Tag: local fruits

ARTfarm Saturday Slaw-Breakers

Summertime is time to make slaw. Here is our list for Saturday’s stand, recipe follows! 

10 AM to 12 noon: Bunched sweet potato greens, red and yellow seasoning peppers, garlic chives, recao, basil, rosemary, loads of sweet potatoes in all sizes, sweet red pumpkin. Julie mangoes, Haitian Kidney mangoes, Viequen Butterball mangoes, plus lots of dragonfruit and sweet papaya, a few pineapples and passionfruit. Bethany’s amazing goat cheese, super fresh!

A sweet and sour raw Asian slaw salad of refreshing green fruits cools and delights the palate and is a great complementary foil for barbecued or grilled meats or other salty foods. 

Here’s Christina’s all-ARTfarm recipe:

Law-Breakin’ Slaw

2 green mangoes, peeled

3-4 large green papayas, peeled and seeds removed

1 lb. raw sweet pumpkin (yes, Yvette Browne!)

2–3 small red onions

Quarter cup or so of fresh raw peanuts, chopped and dry roasted with salt (yes, we have been experimenting with peanuts!)

Dressing:

Three small limes, juiced into a bowl

2 Tablespoons honey. Dissolve in lime juice

Few drops of potent pepper sauce or half a fresh chili pepper, diced

DIRECTIONS:

Grate the mango, papaya and pumpkin on a box grater (great upper arm workout) or using a food processor. Slice the red onions thin. Toss all together in a large bowl.

Mix together the dressing. Pour over and toss. Refrigerate. 

Roast the peanuts and sprinkle over top or reserve on side for garnish. 

Can also add blanched green beans, cucumber slices, a few cherry tomatoes. Or, in season right now, a bit of cubed mango or other sweet ripe fruits. 

Look for Luca at Mango Melee on Sunday! In the new farmer section!

Monday Mango Special Bonanza! 3-6pm Today!

Unbelievably off-season, some of our mango trees flowered in early winter. The Julie mango fruits are actually ripe now and we have more than we can eat, so a tub of mangoes will be available at the farmstand today! Open today and Wednesday, 3-6pm (Saturday 10am – 12noon on South Shore Road, between Ha’Penny and the Boy Scout Camp.

I must be dreaming. Farmer Luca is filling a bucket with RIPE MANGOES in FEBRUARY?? Off season madness!
I must be dreaming. Farmer Luca is filling a bucket with RIPE MANGOES in FEBRUARY?? Off season madness!
Several dozen green-to-purple mangoes are piled in a large green rubber bucket that is almost the same shade of green.
Julie mangoes grown at ARTfarm! Ripe in February – very unusual.

Also available for your health and enjoyment: Sweet salad mix, microgreens, baby and regular spicy salad mix, baby and regular arugula, purple yard long beans, loads of tomatoes of all types, piles of pints of cherry tomatoes, black sapote (a.k.a. chocolate pudding fruit), passionfruit, Italian basil, holy basil, lemon basil, garlic chives, cilantro, chili peppers, fresh ginger root and fresh cheerful zinnia flowers.

Two giant baskets hold dozens of large green-skinned black sapote fruits, also known as the "chocolate pudding fruit".
Two giant baskets hold dozens of large green-skinned black sapote fruits, also known as the “chocolate pudding fruit”.
By now you’re wondering what the heck to do with chocolate pudding fruit…these will be ripe in a few days to a week, when the skin takes on an olive-yellowish cast and the fruit softens, so you have time to research more recipes for these Mexican persimmons! (If you cut into it and the flesh isn’t dark brown, it isn’t ripe yet and will have a bitter flavor). Black sapotes are great eaten out of hand, prepared either sweet OR savory, blended in a drink or smoothie…with a pinch of brown sugar the sweet dark brown flesh takes on the character of chocolate pudding! The Crucian Contessa has promised to give us some more ideas soon for this vitamin C-rich fruit!

Have you tried the coconut-based homemade vegan ice cream we get from I-Sha? Right now we have some of their absolute best flavors: beet ginger, mamey apple, locust bean, avocado and banana! We’ve got spoons at the farmstand so you can take a few minutes and enjoy one after you shop!

Delicious, non-dairy, coconut based local fruit ice creams from I-Sha are the creations of Feel-I and Shalima. The coconut cream used in the ice cream is made fresh from local coconuts! Nothing canned!! These little treats are the perfect size for a light and refreshing dessert or anytime snack. Pictured here, clockwise from top: Beet-Ginger, Banana, Mamey Apple, Locust Bean, and Avocado!
Delicious, non-dairy, coconut based local fruit ice creams from I-Sha are the unique-to-St.Croix creations of Feel-I and Shalima. The coconut cream used in the ice cream is made fresh from local coconuts! Nothing canned!! These little treats are the perfect size for a light and refreshing dessert or anytime snack. Pictured here, clockwise from top: Beet-Ginger, Banana, Mamey Apple, Locust Bean, and Avocado!

Saturday 10am – 12noon Tomatofest!!

ARTfarm is awash in the juicy, sweet, flavorful fruits of the solanum lycopersicum plant! From the absolute candy-sweet explosion of a cherry tomato to the richness of the big juicy sandwich sized slicers and heirloom tomatoes to the mellow pungent complexity of a plum tomato, there are possibilities to be explored here! As with all harvests, it is a glorious but brief moment to enjoy, so get yourself over here this morning from 10 AM – 12 noon and enjoy this seasonal treat!

To go with your tomatoes: Sweet salad mix, spicy salad mix, teen arugula, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, microgreens, cucumbers, more tomatoes of all types, sizes and colors, purple yard long beans, kale, dandelion greens, beets, two types of radishes, sweet peppers, chili peppers, fresh ginger root, Italian basil, lemon basil, holy basil, lemongrass, dill, cilantro, mint, parsley, scallions, a few bunches of bulb onions, passionfruit and zinnia flowers.

From our partners: we have been regularly selling out of I-Sha’s vegan ice cream in unusual local fruit (and even vegetable) flavors and we have a new batch today! Miss Wanda Wright will bee here again this morning with her homemade salad dressings and meads (apeterif honey wines with fruit infusions) made from the bounty of her beehives. Also, to go with all the salsa and Bloody Marys you’ll be making, don’t forget to pick up a few kafir and key limes grown at Spring Gut Orchards.

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Sweet and Spicy Saturday at ARTfarm 10am Today!

Season’s Greetings! Saturday ARTfarm holiday goodies, 10am – 12 noon: sweet salad mix, spicy salad mix, all sizes of arugula, itty bitty microgreens, crisp cucumbers, two types of radishes, beets, cheery cherry tomatoes, kale, sweet potato greens and lettuce heads. Plenty of freshly picked herbs: Italian basil, lemon basil, cilantro, recao, mint, garlic chives, rosemary, dill, ginger, chili peppers, lemongrass and holy basil. Rumor has it that lemongrass is effective in the treatment of chikungunya symptoms.

Luca also has selected pineapple and vegetable starts available for your garden.

For your holiday gift list, why not a bunch of exuberant fresh zinnia flowers, a pineapple or basil plant that you pot up yourself in a pretty pot, or a bunch of sweet bananas. ARTfarm gift certificates are also available.

From our partners we have the last of the ripe, juicy mangoes for this winter season from Alex at Tropical Exotics, petite (perfect stocking-stuffer-sized) honey bottles from Errol Chichester, and we have big “Marcus Pumpkin” avocados from retired UVI fruit tree agronomist Aberra Bulbulla.

We’ll also be open 12-4pm on Christmas Eve day (Wednesday, December 24th) and we’ll start up Monday farmstands again right after Christmas!

We look forward to seeing you. Thanks as always, for supporting small local family farms on our beautiful little jewel of an island. Having the privilege to farm organically in this place is a gift that our customers give to us year-round. Happy holiday season!

IMG_7177.JPGMatthew loves cultivating with our wheel hoe. No fossil fuels required!

IMG_7178.JPGColors are so bright at this time of year on the farm. It’s a great season to be inspired artistically. This section of the farm has been grazed/graced by the ARTfarm sheep flocks for several years. This year, it is rotating in to be a productive powerhouse of tomatoes and veggies and herbs!