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Sweet potato harvest

November 1, 2021

Students harvested the first sweet potato crop since the Rural Studio’s farm reboot in 2019.

  • A textured shot of dappled sweet potato vines
  • A student lifts several large sweet potato tubers out of the ground
  • A view from the west side of the greenhouse showing how the vines fill up the space with two trees in the foreground

But unlike previous sweet potato crops, these were grown in the greenhouse. The Farm’s passive solar greenhouse gets so hot and still during the long Alabama summers that it can be difficult to grow many crops in the peak of summer, and sweet potatoes take up so much space that they are difficult to grow in our small, intensively managed outdoor cultivated areas. Growing the potatoes this way solved both difficulties at once!

  • Five farm workers plant sweet potato slips
  • Young sweet potato vines

Sweet potatoes are most often grown from slips, which are small shoots cut from mature sweet potato tubers and rooted. The farm team planted 200 sweet potato slips into the raised beds in the greenhouse on June 7.

  • New sweet potato vines grow
    July 1
  • Sweet potato vines begin to creep into the aisles
    July 19
  • Sweet potato vines begin to spill out of the raised beds
    July 23
  • The sweet potato vines have filled the greenhouse
    August 3
  • The sweet potato vines have filled the greenhouse
    August 11
  • The sweet potato vines have filled the greenhouse
    August 23
  • Sweet potato vines fill the whole greenhouse
    September 3

In only a matter of weeks the vines from the growing slips swallowed up the greenhouse: filling the aisles, climbing the barrel wall, and bursting through the windows. It was a beautiful transformation of the space that required almost no maintenance all summer long.

  • The sweet potato foliage is so dense that it covers the windows
  • Sweet potato vines swallow up everything within the greenhouse
  • Sweet potato vines burst from the windows
  • The sweet potato vines have spilled over everything
  • The farm manager examines something against the backdrop of sweet potato vines
  • Another view of sweet potato vines filling the greenhouse
  • Sweet potato vines burst from the windows

After four months, students dug up the new tubers and cleared out all of the vines.

  • Two students harvest tubers and clear sweet potato vines
  • Student clear away sweet potato vines
  • A team of students work to clear sweet potato vines and dig up tubers surrounded by sweet potato vines
  • A team of students work to clear sweet potato vines and dig up tubers
  • A student clears some sweet potato vines

Once dug up, the tubers then needed to be placed in a warm, humid environment in which to cure for about two weeks. During the curing process, the sweet potatoes’ skin thickens somewhat, any wounds or nicks heal over, and the sweet flavor of the flesh concentrates. Not only does this improve the flavor, but it significantly lengthens their storage potential, so students and staff can enjoy sweet potatoes all throughout the winter.

  • A student smiles up at an overhead shot of sweet potatoes filling two 20-gallon tubs
  • Three 20-gallon tubs and one 10-gallon tub are filled with newly harvested sweet potatoes
  • Newly dug sweet potato tubers have been sorted ready to cure
  • A row of sweet potatoes have been sorted in the greenhouse ready to be cured
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Autumn On The Farm

November 9, 2020

Autumn at Rural Studio Farm is in full swing.

A student uses a sprayer to apply foliar fertilizer to growing plants with a good view of the farm

Some of the lingering warmer season crops are still yielding, like eggplant, peanuts, and bell peppers.

  • A student picks jalapeno peppers
  • A close-up of a bright red hibiscus flower
  • Many brightly colored flowers are in bloom with dense green foliage
  • A close-up of brightly colored zinnia flowers
  • Students prepare pepper plants to be removed from the farm to make way for cover crops to be overwintered

Mostly we have been busy planting seeds into soil blocks and direct-sowing with the push seeder. These crops are lettuces, mustard greens, baby brassica greens, carrots, beets, chard, collard greens, rutabagas, broccoli, radishes, spinach, hakurei (salad) turnips, and turnips.

  • A student thins out extra seedlings that have emerged in the soil blocks and seedling trays in the seed house
  • Two students plant crop seeds into newly prepared soil blocks and seedling trays in the seed house
  • A student pushes the seeder across a prepared bed
  • A student uses a soil blocker to make batches of 20 1.5-inch soil blocks
  • A student makes adjustments to the push seeder before using it
  • A large tray filled with seed blocks of lettuce seedlings
  • A tray of mixed lettuce soil blocks with bright foliage ready to be transplanted
  • Several rows of perennial crops--asparagus, artichoke, and scallions--with a rainbow over them

Once the seedlings are ready, we prepare the beds and transplant out all the crops.

  • Two students transplant beet and chard seedlings
  • A student uses a sprayer to apply foliar fertilizer to growing plants with a good view of the red mustard greens
  • Two students transplant out some fall crops into bed still brown with recently mowed cover crops
  • Rows of crops grow: summer squash, mustard, and turnips with buckwheat growing in between
  • A student transplants out some lettuce seedlings
  • Lush green rows of mixed lettuce and carrots are growing with rye grass in between

We have been reaping great harvests of many of these crops too, with all of Rural Studio’s daily green salads coming straight off the farm.

  • Farm manager Eric harvest some baby greens
  • Three students pick and process turnips
  • A student harvests baby carrots
  • A student harvests baby carrots into a bowl
  • A near shot of some red mustard greens
  • Two groups of students are harvesting mustard greens and turnips
  • Two students are harvesting turnips
  • A big pot of mustard greens cooking in the kitchen
  • A close-up of a harvested baby carrot
  • Two students transfer newly spin-dried greens into plastic bags read for the kitchen
  • Two students are harvesting red mustard greens
  • Students wash newly harvested lettuce leaves in a large sink
  • A view of several rows of fall crops ready to be harvested: red mustard greens and turnips
  • A student transfers some mixed lettuce greens to a commercial salad spinner
  • Students spin-dry mixed lettuce greens that were recently harvested and washed
  • A student harvests baby carrots

Now that the weather is beginning to cool, we have also been preparing for winter by sowing fall cover crops to leave in the field for overwintering. This ensures that there is always something growing in the beds, which helps with drainage and compaction and overall soil health. In the spring, these crops will be mowed down, adding good organic matter back into the soil.

  • Fall cover crops for overwintering grow across several beds with rye grass growing between the rows

Finally, we are also preparing the greenhouse for production over the winter, which is where most of Rural Studio’s food is grown in deep winter.

  • A student mixes amendments into a raised bed in the greenhouse, preparing it for transplants
  • A mixture of red and green lettuces grows abundantly in the greenhouse raised beds
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Welcome to the Rural Studio Farm blog!

January 24, 2020

The Rural Studio Farm is all-organic, small-scale, and intensively managed, making use of sustainable agricultural practices. In addition to providing fresh, organic produce for students and staff, the farm has become an integrated part of all the architecture students’ experience coming through Rural Studio.

Bright and early each morning, a group of students works with our farm manager, Eric Ball, in all aspects of crop production, from seed-starting, to transplanting, to harvesting—and finally enjoying the fruits of their labors during shared meals prepared at the Studio. We feel this is important way to better understand the realities of living in a rural place, especially in Alabama’s Black Belt region where the historical and social legacy is etched into the very landscape.

This is the beginning of the second year of food production since the farm has undergone a major reboot, and you can catch all the updates on what is happening right here every week.

Learn more about the mission and history of the Rural Studio Farm here.

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