Tag: jojo plum

Happy 2023! Resolve to Eat Local! ARTfarm Pickups Wednesday January 4th! 4:30pm – 5:45pm

Let’s keep eating healthy in 2023! We’re open for scheduled pickups on Wednesdays. Still splitting up the crowds with pickup times: Click to sign up below for one of 38 ‘health-bubble’ pickup timeslots, for Wednesday starting at 4:30pm! If you missed this signup, there will be another one next week and we’ll be adding Saturdays soon.

Please wear a mask at the pickup table. Instructions below if you’re new. Welcome!

Beautiful sweet ripe figs for the early bird customers! Pick an early time slot for these.

Wednesday afternoon we’ll have preorder selections that include bags of sweet salad mix, sweet potatoes, longan fruits, herbs and half pints of cherry tomatoes. Extras to add on at your pickup time will include: beautiful bunched white mild radishes with edible green tops, red-stemmed turnips, small young onions, sweet potato greens for cooking and planting, assorted fresh herbs including cilantro, Italian basil, garlic chives, lemongrass, kefir leaves, baby ginger, baby turmeric, and sweet Mediterranean figs, some sugar apples, our ridiculously sweet, vitamin C-charged longan (aka dragon eye fruit) and some lil’ health bombs we call jojo plums. A few dozen pastured eggs from our subsidiary on-farm chicken wrangler, Mongoose & Zinnia!

World Central Kitchen project ongoing! We’re still chipping away at ARTfarm’s new World Central Kitchen funded processing center, with lots of banging and clanging, and the help of some fantastic volunteer helpers. This 40 foot container is getting a retrofit as walk-ins and workspace. We’ve had some stops and starts while learning about thermal transfer, and making sure our new walk-in coolers will be fully insulated and maximally efficient.

Brisk farm workouts in peaceful breezy nature available: We’re looking for volunteers (non smokers). Luca could use a hand even if it’s only for two hours at a time, mainly to do final garden bed preparation. This is a great ab and full body workout, mostly standing using rakes and hoes. There is also the mesmerizing sifting of compost with Bob’s incredible electric tumbler, meditative hand weeding, late day transplanting and more. You’ll learn about market gardening, construction and/or food prep. Fast walkers encouraged as there’s always a lot to do. Could convert to part-time employment depending on skills and efficiency.

The tomato season is ramping up! Here come the little cherry Ts, sweet as can be!

Farmers Luca and Christina want to take a moment to encourage everyone to support local farmers. If you can’t make it to our farmstand, don’t forget about Sejah Farm, another wonderful mom and pop farm/market that sells their own produce plus lots of produce from all over St. Croix. They have a wide selection and are open more hours and days than we are, and run amazing educational programs too. There is also the Saturday farmers market at the Department of Agriculture grounds where you can buy directly from farmers. And there are many farms with a stand out front.

Remember the best way to support agriculture in the US Virgin Islands is to buy produce directly from farmers.

Hop down to the South Shore and see Farmer Luca!

New to ARTfarm? WELCOME!

During COVID times we switched to a pre-order system instead of open farmstands: Order/reserve at least one farmshare (minimum purchase) ahead on our website; check for your confirmation email so you know your name will be on the list! Please arrive in our parking lot on time but not more than 10 minutes early to prevent traffic jams and longer wait times. We appreciate your cooperation!

At the stand, please bring a mask. We’ll call your name during your timeslot in order of signup. Let the farmer handle the produce for you; Choose extras from first-come-first-served availability; Wait to bag until we’ve totaled up your items; Bring change, cash or check and pen; drop payment in the blue bucket, we will not handle cash.

Please note: With all the flu and viral infections circulating and effects of the “tripledemic”, some of which we have experienced, and Farmer Luca caring for his elderly folks who are immune compromised, we’d appreciate if all customers would help us stay healthy and working, and PLEASE wear a mask and maintain social distancing when interacting with us at the ARTfarm stand this winter season. We shall do the same! We are all one! Grateful for life!!

ARTfarm is a tiny mom and pop family farm who have been growing food with sustainable organic and permaculture methods on St. Croix since 1999. See our FAQs for more info!

Thank you!

Farmshare choices for Wednesday, January 4th, 2023:

Freshly dug sweet potatoes at ARTfarm.

We will have 38 timeslots/farmshares available for scheduled pickup Wednesday. You can also order and specify a neighbor, friend or family member to pick up your order and theirs. The minimum order is one farmshare, and you can order more than one farmshare. At the farmstand, you can choose from remaining add-on extras and we’ll total your order. We are chronically understaffed and need to keep farmstand hours brief; add-ons and extras are not currently available independently of a farmshare minimum purchase.

sweet PO-TAY-TOE farmshare, $20, will include:
  • 2 bags of sweet salad mix
  • 1 lb. sweet potatoes
TO-MAH-TOE farmshare, $19, will include:
  • 2 bags of sweet salad mix
  • half pint of cherry tomatoes
SMALL farmshare, $10, will include:
  • 1 bag of sweet salad mix
  • 1 fresh herb bunch, your choice
LONGAN LOVER farmshare, $10, will include:
  • A bag of 50 longan fruits
Extra Add-Ons (non-reservable)

(Must accompany farmshare purchase, these items cannot be purchased individually. No reservations on these items, they are all first come first served during your pickup slot):

early birds:
  • SUGAR APPLES
  • fresh Mediterranean FIGS
  • LONGAN fruits, $3/bag of 15ct
    cherry TOMATO half pint
  • JOJO plums, small bag
plenty:
  • young tender sweet TURNIPS with green tops, $3/bunch
  • mild white RADISHES with green tops, $3/bunch
  • SWEET POTATOES $4/lb.
  • sweet potato COOKING GREENS $3/large bag
  • assorted HERBS bunches: $2 each
  • baby GINGER/TURMERICS: $3.50/bag ($7 half pound)
  • PINEAPPLE slips to grow-ur-own: $2-3 each as sized
  • heirloom TOMATO plant starts to grow-ur-own: $4 each
  • NATIVE TREES in pots, priced as marked by size/variety
Herb bunch choices for this distribution

(Available as EXTRAS or included in farmshare)

  • Italian (Genovese) basil
  • Cilantro
  • Garlic chives
  • Kafir lime leaves
  • Lemongrass

Please contact us immediately by text and phone at (340) 514-4873 if you have reserved a farmshare and cannot pick it up. Supply is limited, demand is extremely high and someone else will gladly purchase your share, if given enough time to respond. We have limited time for distributions and they are scheduled. Our produce is harvested fresh and needs to go home with you same day. This is an honor system since we are not collecting payment until pickup. We do not have cold storage for uncollected shares.

Signup form for
WEDNESDAY PICKUP
January 4th, 2023!

During this flu and cold “tripledemic” season, due to family members and customers who are immuno-compromised, we’d appreciate everyone wearing masks at ARTfarm during pickups. We went maskless for a while, and hope to loosen restrictions again soon, but for now please help us protect our family and friends!

The signup form will show you a “Thank You” page and send you a confirmation email if submitted successfully. If you don’t find it, please check your spam/junk, inbox tabs, and ‘all mail’ folders for the confirmation email, as this has been a common problem for several customers and with a little searching they typically find it. For more tips, visit our Help page.

Need help with the pre-order signup form? (Click here):
Q: I can’t seem to order more than one item.

A: We have designed our order form limit any one customer from cleaning us out. Sharing is caring. If you’d like extra of something (beyond what you could reserve through our order system), put it in the comments with your order, and remind us at your pickup time: if we can supply it to you we’ll do our best. If you are in the food service industry and looking for bulk availability, please contact us; our order form is for individuals and families to place a single order for a scheduled pickup.

Q: My order isn’t going through.
  • if the automated confirmation email is not immediately found, check your spam folder
    • and the ‘all mail’ folder
  • make sure all required fields are filled/selected
  • just try again
  • use a cellular device (smartphone or tablet) that isn’t using WiFi internet
  • restart your browser/device
  • clear your cache and cookies in your browser/device
  • reboot your router (unplug it for a minute and plug in again)
  • visit our “help” page for additional tips
Q: The form says I didn’t enter my email, but I did.

