Hope everyone enjoyed a peaceful Mother’s Day weekend. Lots of love to all the maternal beings in our universe! The ARTfarm delivered an 18 pound baby yesterday and Midwife Luca was there to catch it!
3-6pm today down the South Shore: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, bunched arugula, sweet bell peppers, Trini seasoning peppers, serrano peppers, parsley, Italian basil, lemongrass, a few bunches of onions, a few tomatoes, multiple varieties of watermelons, honeydew, loads of papaya, loads of passionfruit, shaddock, fresh ginger root, and fresh goat cheese from Fiddlewood Farm!
Overall, the tomato plants are slowing down as the weather gets slightly hotter, but we still have tons to pick and for you to enjoy!Our sunflowers are getting ridiculously tall! They seem to love our soil. We field tested some cut sunflowers this week in a jar of water and they lasted at least six days with no added care. If you change the water more regularly and add a couple of tablespoons each of apple cider vinegar, sugar, and baking soda to the water, they should go even longer!Can you find the melons in the melon patch? Lots of exciting varieties, soon come!
The arts are very busy this weekend with the VI Lit Fest partying hard at UVI and CMCArts, and various art exhibitions including a mix of student and professional work at the Good Hope Country Day School. Get out and enjoy some culture, or stay in and practice your own creativity!
Yesterday’s full moon coincided with Earth Day. We hope that more and more people will join communities like ours of small farmers and their dedicated customers, to practice Earth Day consciousness and conservation around the calendar all year long.
Fiddlewood Farms goat cheese is back today! Pairs perfectly with any and all of the following items: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, lettuce heads; onions, radishes, pumpkin, sweet potato, green, red, and orange bell peppers; seasoning peppers, both types of hot peppers, a few cucumbers, a few bunches of kale, bunched arugula, parsley, Italian basil, chives, rosemary, lemongrass, ginger root, papaya, passionfruit, cherry tomatoes, medium heirloom and red tomatoes, recao, farm fresh eggs from ARTfarm and from Heather’s hens; and more of Dr. Bradford’s unbelievably fresh, delicate goat cheese.
Aaaand…Decorate your table or make a lovely gift of fresh cut zinnias and sunflowers.
For this Saturday, December 19th we will have, freshly harvested and ready at 10am:
December lettuces are tender and sweet!
Loads of sweet salad mix, baby arugula, teen arugula, baby and teen spicy salad mixes, and royal oak leaf lettuce heads;
These round yellow summer squash are tender and can be roasted, stewed, fried, stuffed…yum!!We love seeing what you do with our produce! Here is a stuffed zucchini with a side salad! Thanks Isabel Cerni & family!
Zucchini, round summer squash, lots of generously sized Ethiopian kale (it’s similar to a mild mustard green, super dark and tender), Tuscan kale and red edged kale, dandelion greens;
Fresh Mediterranean figs are beyond tender and sweet when ripe!
Wild cucumber gherkins, a few half pints of cherry tomatoes, our first slicing tomatoes of the season, and amazing fresh Mediterranean figs.
Open 10am – 12 noon but of course come early for the best selection! We will be open Wednesday, December 23rd, 3-6pm with a similar lineup.
Hot new work from the ARTbarn: Luca recently delivered the original art for the 2016 Taste Of St. Croix poster. The subject this year is one of our fellow farmers, Grantley Samuel, who is known as the Corn Man but is also renowned for his watermelon. Thought you all might enjoy this! Prints will be available at the Taste Of St. Croix in April!
The ARTfarm is back after our ridiculously long “summer break.” (If mangoes are out of season, why not us?) We have some green goodness for you! THANK YOU for waiting…
Early Saturday morning…
We’ve got beautiful sweet green zucchinis and round yellow summer squashes! Big beautiful bunches of tender, dark green Ethiopian kale plus two other kinds of kale. Dandelion greens. We’ve also got wild gherkins – these are pasture cucumbers, spiny but delicious as a quick (or slower) pickle. Quick pickle recipe below.
Salads are back! Come early and dig into the farmstand coolers: we’ll have sweet salad mix, baby spicy mix, baby arugula, and green oak leaf lettuce heads.
Early birds may spot one or two pints of our yellow super sweet cherry tomatoes, passionfruits, and fresh figs. (Late birds will still get Ethiopian kale and zucchini!)
Freshly early-this-morning-harvested herbs: thyme, Thai basil, Italian basil, holy basil, lemongrass, garlic chives, recao. Some green (red hot) chili peppers.
Say hi to Santa at the Christmas Boat Parade tonight, and tell him we’ve been really really good at the ARTfarm and we want a pony. No, make that lots and lots more rain.
Wild pasture cucumbers: salty, crunchy, earthy. A bit spiny to the touch – just rub the little points off with a dishcloth when rinsing!
Farmer Luca’s Wild & Quick Pickle Recipe*
Eating these weedy little cucumbers is a bit like those early childhood experiments where you’d find something outdoors and decide to “make a snack”. Sometimes when we are working in the pastures and run out of water to drink, these juicy little bite-sized cucurbits are just the thing! Nature’s little oasis. This quick pickle is delicious served as a crunchy little side anywhere you’d want a bit of relish.
3 c. tiny wild pasture cucumbers, cut in half 1/2 c. water 1/4 c. vinegar 1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon unrefined sugar (muscovado or coconut sugar) 1 teaspoon cumin seed 1/8 c. chopped fresh herbs; tarragon, or whatever is handy, to taste
Briefly dry roast the cumin seed in a saucepan. Add the liquids, sugar and salt and bring to a simmer.
Toss the cucumbers, onion and fresh herbs in a bowl and pack loosely into canning jars.
Pour hot liquid over chopped cucumber mixture to cover. Allow it to sit until just warm, then cover. Eat as soon as cool and/or refrigerate.
Will settle in flavor and taste even better the next day.
*This is a rough, down and dirty farmer recipe, the percentage of all ingredients can be increased or decreased to taste
ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI 