ARTfarm Wednesday, 3–6 p.m.! Get a Taste!

It is really Taste week on St. Croix! We had a brief visit from visiting celebrity Chef Sam Choy early this week when he came out to ARTfarm to pick up some ingredients for a charity dinner. We enjoyed talking to him about growing techniques in Kona, Hawaii, where he is a leader in the farm-to-table movement.

Celebrity Chef Sam Choy visits the ARTfarm to pick up some ingredients for a St. Croix Food & Wine Experience charity event. We talked breadfruit and ate limes!
Celebrity “Iron Chef” Sam Choy is actually a big ol’ softie. Here, he visits us at the ARTfarm to pick up some ingredients for a St. Croix Food & Wine Experience charity event. We talked breadfruit and ate limes! Whatta nice guy!

For today’s midweek farmstand we have on offer: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, a few bags of microgreens; scallions and Italian basil; onions, beets, carrots and radishes with beautiful green tops for cooking or juicing; cucumbers, and diminishing numbers of end-of-season cherry tomatoes, small heirloom and slicer tomatoes.

Yummy beets for you and for Chef Joe! Looking forward to the Taste of St. Croix event on Thursday, April 16th 2015!
Yummy beets for you and for Chef Joe! Looking forward to the Taste of St. Croix event on Thursday, April 16th 2015!

If you need some fresh ideas of what you can do with your ARTfarm produce, we will be hosting a table at the Taste tomorrow night! Chef/restauranteur Joe Smith and his partner and lovely wife, Jen Valiulis are owners of Garden Table Market in Salem, Indiana, and both have been longtime residents of St. Croix and employee farmers at ARTfarm. Joe and Jen will be our chefs tomorrow night, representing us with several delectable dishes using a lot of ingredients straight from ARTfarm and a few other local farms and producers, including Dr. Bethany Bradford’s Fiddlewood Farm local goat cheese! Come see us at booth #4 on the west end pier of the event if you are fortunate enough to have tickets to this great charity event.

Wednesday before Luca’s art show! Open today 3–6 p.m.

This Friday, 5–8 p.m., please come to the Walsh Metal Works Gallery in Peters Rest for an exhibition of Farmer Luca and Metalworker Mike’s interior lives, expressed in watercolor and steel. The art exhibition will run through May 9, but the fun and festivity is to be had on the opening night!

Today’s haul for the farmstand, 3–6 p.m.: Sweet salad mix with a touch of colorful radicchio, teen arugula, teen spicy salad mix, kale, onions, carrots, long beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Italian basil, cilantro, dill, beets, zinnia flowers, dandelion greens, a few dozen eggs from ARTfarm pastured hens, and from our partner I-Sha amazing handmade vegan ice cream in a varied selection of local fruit flavors.

Luca and Mike are both local artists and Men Of Industry on St. Croix. Please come to their exhibition of new works on Friday, April 10th, 2015!
Luca and Mike are both local artists and Men Of Industry on St. Croix. Please come to their exhibition of new works on Friday, April 10th, 2015, 5-8pm!
Original watercolor (c)2015 by Luca Gasperi.
Original watercolor (c)2015 by Luca Gasperi.

 

Original watercolor (c)2015 by Luca Gasperi. Exhibition opens Friday, April 10th 2015 5-8pm at Walsh Metal Works Gallery in Peters Rest, St. Croix USVI!
Original watercolor (c)2015 by Luca Gasperi. Exhibition opens Friday, April 10th 2015 5-8pm at Walsh Metal Works Gallery in Peters Rest, St. Croix USVI!

 

Basil, dill, cilantro with coriander seeds, radicchio, radishes, escarole, long beans...
Basil, dill, cilantro with coriander seeds, radicchio, radishes, escarole, long beans…

 

Beautiful heads of radicchio to enliven any dish with color and panache!
Beautiful heads of radicchio to enliven any dish with color and panache!

Saturday ARTfarm goods! 10am – 12 noon

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.
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!

 

 

ARTfarm Monday, 3–6 p.m.: Cool Off!

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!
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!
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!