Escarole-ing In Fresh Greens and Cucumbers! Saturday ARTfarmstand!

Today’s farmstand at ARTfarm features the freshest: tender teen arugula, arugula, sweet mix, spicy mix, microgreens, radishes, beets, cucumbers, Italian basil, Thai basil, holy (Tulsi) basil, sage, garlic chives, lemongrass, dandelion greens, escarole, lettuce heads, mangoes, zinnia flowers, honey and honeycomb. You’ll find some of ARTfarm’s organically grown cucumbers and lettuce heads over at Beeston Hill’s VI Farmer’s Coop this morning, too.

What do you do with escarole? It looks like a cross between a lettuce head and a bunch of arugula, with some snap to the leaves. When young, it can be eaten in a salad, although it can be on the bitter side. It can be steamed and dressed like other strong cooking greens – steam it until tender in a pan, then sauté it with garlic and hot pepper, or add salt, olive oil, and lime juice or vinegar. Lots of people like to make white bean classic Italian soup with escarole. Yum!!

A large head of escarole grows amongst young onions, lettuce and dandelion greens at ARTfarm.
Escarole is delicious in soups or sautéed as a side dish. A large head of escarole grows amongst young onions, lettuce and dandelion greens at ARTfarm.

Wednesday ARTfarm Cucumber Mango MADNESS… and Honeycomb

A pile of freshly washed cucumbers is topped with an orangey-yellow mango, sliced open.
Cucumber and mango salad, anyone? Sweet, crunchy, refreshing! If you dare, add a little crushed red pepper! Or make a mojito out of it!

Oh, the madness. Sweet mix, spicy mix, arugula, baby greens, escarole, lettuce heads. Radishes, lots of crunchy cucumbers, garlic chives, Italian (Genovese) basil, lemon basil, Thai basil, holy basil, lemongrass, sage, dandelion greens, zinnia flowers, lots of Haitian and Julie mangoes!! Wanda’s honey, Errol’s honeycomb, Patricia’s Super Dark honey. Probably other stuff available, but we’re Mangocentric and Cucumberized and we forgot!!

What to do with honeycomb? Oh baby, let us tell you!!

Honeycomb is an uncommon and delicious, completely edible treat. It is a chunk of the comb, cut from the hive, that the bees have built from beeswax. Its intricate and symmetrical repeated form is one of the great wonders of nature. 

  1. In the old country, people often enjoyed honeycomb as a condiment on bread or bruschetta. Take a slice of warm or toasted homemade bread, slather some fresh butter on it, and spread a chunk of honeycomb with a knife over the bread (fresh, “virgin” comb is soft enough to be spreadable). If desired, top with a piece of strongly flavored cheese, such as pecorino, and enjoy.
  2. Honeycomb can be eaten as candy. It is one of the original farm sweets for children! Simply cut off a small piece and pop it in your mouth. You can chew the wax and swallow it, or you can retain it like chewing gum. It is completely digestible, and like chewing gum, will lose its flavor as it is continually chewed.
  3. Honeycomb can also be used in its traditional forms; as a tea sweetener, drizzled over ice cream, in cooking and baking etc. Simply cut a chunk of the comb off, allow the contents to drizzle and drip into your drink or recipe, then use as a garnish or pop the rest in your mouth and enjoy!

Fruity Saturday at ARTfarm

20120526-083208.jpg

It’s officially mango season!! Today’s stand starts with a mélange of sweet and juicy local fruit: bananas from Reuben Liburd, Haitian kidney and Nam Duc Mai mangoes from Alex Ettienne, ARTfarm pineapples & papaya!! Microgreens, Kan-Kong (Asian spinach), sweet peppers, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, pumpkin, beets, scallions, bok choi, Bodhi yard-long beans, garlic chives; italian, lemon, thai and holy basil;  lemongrass, zinnia flowers; native trees, and pineapple slips.

10am – 12 noon every Saturday. We are discontinuing Monday farmstands until next year. Wednesday hours are now 3-6pm! Thanks for your support.

Nature’s Answer to the Juicebox at ARTfarm, 10am-noon Today!

We have amazingly sweet coconuts you drink right out of the nut! If you haven’t had fresh coconut juice right out of the husk, you haven’t tried what man has attempted to recreate in plastic pseudo-nutrition with Gatorade and juice boxes.

Fresh coconut juice is locally known as a kidney cleanser. It’s full of trace minerals and potassium. In wartime when plasma was not available, fresh coconut water was used in IV drips to hydrate patients in hospital.

We can cut your coconuts at the farmstand for you to drink immediately, or almost open – take a few home and stick them in the fridge. We keep a whole pitcher full of coconut water in our fridge. There is nothing better for rehydration.

For your veggie pleasure we have fresh harvested arugula, baby spicy mix, microgreens, asian spinach, garlic chives, basil, lemongrass, mangoes, avocados, Feel I’s ice cream and Sweetface chocolate!

For your yard we have native trees!

See you at the farmstand!