ARTfarm Saturday of Relative Solitude: Between the rainy weather, the holiday camping weekend, and the general time of year, you can enjoy a summer-like meditative quiet as you shop at ARTfarm on a Saturday morning. Talk to yourself! No one will even notice.
Sweet salad mix, microgreens, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, a few cucumbers, cherry, slicer and heirloom tomatoes, dandelion greens, long beans, ginger, cilantro, a few bunches of beets, onions, scallions, basil, dill, parsley, carrots, a few radishes, and zinnia flowers.
And from our partner I-Sha we have vegan ice cream.
Watercolor (c)2015 by Luca Gasperi, exhibiting at the “Men Of Industry” show with opening reception Friday, April 10th, 2015 5-8pm at Walsh Metal Works Gallery.
Save this coming Friday April 10th for Farmer Luca’s art exhibition with Mike Walsh (“Men Of Industry”) in Peters Rest at the Walsh Metal Works Gallery. The reception is from 5-8pm, and the show will hang for several weeks. Luca has been working on a collection of new watercolors, this time a number of paintings in smaller sizes. Mike is working on some new sculptures. Join us for this free art event!
The sun is pretty blazing hot these days, drying up the South Shore and turning everything golden. Except, of course for our irrigated crops, who are still sipping rainwater reserved from a few months ago. Come enjoy some of the greenery and savor the memory of rain… Sweet salad mix, arugula, spicy salad mix, microgreens, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and slicer tomatoes on the small side, lots of yard long purple Bodhi beans, a handful of cucumbers, scallions, Italian basil, and radishes with yummy green tops.
The grass on the South Shore of St. Croix has gone golden and crunchy, but the irrigated crops are looking healthy as they sip stored rainwater from months prior!
We’ve got really good ice cream from I-Sha! Honey soon come from Errol. He’s waiting on bottles. (Please note you can bring back clean honey bottles for sterilization and reuse by the beekeeper!)
Delicious local fruit flavors in single-size cups – coconut-based vegan ice cream from I-Sha is made with handmade local coconut cream, brown sugar, spices and local fruits and veggies! We’ve got spoons to lend at the farmstand, so take a moment and cool off with a little treat!
Pray for rain, folks! The South Shore is extremely dry and we could seriously use some of those rain showers the forecaster spoke about on Friday afternoon. Madre de Cacao trees are blooming and the honeybees are enjoying the pungent flavors of the dry season.
Join us starting at 10am for sweet salad mix, microgreens, baby arugula, teen and regular spicy, a few cucumbers, onions, beets, radishes, carrots, kale, dandelion greens, cherry tomatoes, heirloom and slicing tomatoes, fresh harvested ginger root, thyme, lemon balm, sage, celery, Italian basil, Thai basil, lemon basil, holy (Tulsi) basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, garlic chives, zinnia flowers, and a few Mediterranean figs and passionfruits.
From our fellow growers and crafters: farm fresh eggs by the dozen from the Gotts family, Wanda will be on hand with her honey meads, we’ll have Nonna’s fresh-baked focaccia and panini breads and we have a few coconut-based vegan ice creams from I-Sha. Looking forward to seeing you all!
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!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!
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 on St. Croix, USVI 