Tag: organic methods

ARTfarm Healthy Lifestand 10am – 12noon

Seasoning peppers are pungent little packages of intense fruity pepper flavor with no (or extremely mild) heat. They look like scotch bonnets, and some folks assume that’s what they are, but these things have all the fragrance of the scotch bonnet with none of the pain factor. They ‘taste like the Caribbean’, as Farmer Luca likes to say. They are amazing to add to all kinds of dishes and sauces, and impart a smoky kind of flavor.

One of the great secrets to really tasty food preparation is just to start with really good fresh ingredients. If you do that, you can keep things very simple and they will taste incredible.

This Saturday’s farmstand, 10am – 12noon: welcome to February! Tomato incredibleness continues, with even more heirlooms (please don’t squeeze), loads of fresh sweet salad mix, teen arugula, baby ‘almost micro’ spicy salad mix, tons of figs, beautiful seasoning peppers, sweet bell peppers, assorted spicy hot peppers, no-peel baby ginger and turmeric, lettuce heads, various cooking greens, dandelion greens, endive, Italian basil, lemon basil, Thai basil, holy basil, cilantro, dill, garlic chives, a few bunches of parsley, sage, French breakfast radishes, baby carrots, butternut squash, Thai pumpkin (so so so good with edible skin), and zinnia flowers.

Early birds will also choose from a few bunches of scallions and onions, some watermelon, some cucumbers, and the first of our Hawaiian sweet corn.

See you in the morning!

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!

Rain! ARTfarm Saturday, 10 AM – 12 noon

If you want to make a farmer happy, send a beautiful inch of rain! IMG_8949.JPG
Sweet salad mix, spicy salad mix, arugula, beets, radishes, onions, beautiful carrots, Italian basil, Thai basil, cilantro, parsley, sage, freshly dug ginger root, a handful of beans, a few tomatoes, a few chili peppers, and zinnia flowers.

Top O’ The Morning To Ya! ARTfarm 10 AM – 12 noon

Despite the temptations of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Christiansted today, the little leprechauns of ARTfarm are hard at work this morning on the south side of the island, harvesting greens to decorate your table. Please come as early as possible for this morning’s stand (10am-12 noon) and buy all your greens, tomatoes, fresh herbs and other treats, so that we can release the cute little fellows to run over the hills and join in the festivities in town.

A heart-shaped green heirloom tomato for St. Patty's Day! Enjoy the parade!
A heart-shaped green heirloom tomato for St. Patty’s Day! Enjoy the parade!

If you’re too busy staking out your parade spot or painting yourself and the kids green to make it this morning, we’ll be open Monday 3-6pm! Today’s haul: sweet salad mix, teen arugula, spicy salad mix, a few cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, heirlooms, loads of beets, escarole, collard greens, sweet potato greens, carrots, Italian basil, lemon basil, mint, Thai basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, garlic chives, onions, scallions, French breakfast radishes, lots of Mediterranean figs, and passionfruit. From our co-agrarians, we’ve got beautiful raw local honey from Errol Chichester.

Farmer Matthew this morning reminded us that today is a perfect day to bake a pie: today’s date, for those of you who didn’t get the joke (like yours truly) is 3.14… pi (the symbol used by mathematicians to represent the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, the lowercase Greek letter π).

Enjoy!