freshfood

2nd Annual Spring Farm Dinner

April 21, 2023

On April 1, 2023 Rural Studio hosted our 2nd Annual Spring Farm Dinner event.

A toast is given over a long table sat with guests

Last year’s dinner was such a success, we wanted to bring everyone back together for an evening with friends. Our focus is on smaller-scale sustainable agriculture and ways to invest in our local food system. Along with RS faculty and staff, we were delighted to have folks join us from BDA Farm in Uniontown, the Newbern Library, Schoolyard Roots in Tuscaloosa, and the Black Belt Food Project/Abadir’s.

People visit together, seated at a long table-clothed table at dusk
Another view of everyone gathered together at a long table with a white tablecloth, outside at dusk
People gathered at the long outdoor tables enjoy each other's company and the fine food placed before them

We shared ideas and updates from the past year. It was also a chance to imagine opportunities to continue working together. Of course, the evening was organized around sharing an excellent outdoor meal, which was prepared by chef Brad Hart and hosted by Johanna Gilligan, both friends and consultants of Rural Studio out of Santa Fe.

A close-up of a plate of food at the spring farm dinner, in this case a green salad with strawberries and parmigiana

Most of the fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruit came from Rural Studio Farm (like the fresh strawberries) and the meat was sourced from BDA Farm.

Some spears of asparagus and ripe strawberries sit arranged together on the wash table
An overhead shot of colorful heads of lettuces fill out the raised beds in the greenhouse
A student holds up an intact and well-shaped head of green lettuce in the greenhouse
Blue-green dinosaur (lacinato) kale grows in the greenhouse

With such great food and fond company, it was a lovely twilit evening, and we are pleased to make this an annual tradition.

It is edging into night as people visit together at the long table
People are looking toward the center of the long table where everyone is gathered outside
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A Productive Year

December 14, 2022

An aerial shot of the farm taken from a drone that shows the many row crops growing and students working
Photo by Timothy Hursley

It has been quite an eventful year at Rural Studio Farm.

Three students return from the field with harvested produce
A closeup of harvested rutabagas
A student picks snap beans with a toddler
A student washes recently harvested carrot roots
A view of the greenhouse beds which are filled with growing greens
The morning sun in the summer greenhouse with workers busy tending crops
Photo by Timothy Hursley

With the start of the new academic year in the fall, we had to say goodbye to Jackie Rosborough, one of our student assistant managers.

An assistant manager stands with a shovel in front of the tool shed
Photo by Timothy Hursley

Jackie, along with our other assistant manager, Laurel Holloway, was an integral part of what made this year so successful. Though we are sad to see Jackie depart, we are thrilled to welcome a new student assistant manager, Ambar Ashraf from Atlanta, to our team!

A student sorts sweet potato roots that have been harvested
Two students use a broadfork to prepare a bed for planting

In the spring, we began piloting our CSA program to students and staff, which delivered several hundred pounds of fresh seasonal produce, herbs, and flowers to members across 30 weeks.

The yellow, pink, red, and white thick stems of the harvest chard are striking as students work to bundle them for the CSA
A worker checks her list and surveys the prepared CSA bags
Stacks of bundled beets are about to be sorted into CSA bags

The CSA allowed us to grow a wider variety of crops for the first time—many of which were very successful, like Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, fennel, and shallots. It’s our hope that we can broaden the scope of the CSA’s membership for next year’s growing season to include the broader community of Hale County.

A closeup of freshly picked kohlrabi
A giant bouquet of flowers picked from the farm

This past year, we also began working with the Black Belt Food Project and Project Horseshoe Farm to donate several hundred pounds of extra food to their produce stand, which runs on a “take what you want, pay what you can” model.

To help harvest for and run the produce stand, and to help with the farm in general, we welcomed two new Project Horseshoe Farm fellows, Lauren Widmann and Sonja Lazovic, who have succeeded past fellows Maggie Rosenthal, Ellie Hough, and Bess Renjillian.

A volunteer smiles as she harvests snap beans in the field
A student smiles as she holds a harvest apron full of picked snap beans
Horseshoe Farm volunteers clean and process produce for the produce stand in Greensboro

The Farm also hosted two events this year: a local food and sustainable agriculture summit and dinner in March and the Food for Thought event in October (with the Newbern Library and the Black Belt Food Project).

