ARTfarm Saturday Excitement!

ARTfarm is open this morning on the South Shore from 10 AM – 12 noon. We still have a broad range of items at this cool time of year, so come out and get your fresh greens and produce for the week ahead! Today we have tons of cherry tomatoes, lots of heirloom and slicer tomatoes, sweet salad mix, microgreens, teen and baby spicy salad mix, teen arugula, a few young cucumbers, kale, dandelion greens, yard long beans, beets, onions, scallions, carrots, cilantro, dill, chives, mint, Italian basil, lemon basil, holy basil, Thai basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, Mediterranean figs, freshly harvested ginger root, passionfruit, mangoes, and fresh-cut zinnia flowers.

From our partners: Wanda of the Wright Apiary will be on hand today for the sampling and sale of handmade honey meads in a range of amazing fruit infusions. She also has a fantastic honey mustard dressing/marinade in different configurations to suit your taste. Personally we love the “zesty” version with lots of garlic in it! Bees are a huge part of our success in the gardens, honey products are just the icing on the cake.

We also have a fresh batch of I-Sha’s homemade vegan coconut-based ice creams coming in today in local fruit flavors, ready to enjoy in a perfect little one scoop size. Bring a little cooler and some ice and take home a few for a great ending to a locally sourced meal! The coconuts are locally harvested and processed for the ice cream, not from a can! A serious labor of love!

Speaking of love, we love you guys and appreciate your continued encouragement of our efforts to grow organically and sustainably. Thanks for being a part of what we do, we could not continue without our wonderful and supportive customers.

Don’t forget about the 44th Annual Orchid Show open at the Great Hall at UVI today!

A pair of lavender, purple-spotted orchid flowers spread their roots across the bark of a plum tree.
Farmer Luca’s mom, Valeria, is a talented cultivator of tree orchids. Visitors who stay at her vacation rental at the ARTfarm (LongfordHideaway.com) enjoy discovering all the orchids in the trees around the property!

Presidential Farmstand, 3-6pm Today

“It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance.” – President George Washington

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most wedded to its liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds.” – President Thomas Jefferson

“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt from the Letter to all State Governors on a Uniform Soil Conservation Law (February 26, 1937)

ARTfarm is open today at our regular Monday 3-6 time and place on South Shore Road: Sweet salad mix, spicy salad mix, arugula, microgreens, sweet corn, loads of cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, chili peppers, sweet peppers, Italian basil, holy basil, garlic chives, cilantro, fresh ginger root, loads of Julie mangoes, and loads of sweet Mediterranean figs!

From our partner we have I-Sha’s vegan coconut cream ice cream in local fruit flavors!
IMG_8276.JPGWe hope everyone has spent some enjoyable time at the Ag Fair this weekend! The fair is still open today if you haven’t had a chance to get your local-flavor-farm-groove on yet! Go, ride the rides, eat yummy local foods, enjoy the great wares and crafts of artists and vendors, look at all the school projects, get your groove on with some great local bands, ride the soul train, pet baby animals, smell the pigs, and check out all the plants and produce!

Dragonfruit Mania Wednesday at ARTfarm

20140702-152520-55520442.jpg …some crazy chefs flew in from St. Thomas and started eating the Dragonfruit right off the vine. We had to smack their little hands and usher them away from the plant.

Sweet mix, baby arugula, microgreens, sweet salad mix, spicy salad mix, crispy cucumbers, Italian basil, fresh rosemary, fresh beautiful bananas, pineapples, passionfruit, tamarind pods, mangoes. From our partners, delicious vegan ice cream from Feel I and raw local honey from Errol.

ARTfarm Saturday Farmstand

Sweet Saturday! Open 10 AM – 12 noon on the South Shore. Lots of goodies, despite the dry dry weather: Sweet salad mix, spicy salad mix, baby spicy salad mix, baby arugula, microgreens, kale, collards, mustard greens, large bunched arugula, radicchio, dandelion greens, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, broccoli leaves, Bodhi beans, carrots, beets, onions, fresh ginger root, cilantro, Italian basil, Thai basil, lemon basil, holy basil, dill, garlic chives, recao, epazote, mint, thyme, sage, rosemary, lemongrass, fennel, figs, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, slicer tomatoes, pineapples, passionfruit, sweet corn, lettuce heads. We will also have vegan coconut-based ice cream from I-Sha, raw local honey from the Jolly Hill Apiary, and fresh local eggs, from Marti Gotts.

Lots of things are flowering (including our passionfruit vines) and the bees are going crazy! An eco-friendly way to get rid of a swarm of bees that are not desired in your home or yard is to call a beekeeper. They have special equipment and can remove the swarm safely to another location where they will happily continue to pollinate plants and make our world a sweeter and greener place. Purchase local honey, and you’ll always have the phone number of a nearby beekeeper right in your kitchen! 20140426-084259.jpg