Help with Fall Planting at Duke Campus Farm

As summer wilts away, with temperatures slowly dropping and days getting shorter, a perfect combination for those spending time at the Duke Campus Farm.

For Saskia Cornes, farm and program manager, it’s a special time of year when one growing season is coming to an end and other is ready to begin, offering new opportunities in the field and in the classroom.

“It’s a gorgeous time of year to be out here,” she said.

Twice a week, Duke community members join Cornes and other farm staff as they harvest crops from the end of the summer growing season and prepare more for the fall, like kale, lettuce, beets and carrots. It’s an annual time of transition, open to students, faculty and staff, to join in and learn more about the farm, agriculture, the food system or to simply get their hands dirty and thumbs green.

The Duke Campus Farm, located at 4934 Friends School Road in Durham, hosts community work days from 3 to 5 p.m. Sundays and Thursdays throughout the fall. Volunteering can include a wide variety of activities, from weeding and mulching to planting crops for the fall. Crops grown at the farm are sold to Duke Dining to be used at Penn Pavilion on West campus.

Cecelia Mercer, the Stephen and Janet Bear Postgraduate Fellow in Ethics at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, graduated from Duke in May and joined the farm last spring as a work-study student. 

“It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle on campus, but the farm is a place where you can concentrate on enjoying your surroundings,” she said. “It’s a sanctuary for me to take a break from campus life.” 

Mercer enjoyed her time so much, she became a work exchange member of the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture program this past summer, receiving a share of the weekly harvest in exchange for spending two hours at the farm each week and $25 each month. She’s even bringing her experience at the farm back to campus, designing a yearlong public series on food and food systems at Duke. 

“Each harvest is the culmination of everything you’ve done so far,” she said. “There’s nothing like picking a fresh pepper or green bean and eating it straight off the plant.”

About half of the farm’s efforts are dedicated to educating the Duke and Durham communities about sustainable agriculture and how it relates to broader environmental, economic and social issues. A historical perspective is part of the farm’s “Cackalacky” heritage plot, which includes crops important to North Carolina’s agricultural past. Visitors to the farm can learn about tobacco, peanuts, sorghum, cotton and more.

“In some sense, they’re a testament to the ways in which plants shape society and Durham in particular,” Cornes said, noting how Durham’s tobacco industry helped industrialize downtown where former storage and production buildings now house restaurants, shops and Duke offices. 

The farm will also hold a seasonal tradition Oct. 9 – a contra dance. The event celebrates a form of North American folk dance in which a contra dance “caller” calls out dance steps to the crowd in the farm’s pavilion. Participants don’t have to arrive with a partner or know how to dance. Information about the event can be found on the Duke Campus Farm’s Facebook page.

“Everyone at the farm is an incredible bunch of folks who are kind spirited and really care about promoting healthy eating and a fun understanding of farming,” Mercer said. “It’s a wonderful resource to have available.”