A distant view of the guests of the farm dinner raptly watching a mini lecture by another guest
Two little girls laugh and play during the farm dinner with other diners enjoying themselves in the background
A wide shot of the long table with guests sat around it and the sun's striking horizontal light projecting spears of light over the heads of the attendees
People are moving through the food lines loading their plates
The farm manager stands amidst a crowd as he gives a tour of the farm, pointing to some feature of the glass and steel passive solar greenhouse

Finally, our Farm Manager, Eric, began graduate school in Auburn in the fall, pursuing a degree in crop, soil, and environmental science. The Farm continues to thrive and expand, and the next year is going to be even more productive!

Another view of a flower harvest with marigolds, celosia, gomphrena, zinnia, salvia, spider lilies, and more
A row of fresh carrots with colors from purple to orange to yellow
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Food for Thought: A Journey through Alabama’s Food History, Culture, and Taste

November 2, 2022

We had an invigorating weekend for our collaborative food event, Food for Thought: A Journey through Food History, Culture, and Taste.

People mill about in a loose configuration amongst the African marigolds that fun adjacent to a table being staffed by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System
A banner for the Food For Thought event
Two women slicing melons in preparation for the Food For Thought lunch
Guest chef Halima Salazar gives an introduction to the Food For Thought lunch to a seated gathering of people attending the event

The two-day event was a joint effort between Carolyn Walthall and Barbara Williams of the Newbern Library, Sarah Cole of Abadir’s and the Black Belt Food Project, and Rural Studio Farm. Food for Thought acknowledged our Southern food history and showcased the work of current organizations and people who are moving these traditions forward for future generations.

Three women smile as they chat while preparing food for the next day's lunch for Food For Thought
Some people return to their tables with laden plates, others queue for their turn at the feast, while more still serve themselves generous helpings

The public event started on Friday evening at the Newbern Library, where author Emily Blejwas spoke about her book The History of Alabama in Fourteen Foods. The Friends of Newbern Library provided some of the homemade foods featured in Ms. Blejwas’s book.

Many people occupy chairs that are arranged in rows, filling the whole of Newbern Library's main space
Some women stand smiling in front a food table set up in the Newbern Library for Emily Blejwas's book event as part of Food For Thought
Emily Blejwas stands amidst the books of the Newbern Library in front of a screen giving visual aid for her discussion of her book "The History of Alabama In Fourteen Foods"

On Saturday morning, in beautiful fall weather, the event moved to Rural Studio where our Farm manager, Eric, gave tours of the Farm.

The farm manager pauses during the tour to talk about a point of interest on the tour
The farm manager stands amidst a crowd as he gives a tour of the farm, pointing to some feature of the glass and steel passive solar greenhouse

Project Horseshoe Farm, the Black Belt Food Project, and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System had tables set up around the Farm to share their work, as well as a table offering a seed exchange for visitors.

Representatives from Project Horseshoe Farm are sat smiling at an information table sitting near the farm
An extension agent staffs her table that is an information center and seed exchange
A close-up of a visitor to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System's informaiton table which rests in the shade of the morning sun provided by the house

Finally, the event culminated in a lunch that featured North African food from Sarah and West African cuisine from farmer and chef Halima Salazar of Gimbia’s Kitchen out of Oxford, MS.

The two chefs stand smiling together next to their food
A white table clothed-lined table is laden with bowls of sumptuous food for the public lunch for Food For Thought
A menu for the Food For Thought lunch featuring North African food (molokhiel, stewed snap beans, and cabbage rolls) and West African food (naija red stew, stuffed poblano peppers, peanut soup, okra soup, and arugula salad)
A wide shot of people queuing up around the food table and serving themselves
A plate of delicious food from the Food For Thought event
A woman is making cabbage raps for the next day's Food For Thought lunch
A close-up of stuffed peppers arranged in a ring
People sit at two long tables visiting with one another as they eagerly await the lunch for Food For Thought
Two women are preparing food for the Food For Thought lunch

The meal, prepared as it was by the two young chefs with both Southern and African roots, encapsulated the theme of the event: as Ms. Salazar said, “Southern food is African food.”

Guest chef Halima Salazar smiles as she prepares stuffed peppers
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Rural Studio Farm and the Black Belt Food Project

September 26, 2022

West Alabama has a new nonprofit working in Greensboro: the Black Belt Food Project (BBFP), started by our friend Sarah Cole of Abadir’s. The BBFP aims to build a stronger, more inclusive environment for children and adults through food-based educational opportunities. Eric Ball, Rural Studio’s Farm Manager, joined Sarah’s newly formed board, which includes Dr. John Dorsey, Director of Project Horseshoe Farm; Stephanie Nixon from Hale County Library and founder of Sacred Space, Inc.; and Amanda Storey, Executive Director of Jones Valley Teaching Farm.

