ARTfarm Q&A Wednesday 3-6pm: Hold My Tomatoes!

Today’s farmstand, 3-6pm: Sweet salad mix, baby spicy and regular spicy salad mixes, baby and regular arugula, microgreens, loads of cherry tomatoes, loads of tomatoes, onions, scallions, beets, Italian basil, Thai basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, purple Bodhi beans, assorted chili peppers, a couple cucumbers, baby carrots, escarole, a few bunches of kale, delicious Mediterranean figs and passionfruit. From our partner Errol Chichester’s beekeeping efforts we have local raw honey!

Radishes! Carrots! and Beets! Oh My!
Radishes! Carrots! and Beets! Oh My!
It's the scarecrow, the cowardly lion and the tin man. At the end of the yellow brick road, there was... freshly harvested MICRO!
It’s the scarecrow, the cowardly lion and the tin man. At the end of the yellow brick road, there was… freshly harvested MICRO!
Fresh oakleaf lettuces destined for ARTfarm's sweet mix!
Fresh oakleaf lettuces destined for ARTfarm’s sweet mix!

Q: Can you hold a couple of pounds of tomatoes/some dill/a few cucumbers/a bag of salad for me? I can’t make it to the farmstand on time today.

A: We hate to say no to good people. We love all our customers and supporters. We appreciate and applaud how important fresh, organically produced food is in your lives! This is one of our most common questions – we field several requests per week from customers to hold items from the farmstand.

Our policy for retail sales has always been that we are a first-come, first-served farmstand. We may have good intentions and want to say yes to you, but we do not have the manpower, the infrastructure, the time or the space to set aside produce on request. If you start to consider the logistics, we simply can’t accommodate custom retail pre-orders. We lose money on them. And they’d reduce the early-bird limited-supply offerings we want to have available for customers who came on time or even waited in line.

We are a family farm – mom, pop, and grandpa – with a couple of part time employees and loyal volunteers. Maybe someday we’ll be bigger with more staff, but for now we are tiny. We work literally from pre-dawn until after dusk, six to seven days per week year round, to care for the gardens and livestock and accomplish what you see at the farmstand and appearing on the menus of local restaurants. Our profit margins are narrow because of all the labor costs and handwork that goes into our harvesting and processing work and our organic gardening and resource conservation techniques. We love what we do and are dedicated to it, but it leaves us with very little downtime. Additional tasks and projects pull Luca and Christina away from the art studio. We have to limit the services the farm can offer.

We ARE open three farmstands per week in winter and spring, and at least once a week through most of the summer/fall months. We live in a modern world that values efficiency over all else, but coming to the farmstand is, we hope, a qualitative experience and not just another errand to rush through. If you can’t make it, there is always the next farmstand… we, and our family and friends, thank you for understanding and appreciate your support!

ARTfarm Monday 3-6pm Today!

We’ve been getting some beautiful little evening rain showers, greening up the South Shore and offsetting the very consistent, drying winds we have had recently. Today’s offerings: Sweet salad mix, baby spicy and regular spicy salad mixes, baby arugula, regular arugula, loads of cherry tomatoes, loads of slicing tomatoes and heirlooms, a few cucumbers, dandelion greens, Italian basil, parsley, cilantro, passionfruit, fresh Mediterranean figs!

From off the farm we have raw local honey from Errol Chichester today, in large and small bottles. Makes a very thoughtful gift.

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Monday Q and A, open 3–6 p.m.!

Fight the Monday doldrums with great piles of gorgeous greens and crunchy veggies! Today’s 3 – 6 PM farmstand: loads of sweet salad mix, teen arugula, spicy salad mix, Italian basil, cilantro, a tower of multiple big tubs full of heirloom tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Bodhi beans, garlic chives, fresh ginger root, beets with big leafy edible tops, beautiful chili peppers, dandelion greens, scallions, passionfruit, Mediterranean figs, and freshly harvested zinnia flowers.

From our partner I-Sha we have locally crafted vegan ice cream!

How many heirloom tomatoes can YOU eat? Please, HELP US!!
How many heirloom tomatoes can YOU eat? Please, HELP US!!

Q: Farmer Luca, why do you look so sleepy in this photo of you with a giant tower of tomatoes?

A: I’m glad you asked. In fact, I have been up late for the last few nights. After putting excessive numbers of tomatoes to bed, I’ve been grooving to golden age hip-hop and working on paintings for a new art exhibit I will be having with Mike Walsh at the Walsh Metal Works Gallery, opening April 10th!

So, dear customers, when reaching for a bag today for your purchases, be careful not to mistakenly grab one of those under Luca’s eyes.

Wednesday Bounty 3-6pm! Come Shop Local!

We've got beautiful big beets with tops ready for cooking or juicing! Yum!
We’ve got beautiful big beets with tops ready for cooking or juicing! Yum!

 

Some sweet little rain showers at night have perked up the South Shore and quickened the pace of lettuce and veggie production. We are open today from 3–6 p.m. to share with you what the rain has brought: sweet salad mix, baby arugula, teen spicy salad greens, beautiful crispy cucumbers, lots of beets, lots of cherry and slicer tomatoes, kale, escarole, endive, baby bok choy, bunched onions, scallions, Italian basil, Thai basil, holy basil, lemon basil, garlic chives, dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, recao, ginger, Bodhi beans, and fresh cut zinnia flowers.

The sweet salad mix in winter is especially crispy and sweet when we've had a bit of rain. Triple washed and ready for the salad bowl!
The sweet salad mix in winter is especially crispy and sweet when we’ve had a bit of rain. Triple washed and ready for the salad bowl!

 

Around New Year’s Eve we had a pair of stray feral dogs show up at the farmstand early one morning. Some of our customers may have noticed them quietly hanging around at the farmstand that weekend and the next. We posted about them on the St. Croix Lost and Found Pets Facebook page and the STX Animal Welfare Center’s Facebook page immediately, but in the bustle of the holidays we neglected to post about them here on our own blog.

Two black and white fuzzy dogs on the farm.
Two stray dogs turned up in December 2014. They’d been running loose since at least October. Anyone know who they belong to?
Unlike most feral strays which we take directly to the Animal Welfare Center, this pair was unusually well behaved. We reported them “found” at the AWC and had them checked by a vet but they had no RFID tags. They are currently still living at the farm. We’d like to post their picture in case anyone knows their history. We did learn after posting their picture online, that they had been living wild since at least October 2014 along the industrial sites of the south shore of St. Croix (Diageo and Molasses Pier). If you have any information or recognize them, please let us know.

 

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