Our pre-order form requires everyone to type their email in twice, and makes sure the two match exactly. We had a lot of customers in such a rush to get their order in that they’d spell their own email incorrectly and then complain that they could not find the confirmation email. Our ‘type it in twice’ system ensures that you’ll find any email mistakes before you submit the pre-order form.

Q: I ordered before, but I’m not getting your emails.

Our pre-order form does NOT automatically sign you up for an ARTfarm email subscription. Do that HERE!

All about Jojo Plums! & Sat 10am-12 noon!

Luca with a nice big escarole on this overcast morning!

Good morning! We will be running two checkout tables again to move the line along this morning; and we haven’t been running out of tomatoes and sweet salad mix by the end of the stand – so come early, come late and get your healthy veggie fix! 10am-12 this morning down the South Shore! Here is the complete list for this morning, plus a few treats from Yellow Door Farm TBA (Wanda of Wright Apiary can’t make it this morning with her honey meads and sauces, but she should be back next week):

Sweet salad mix, baby spicy salad mix, spicy salad mix, baby arugula, arugula;

Loads of red slicing and cherry tomatoes, beautiful sweet corn, carrots, escarole, summer squash, cucumbers, radishes, kale, sweet green bell peppers, scallions;

Green serrano hot peppers, green Indian chili peppers, Italian basil, holy basil, lemon basil, mint, tarragon, cilantro, dill, parsley;

Fresh-cut zinnia flowers, edible marigold flowers, sweet fresh Mediterranean figs, and

jumbo-olive-sized jojo plums. 

 

Jojo trees often volunteer where livestock have grazed.

 

Jojo plums have different flavors at different levels of ripeness.

 

Jojo plums are a healthy addition to your diet!

The jojo plum (also known as the Jujube or Chinese date, Ziziphus jujuba) or Ziziphus mauritiana (Indian jujube) is a highly drought tolerant, very attractive small pasture tree whose foliage somewhat resembles that of an olive tree in color and texture: its leathery, oval shaped leaves are silver underneath. Jojo trees provide shelter and food to a variety of wildlife and they are a prolific source of nectar and pollen for honeybees, with a citrusy sweet scent when in bloom. (It is non-native to the USVI but naturalized; it can spread and become invasive if not managed.)

The fruits of the jojo tree can vary in size from tennis ball to olive. Wild jojos tend to bear fruit on the smaller size, while the larger fruit bearing trees have been selected or grafted by horticulturists for larger fruit production. Imported from Asia during the Victorian age, the jojo or jujube is thought to be indigenous to North Africa and Syria, and was well known for thousands of years for its tonic properties in Chinese medicine  – but didn’t seem to catch on in the West. On St. Croix’s South Shore, the jojo plum is well distributed by wildlife.

Each fruit contains a large pit, so the best way to eat them is to rinse them and then pop an entire plum in your mouth, gently chewing around the pit to remove the flesh. The thin skin is crunchy and edible, like an apple’s.

Today we have wild jojo plums on offer. Most Jojo enthusiasts prefer a specific level of ripeness depending on their taste. Some folks like the fruit at a late full ripeness when it turns an orangey red color and has a sweet overripeness to it. Others prefer the fruit in the middle, yellow stage, for a pear-like consistency and flavor. Others prefer the crisp brightness of the green fruits, which impart a sour tang not unlike a stateside apple.

Some folks swear by the slightly fermented overripe jojo fruit as a health tonic. At any stage, jojo plums are loaded with vitamin C and other micronutrients that can help keep your immune system in tiptop form. When our farm family catches a winter cold or flu, typically Farmer Luca does not succumb; he attributes this to the daily consumption of jojo plums as he walks around the farm.

 

Jojos are great trees for honeybees.

 

Be cautious when pasturing poultry near jojo trees. Domestic birds can experience problems if they gorge themselves on too many (the pits can fill the birds’ gizzards too quickly and cause blockage). Sheep wisely spit out the pits!