Resilient Agriculture
What do we grow?
So much! Carrots, peas, okra, lettuce, kale, rainbow chard, collard greens, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, herbs, squash...the list goes on... Follow our social media to see what we're growing each season.
Where does our produce go?
The majority of our production space is devoted to annual vegetable production. 100% of this produce goes to our partner organizations who are leading food security initiatives in Durham.
On-Farm Practices
CHEMICAL-FREE
The Duke Campus Farm uses all organic-approved processes and inputs, though we are not organic-certified. Many small farms opt not to go through the Organic Certification process because of the time and money it takes to register compliance.
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, and kelp -- 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 16hp 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.
If you don't find what you're looking for, please email us at dukecampusfarm@duke.edu