Tag: hair sheep

ARTfarm Wednesday Afternoon PopUp Farmstand: 6/3/2026, 4:30PM – 5:30PM – tons of SALAD GREENS!

Pineapples are popping in the pasture gardens! Get some of these sweeties while you can!

Fresh salad greens available for Wednesday June 3rd 2026! It’s also pineapple and mango time! Dry, hot and windy conditions persist at the farm so most veggie production is at a low point at this time of year for us on the South Shore. We do our best to keep a closed loop system by not purchasing water. So come out for salad greens NOW from previous rains. We’ll also have hot peppers, herbs and lime leaves! First come first serve.

Plenty

  • Sweet salad mix
  • Pineapples
  • Mangoes, including Carrie, Viequen Butterball, Nam doc mai, Malika, and Jakarta types

Early Birds

  • Hot peppers
  • Italian basil
  • Kafir lime leaves

We had a soil scientist checking out our composting program recently. He was excited about our mix of water hyacinth (aka water lettuce, grows in our ponds with fine and plentiful water roots that pick up sediment and algae) and chicken manure. After it’s composted, millipedes ‘finish’ it. We’ll be working to produce more of this black gold for the crops this coming season!

The 2026 summer mangoes are starting up at ARTfarm! From trees that Luca and Christina planted just after when the training pen had her first micro flock of sheep in it. The trees are producing beautifully after the 2017 hurricane set them back.

There’s a few volunteers working on a carpentry project and Farmer Luca could use more help in the gardens.

We’ll see you Wednesday 6/3/26 from 4:30PM to 5:30PM!

Five hair sheep pastured with electric netting at ARTfarm.
Christina’s first five hair sheep pastured with electric netting in the training pen at ARTfarm back in 2011. Now a mango orchard! Always growing, always changing.

See you Wednesday June 3rd 2026, starting at 4:30PM!

ARTfarm Wednesday Afternoon Farmstand: 5/27/2026, 4:30PM – 5:30PM

The 2026 summer mangoes are starting up at ARTfarm! From trees that Luca and Christina planted just after when the training pen had her first micro flock of sheep in it. The trees are producing beautifully after the 2017 hurricane set them back.

Summer’s almost here! It’s pineapple time! Dry and windy conditions persist at the farm with occasional showers. No more regular Saturdays for a bit so slide in on a WEDNESDAY to the ARTfarm farmstand. Limited quantities on salad mixes for Wednesday customers, plus papayas, a few early mangoes, hot peppers, herbs and limes!

We are continuing to grow salad and we’re trying a bed of cucumbers and watermelon with new techniques. Results are looking promising. Dragonfruit are budding again.

Pineapples are popping! Get some of these sweeties while you can!

There’s a few volunteers working on a carpentry project and Farmer Luca could use more help in the gardens.

We’ll see you Wednesday 5/27/26 from 4:30PM to 5:30PM!

First come, first served:

Sweet and spicy salad mix

Pineapples

Papaya

Hot peppers

Mangoes:

Carrie (creamy, sweet with a slight tang)

Butterball

Nam doc mai

And a few Malika

Scallions

Italian basil

Lemongrass

Kafir lime leaves

Five hair sheep pastured with electric netting at ARTfarm.
Christina’s first five hair sheep pastured with electric netting in the training pen at ARTfarm back in 2011. Now a mango orchard! Always growing, always changing.

See you Wednesday May 27th 2026, starting at 4:30PM!

Sheep & Cowpeas at ARTfarm

Over the sleepy summer and fall break, we grew some cover crops in the gardens at ARTfarm to help improve the soil for next year’s crops. Climbing up the golden dried stalks of harvested sweet corn were some large and very happy cowpea vines (Vigna unguiculata) replete with big green bean pods.

There is almost nothing in this world that our sheep enjoy more than fresh cowpea vines and beans. Friday afternoon we removed the upper part of the cowpea plants and offered them to all three groups of ovines. OMM NOM NOM NOM!

IMG_6398.JPG
Cowpeas are a forage that is high in protein, helping the sheep to grow and put on weight. The roots of the cowpea plants fix nitrogen into the soil.

Your ARTfarmers are busy planning next year’s season and preparing garden areas to receive young seedlings. We have been blessed with some beautiful rainfall in September. We look forward to seeing all of you in just a few more weeks when the farmstand reopens. Watch this space!