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!

Wednesday Watermelon Wonderment 3-6pm

Water for watermelons! One of our ponds. This one replenishes the water table.

Compared to this time last year, things are blessedly moist right now. The 6+ inches of rain we got at the beginning of the month of May <insert happy dance> has continued to promote explosive growth all over the farm.

So here’s what it brought you for today at ARTfarm, 3–6 p.m.: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, bunched arugula, a few pints of cherry tomatoes, a few slicer tomatoes, dandelion greens, Italian basil, garlic chives, parsley, freshly dug ginger root, French breakfast radishes, sweet bell peppers, serrano peppers, Indian chili peppers, yellow seasoning peppers, fresh cut zinnia flowers, good quantities of yellow and red fleshed WATERMELONS, loads of sweet and yummy papaya, passionfruit, a few dragonfruit, a few pineapples, and very fresh, delicate and very mild local goat cheese from Dr. Bethany’s Fiddlewood Farm alpine goats!

Cray-cray…this watermelon is sweeeeeet! You can save the seeds for roasting like pumpkin seeds.

Melonious Saturday! 10AM – 12 noon

The season is shifting from mid-spring into early summer! Pineapples in mere weeks! Dragonfruit blooms busting out! Here comes the fruit!

We now have some beautiful papayas that many of you have been enjoying. They are sweet, with thick flesh and very few seeds, creamy and delicious with a squeeze of lime -or- for a simpler recipe, just add a spoon and your face! The skin of the papaya fruit has traditionally been used as a healing poultice for cuts, abrasions and bruises. Papaya contains digestive enzymes and is often also used for stomach ailments and even as a meat tenderizer. It is a healing, comforting food.

And now, the headliner, MELONS! Luca is a serious watermelon monster. He has grown some beautiful little watermelons with a sweet, almost butterscotch-like flavor. We failed on several occasions to get a picture of its unusual orangey-yellow flesh before it was eaten…finally captured one yesterday.

In other farm news, Farmers Christina and Luca celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary this week. We got married right here on the farm after a multi-continent-spanning 10 year courtship. (Luca’s parents, who also live here on the farm, will be celebrating their 50th anniversary this summer!) Still growing, still trying new things!

The full list for Saturday: Loads of sweet salad mix, baby arugula, spicy greens, bunched arugula, a few bunches of kale, radishes, onions, cherry tomatoes, slicing and heirlooms, a few cucumbers, loads of green orange yellow and red bell peppers, loads of seasoning peppers, loads of Serrano and Indian chili peppers, garlic chives, parsley, recao, lemongrass, Italian basil, ginger root, pumpkin, loads of passionfruit, loads of really good papaya, ten petite yellow fleshed watermelons, a few super pretty and tasty honeydew-like melons from Punjab India that will blow your mind, cheerful sunflowers and zinnias, and from our partner Fiddlewood Farm we have fresh locally produced goat cheese!

Art, Earth Day, and The Return of the Goat Cheese 10am – 12 noon

Overall, the tomato plants are slowing down as the weather gets slightly hotter, but we still have tons to pick and for you to enjoy!

Our sunflowers are getting ridiculously tall! They seem to love our soil. We field tested some cut sunflowers this week in a jar of water and they lasted at least six days with no added care. If you change the water more regularly and add a couple of tablespoons each of apple cider vinegar, sugar, and baking soda to the water, they should go even longer!

Can you find the melons in the melon patch? Lots of exciting varieties, soon come!

The arts are very busy this weekend with the VI Lit Fest partying hard at UVI and CMCArts, and various art exhibitions including a mix of student and professional work at the Good Hope Country Day School. Get out and enjoy some culture, or stay in and practice your own creativity!

Yesterday’s full moon coincided with Earth Day. We hope that more and more people will join communities like ours of small farmers and their dedicated customers, to practice Earth Day consciousness and conservation around the calendar all year long.

Fiddlewood Farms goat cheese is back today! Pairs perfectly with any and all of the following items: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, lettuce heads; onions, radishes, pumpkin, sweet potato, green, red, and orange bell peppers; seasoning peppers, both types of hot peppers, a few cucumbers, a few bunches of kale, bunched arugula, parsley, Italian basil, chives, rosemary, lemongrass, ginger root, papaya, passionfruit, cherry tomatoes, medium heirloom and red tomatoes, recao, farm fresh eggs from ARTfarm and from Heather’s hens; and more of Dr. Bradford’s unbelievably fresh, delicate goat cheese.

Aaaand…Decorate your table or make a lovely gift of fresh cut zinnias and sunflowers.