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!

Monday Q and A, open 3–6 p.m.!

Fight the Monday doldrums with great piles of gorgeous greens and crunchy veggies! Today’s 3 – 6 PM farmstand: loads of sweet salad mix, teen arugula, spicy salad mix, Italian basil, cilantro, a tower of multiple big tubs full of heirloom tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Bodhi beans, garlic chives, fresh ginger root, beets with big leafy edible tops, beautiful chili peppers, dandelion greens, scallions, passionfruit, Mediterranean figs, and freshly harvested zinnia flowers.

From our partner I-Sha we have locally crafted vegan ice cream!

How many heirloom tomatoes can YOU eat? Please, HELP US!!
How many heirloom tomatoes can YOU eat? Please, HELP US!!

Q: Farmer Luca, why do you look so sleepy in this photo of you with a giant tower of tomatoes?

A: I’m glad you asked. In fact, I have been up late for the last few nights. After putting excessive numbers of tomatoes to bed, I’ve been grooving to golden age hip-hop and working on paintings for a new art exhibit I will be having with Mike Walsh at the Walsh Metal Works Gallery, opening April 10th!

So, dear customers, when reaching for a bag today for your purchases, be careful not to mistakenly grab one of those under Luca’s eyes.

Wednesday Bounty 3-6pm! Come Shop Local!

We've got beautiful big beets with tops ready for cooking or juicing! Yum!
We’ve got beautiful big beets with tops ready for cooking or juicing! Yum!

 

Some sweet little rain showers at night have perked up the South Shore and quickened the pace of lettuce and veggie production. We are open today from 3–6 p.m. to share with you what the rain has brought: sweet salad mix, baby arugula, teen spicy salad greens, beautiful crispy cucumbers, lots of beets, lots of cherry and slicer tomatoes, kale, escarole, endive, baby bok choy, bunched onions, scallions, Italian basil, Thai basil, holy basil, lemon basil, garlic chives, dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, recao, ginger, Bodhi beans, and fresh cut zinnia flowers.

The sweet salad mix in winter is especially crispy and sweet when we've had a bit of rain. Triple washed and ready for the salad bowl!
The sweet salad mix in winter is especially crispy and sweet when we’ve had a bit of rain. Triple washed and ready for the salad bowl!

 

Around New Year’s Eve we had a pair of stray feral dogs show up at the farmstand early one morning. Some of our customers may have noticed them quietly hanging around at the farmstand that weekend and the next. We posted about them on the St. Croix Lost and Found Pets Facebook page and the STX Animal Welfare Center’s Facebook page immediately, but in the bustle of the holidays we neglected to post about them here on our own blog.

Two black and white fuzzy dogs on the farm.
Two stray dogs turned up in December 2014. They’d been running loose since at least October. Anyone know who they belong to?
Unlike most feral strays which we take directly to the Animal Welfare Center, this pair was unusually well behaved. We reported them “found” at the AWC and had them checked by a vet but they had no RFID tags. They are currently still living at the farm. We’d like to post their picture in case anyone knows their history. We did learn after posting their picture online, that they had been living wild since at least October 2014 along the industrial sites of the south shore of St. Croix (Diageo and Molasses Pier). If you have any information or recognize them, please let us know.

 

islandbordercollies

Resolve To Eat Local Veggies! 10am-12 noon!

Happy 2015 everyone! Harvested for you, for Saturday morning: sweet salad mix, teen spicy mix, baby spicy salad mix, teen arugula, baby arugula, microgreens, sweet corn, loads of cucumbers, loads of cherry tomatoes, slicing and heirloom tomatoes, radishes, beets, kale, sweet potatoes, sweet bell peppers, escarole, romaine and other assorted lettuce heads, cilantro, parsley, dill, Italian basil, holy basil, Thai basil, lemon basil, recao, chives, lemongrass, chili peppers, ginger root, passionfruit, and various vegetables starts including lettuce and cherry tomato plants and a few herb starts!

And from a friend with a giving tree, we have some very nice avocados!

Here’s to a sustainable, environmentally just, critically informed and reasoned spin around the sun for all beings. Spread love!

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