Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a farming model that builds a partnership between farmers and the people they feed. As a Duke Campus Farm CSA member, you become a stakeholder in the farm, committing to share in the harvest - both in its unpredictability and seasonality. In return, you receive a weekly share of high-quality, organic produce harvested hours, not weeks, before delivery.
As Duke Campus Farmers, we are committed to growing organically, the best possible fresh produce within its season. While we pride ourselves as organic farmers, our primary goal is that of educators. DCF embodies its mission to catalyze positive change in the food system through teaching and collaborating with classes across the academic spectrum, and exposing thousands of students and community members to the joys and hard work of growing real food. Your investment in our CSA program provides us with operating capital to run hands-on sustainable agriculture education to Duke students of all majors and classifications. Your buy-in helps us grow!
Summer CSA Sign-Ups Full
Sign-Ups for our 2023 Summer CSA are now closed. Stay tuned for our Fall CSA sign-ups, which will open at the end of the summer.
The Details
HOW LONG IS CSA?
Spring/Summer CSA runs from April 10th- July 31 and Fall CSA runs from September 11th - November 16th, for a total of 25 weeks. You can sign up for Spring/ Summer (15 weeks) and/or Fall (10 weeks).
We now offer both full and half shares. Full shares include pick up every week, and half shares include pick up every other week.
Sign ups for Summer CSA are now closed, but sign-ups for our Fall share will open at the end of summer and will remain open until September 23rd, or until shares run out!
How much does this cost?
- Spring/Summer full box (15 weeks) - $450
- Spring/Summer half box (7 weeks) - $210
- Fall full box (10 weeks) - $300
- Fall half box (5 weeks) - $150
*Enjoy a 10% discount on your entire subscription if you sign up for both seasons before April 10th!
A limited number of work trade shares are available. These positions involve a 4-hour/week shift in exchange for a weekly CSA box. You must be able to commit to a weekly shift for the whole CSA Spring/Summer season. Please email dukecampusfarm@gmail.com if you'd like to be considered for this option.
On-Farm Practices
Chemical-free
The Duke Campus Farm uses all organic-approved processes and inputs, though we are not organic-certified. Our primary clients at Duke Dining visit our farm space and regularly discuss our growing methods. We’re fortunate to have a major institutional client willing to support sustainably-raised local produce.
Building Healthy Soil Ecology
We employ farming practices rooted in agroecological principles which emphasize diverse cropping systems, minimal tillage, and integrated pest management . We use cover crops - typically a seasonally-dependent mixture of crimson clover, buckwheat, rye grass, cowpea, and vetch - to build organic matter and to introduce more nitrogen into our soils. We introduce a small handful of mineral and byproduct amendments - chicken feathermeal, rock phosphate, bloodmeal, alfalfa, kelp, and harmony -- into our soil preparation work.
Tools and Equipment
Farm staff and students spent DCF’s few first seasons building raised permanent beds with hand tools like hoes, rakes, and the champion of all small-farm tools, the broadfork. In 2015 we expanded our half-acre production to the full acre and upped our bed-prepping game by purchasing a BCS walk-behind tractor (pictured above). This European machine has implements for bedding up soil, incorporating cover crop and amendments with minimal damage to soil structure, and creating smooth seeding surfaces. The BCS suits our scale and operation well: compared to a larger tractor footprint, it minimizes soil compaction and maneuvers with ease (mostly!) around our intensively-planted, tightly-planned space. We still rely heavily on the use of broadforks for compost and amendment incorporation and non-damaging aeration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a farming model that builds a partnership between farmers and the people that they feed. As a Duke Campus Farm CSA member, you become a stakeholder in the farm, committing to share in the harvest - both in its unpredictability and seasonality. In return, you receive a weekly share of high-quality, organic produce harvested hours, not weeks, before delivery.
Spring/Summer CSA starts the week of April 10 and runs until July 31. Fall CSA starts the week of September 11th and runs until November 18th. Your subscription includes 10 boxes over the course of 10 weeks.
All pickups are contactless and self-serve. Shares are packed into waxed produce boxes. You can transfer your veggies to your own bag or box if you prefer; otherwise, take the box, bring it back the following week and pick up a new box. Note that these boxes are not recyclable; please return them to us.
Folks who signed up for Tuesdays have selected either Walltown, 1322 Clarendon St. (4:30pm-7pm) or Hope Valley, 54 Kimberly Drive, (5pm-7pm) starting Tuesday, September 13th. Your selection will be your pick-up location for 10 pick-ups. These are personal residences and thus it's important to pick up within the stated windows (remember, you can *always* deputize your friend or bored licensed teenager to scoop your box!) Unclaimed boxes will be donated promptly at the end of these pick up windows.
Folks who signed up to pick up on-farm, 4934 Friends School Road, can pick up from our walk-in cooler between Friday 3pm and Monday at 8am. This is the more time-flexible option to accommodate busy schedules, but we do feel compelled to remind folks: we harvest your box Friday morning, thus your produce will be at its highest quality closest to harvest. Boxes will often contain items that prefer different storage for peak quality and shelf life (we'll give you tips in the newsletters! i.e. leafy greens in the crisper, tomatoes on the counter, herbs in a cup of water). In our cooler, everything is packed at one refrigerator temperature. We encourage you to try and make a habit of picking up your produce closer to the Friday afternoon time to ensure peak quality.
- Please park in the designated Duke lot and walk** through the farm (you'll be glad you did!). Narrow Lane, which runs parallel to the farm, is a tempting option, but this is a private road. Please keep wheels and feet off of this road to help us preserve good relations with our neighbors.
- Farm staff may not be on site when you pick up. Please be mindful to close all doors and gates to ensure our veggies and space remain protected!
- You'll pick up directly from our walk-in cooler. Please do your best to keep hard-earned cold air in. Despite appearances, you cannot get locked in the walk-in - there's a push button to the right of the door that opens this from the inside. It even glows in the dark!
- Spring/Summer full box (15 weeks) - $450
- Spring/Summer half box (7 weeks) - $210
- Fall full box (10 weeks) - $300
- Fall half box (5 weeks) - $150
A limited number of work trade shares are available for each CSA season. We have filled all the Spring/Summer season spots, but will have more spots available in the fall. Please email dukecampusfarm@gmail.com if you'd like to be considered for this option.
TUESDAY: On-street parking is available on Clarendon and Kimberly Streets.
FRIDAY: On-farm parking is only available in the designated and marked lot, as described above. The lot has a Duke Forest sign and a sign with our beet logo on it; our gravel, fenced parking lot is immediately off Friends School Road.
**FARM ACCESSIBILITY*: we acknowledge not all folks can easily walk, and folks' physical abilities may change over the course of the season. We have an accessible parking space a few steps from the cooler, and the terrain between car and cooler is flat and sturdy enough for walker, cane, or other supportive implement. You don't owe us a lengthy explanation or special tags if you require use of the Accessible parking space; we simply request that folks who need to use the Accessible space please do so, and folks who can comfortably use the main parking lot plan to park and walk.
Absolutely. We've had friends, neighbors and co-workers share a subscription all summer long; if you'd like multiple names on a box regularly, just let us know.
We do not offer trial boxes, however we do now offer a half-share option (one full box every other week). If you're still not able to commit for the full season or are unsure about the CSA model, we encourage you to sign up with a friend, neighbor, or colleague.
We are a small team juggling a farm operation, academic and co-curricular programming for Duke students, the training of student farmers, and fresh produce donations alongside the 70+ households who are our CSA members. For our own sanity, we must respectfully decline these requests. If you aren't available or miss a pickup, we encourage you to send a friend, neighbor, whomever in your stead! Anyone you designate may pick up your box.
Each box contains 6-8 items, with a range of leafy greens, alliums, herbs, roots, and fruits. We tend to see that households who enjoy cooking and eating fresh veggies easily consume the share between a pair of people throughout the week. We've had plenty of ambitious solo folks enjoy the share, and larger households have frequently participated and enjoyed supplementing a few meals each week. All to say -- we tend to get all eater-types 'round here. We also include recipe ideas in our weekly newsletters and offer ways to preserve veggies in case you don't make it through the box in a week's time!
Non-service animals of any kind, leashed or unleashed, are not allowed at CSA pickups for hygiene reasons.
All are welcome to volunteer at the farm on Sunday afternoons from 1-4pm during the academic year, and Thursdays from 9am-12pm during the summer season. No Duke affiliation or prior experience is necessary, and we have tasks for all ages and a range of abilities and mobilities. To help us plan, sign-ups for the academic year work days are encouraged here, but no one will be turned away at the gate.
If you don't find what you're looking for, please email us at dukecampusfarm@gmail.com.