Urban Community AgriNomics

By Executive Director Delphine Sellars As we approach our 1 Year Anniversary of having the Catawba Trail Farm,  we acknowledge our accomplishments, and lessons learned. Look for the release of our 2018 SeedMoney.org Campaign in November 2018.  Our focus this year will be the restoration of our beautiful Corn Crib. Help us continue to grow communities one seed at a time by helping us raise $3000.  Durham Merchants Association, a local Charitable Organization has partially funded this $6500 project. The Corn Crib Since November 2016 Urban Community AgriNomics (UCAN) has connected with the community, near and far, through our SeedMoney.org campaigns.  During our initial campaign, UCAN announced it’s vision to the community, and began to set in motion the work to achieve it!  The 2017 campaign focused on connectivity to the community; our commitment to creating access to healthy foods, and securing a food system.  That campaign supported the purchasing and construction of ra

By Lucille Patterson Urban Community AgriNomics had the pleasure of tasting wonderful fresh fruits compliments of Ungraded Produce. I'm writing to say how much UCAN, and all the volunteers, enjoyed the recent donation on our We Can! Workday. Everyone was pleased with the quality of the apples, oranges, and pears they provided. To Courtney Bell, CEO of Ungraded Produce, UCAN says, “Thank you!” Oranges, apples, and pears donated by Ungraded Produce.    Ungraded Produce is a subscription-based produce delivery service that recovers high quality, yet ‘ugly’ and surplus produce from both local and national suppliers. This is then delivered to doorsteps at a discount. Each week, UCAN donates a large quantity of produce to local food banks. We are committed to sourcing the highest quality produce, finding ways to make healthy eating easy and affordable for all, and keeping delicious fruits and vegetables out of landfills! Ungraded Produce is affordable, convenient, and susta

By Secretary Derek Haynes I can remember the beginning of Urban Community AgriNomics, and our speaking of the visions and future of our work.  Our meetings, our seeing prospective areas, and now our having actual land we are actually building on!  To see the Catawba Trail Farm (CTF) become a reality after being a dream is simply astonishing!  A big thank you to the lovely people of Triangle Land Conservancy for collaborating with us! To see the volunteers come and help us also leaves me speechless!  These past workdays have been ice cold, and even super muddy, but we still had people willing to tough it out.  People willing to donate some sweat equity to further the set up of the CTF.  And so far, UCAN has hit the ground running with workdays, and progress of the garden area.  I truly cannot wait until the growing season comes, and we can provide fresh produce, and herbs! It is so great to see various people, of all levels of diversity coming together.  Nature so always provide a

By Chris Fowler Published Jan. 2, 2018  Sandy Sweitzer and Delphine Sellars hold the signed agreement.  Urban Community AgriNomics (UCAN) and Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) entered into a User License Agreement on November 16, 2017 to activate an old farmstead on TLC’s Snow Hill IV conservation property in northern Durham County. UCAN is creating the Catawba Trail Farm in Durham as an aspiring agricultural center.  Initial steps will include the creation of a raised-bed and traditional-planting gardens, maintenance of the Catawba Indian trail, and restoration of existing structures. Delphine Sellars, Chair of UCAN Board, explains “We are extremely happy to have reached this point, following a year of negotiation and planning.  UCAN will connect with local schools, neighborhoods and organizations in providing a place to learn to grow, prepare and preserve fresh veggies, engage in STEM activities, and benefit from natural green spaces. This is an exciting time for UCAN an

By Shanell Davis Hello, my name is Shanell. I was invited to the UCAN MLK Project through a friend and co-worker, Lucille Patterson. When I arrived at the location, it was very cold. Mrs. Patterson and other helpers had snacks, fresh fruits, water, coffee, and energy drinks. Then, Mrs. Patterson encouraged me to go look at the area where they were going to start gardening. The area looked big and spacious. When I returned to the area where she was; I helped her at the registration table. The volunteers were coming despite the cold weather.  We had other curious drivers passing along stopping every once and while asking, “What are you guys doing today?”  Mrs. Patterson and other helpers answered with glee saying, “We are building a community gardening!” Once all the volunteers arrived, Mrs. Patterson and I headed to the community area. My job was to take photos of the volunteers working and the area. As I was taking photos, I saw the different houses and I asked ,“What are the

By Kyle Kramer, Volunteer The ground was frozen solid when we showed up at the Catawba Trail Farm site early in the morning on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to help with building the new UCAN community garden. The farm site is hidden a few hundred feet back along the old dirt drive, with the cleared garden plot alongside several old farm buildings—some more salvageable than others. Surrounded by massive oak trees and quiet groves of cedar, it's a tranquil place to gather. