as the crow flies). We open promptly at 10am on Saturdays, so if you want to have any time to speak with your neighbors and grab any earlybird items you’ll want to get to the farm at 9:45. We grow all of our produce in the soil, and in complete compliance with the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) standards, but we are not officially certified organic. Any other questions? The best time to chat with the farmers is during the lulls at the farmstand.

In farm news, the deer are back. They have been eating the young moringa trees we have been trying to establish in the pastures. Luckily, they have a gig at the north pole on Wednesday night so we’re planning to replant on Wednesday afternoon. Ha ha.

We will be open on Monday and Wednesday for the coming holiday week. Merry Merry!

IMG_7261.JPG