After a long, cold winter, Rural Studio Farm in the spring is always a revitalizing place to be. And nothing heralds the new cycle of growth like our fresh strawberries, which began to bear fruit in February.
Since late May, we have been harvesting hundreds of pounds of blueberries and blackberries. It’s been such a treat to see how much the plants have produced this year compared to last.
Flowers also signal the changing of seasons. We always grow a lot of flowers for cutting and for pollinators, and this year we are trying some new varieties: poppies, lion’s ear, mullein, flax, moonflower, hyacinth bean, violets, and butterfly pea, to name a few.
Along with flowers, we are trialing some new varieties of various crops that the kitchen team has requested, like golden acre cabbage and scarlet kale. The golden acre has a nice, sweet flavor and both have been beautiful and productive, even in the heat of the South.
To help reduce weed pressure, we are testing a new paper mulch that will also help hold water before finally degrading into new soil. Several months in and the mulch has been effective and surprisingly robust. We hope that, throughout the season, this will remain more effective than other mulches, like straw, while reducing the need for synthetic fabrics.
Finally, we celebrated the bounty of the Farm and new season of growth with our fourth Spring Dinner, a gathering of friends and neighbors, as well as new folks who work in small-scale, sustainable agriculture and local food. It began as a tour of Rural Studio Farm and culminated in a shared twilight meal in the Great Hall, prepared by our friends and Santa Fe residents Brad Hart and Johanna Gilligan. Johanna created Grow Dat Youth Farm in New Orleans and was instrumental in Rural Studio Farm’s reboot in 2019.
Among our guests were architects and consultants Frank Harmon, Phil Szostak, Dan and Julie Wheeler, Mike Newman and Katrina Van Valkenburgh, and Mary Margaret Jones. Others included John Dorsey and Jennifer McMillan from Project Horseshoe Farm, Jovita Lewis from Hale County Extension, Nicole Dugat and Natalie Wulf from Schoolyard Roots, and Emma Chapman Busby from the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network.
Now summer is here, the most productive time of the year. We are excited because we are emphasizing tomatoes this year, growing 19 different varieties of heirlooms, cherries, and other specialty tomatoes. Oh, the dishes our kitchen will cook up and all of their nuanced flavors. More importantly, the lessons students are learning about the value of agricultural diversity, especially the role it plays in farming resilience and sustainability. Stay tuned!