Sarah Cole is standing smiling at a range, seasoning some dishes

Sarah has already collaborated with Rural Studio on several events, like preparing all the excellent food for the Moundville Pavilion Project celebration (made with produce and flowers from Rural Studio Farm).

An overhead shot of a flower arrangement next to some food
A close-up of a homemade cake adorned with multicolored edible flowers from the farm
Sarah prepares food in the RS kitchen
Students fill to-go boxes with delicious food from the farm

But now Rural Studio is building a relationship with the BBFP to begin to offer Rural Studio Farm as an educational resource with the broader West Alabama community. Notably, in October, Rural Studio, Newbern Library, and the BBFP are putting together a food event called Food for Thought: A journey through food, history, culture & taste.

And since Rural Studio Farm is producing more food than we can use, this week we started sharing extra produce with the BBFP to be distributed to the public at pick-up points in Greensboro, like in Project Horseshoe Farm’s new “store” space at their headquarters in downtown. It’s a “take what you need, give what you can” market stand.

Meanwhile, on the Farm, we’re moving into Autumn. We are harvesting some of the last warm-season crops like pinkeye purple hull peas, okra, peppers, zucchini, and squash. Sweet potatoes are filling the greenhouse, and we are starting lots of cool-season crops: lettuce, arugula, carrots, kale, spinach, chard, turnips, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, rutabagas, and more.

A student dumps pinkeye purple hull peas into a harvest tub while more students pick peas
A shot of newly emerged turnip seedlings that pop with emerald green
Fresh ears of sweet corn lay stacked on a table
Sweet potato vines have swallowed the greenhouse
Trays of newly emerged seedlings line a table in the seed house
A student goes out in the dawn light to pick peas from the field
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The Closing Of Summer

August 31, 2022

Summer draws to an end just as new students begin their time at Rural Studio. But all through the summer swelter, it has been last year’s leftover students—now graduated—whose work has kept the farm running.

A smiling student holds up a large plastic bag full of ripe cherry tomatoes of varying colors
An assistant manager harvests ripe cherry tomatoes
A student harvest ripe blackberries off the vines
Two students work amongst fallen corn stalks to harvest all the ears
The farm manager and assistant manager inspect and harvest cantaloupes and watermelons
Students pick snap beans from the low bushy growth habit
A student harvest ripe cherry tomatoes
Four students, attired in harvest aprons, crouch amongst the peas to pick them
A student cuts a ripe watermelon from the vine
A student direct sows some crop seed with the push seeder

Summer is the most productive time of the year, and each week we spend three days harvesting such things as fresh corn, cherry tomatoes, an assortment of peppers, eggplants, cantaloupes and watermelons, okra, cucumbers, black-eyed peas, snap beans, blackberries and blueberries, apples, Asian pears, leeks, scallions, and shallots, as well as herbs and fresh flowers.

Ripe blackberries sit collected at the bottom of a harvest bucket
A close-up of three harvest buckets with peppers and tomatoes
Scallions and leeks lay freshly harvested on the wash table
Some CSA vegetables sit on a table: leeks, a clamshell of cherry tomatoes, Asian eggplant, shishito peppers, and basil
A bouquet of fresh farm flowers: daylilies, rudbeckia, marigolds, and zinnias
About 20 watermelon, of three different varieties, lay picked upon the wash table
A 20-gallon harvest tub brims with ears of picked corn as a farm manager trims leaves off the husks
A tray of ripe, variously colored cherry tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes hang in a cluster with the colors ranging from dark green to ripe red
A student holds a small handful of ripe plump blueberries
A student pulls a ripe ear of corn from the plant
Blackberries ripen on the vine
A large quantity of apples hang on a tree

Summer is also the hardest time of the year in terms of insect pest pressure and fast-spreading weeds. Yet, for the first time it never felt like the insects and weeds grew beyond our control. Each year, we diligently hand-weed and turn over crops to minimize the spread of unwanted seeds, and we are now seeing the long-term cumulative efforts pay off.

Two students transplant corn seedlings into prepared beds in the field
A student uses a stir-up hoe to weed between rows of young corn
A long shot of four students stooping down to pick pea pods

Also, we are growing a wider diversity of plants with more aromatic flowers and herbs that make it more difficult for harmful insects to zero in on any one crop. Despite all the hard work and the heat, it’s been a pretty chill summer on the farm.

A close-up of a sunflower head before it has matured and opened
Four students stand amongst the snap beans and pick them
Trays of young corn sprouts grow in the seed house
A toddler stands between two towering rows of corn
Four students crouch and pick black-eyed pea pods off the vines
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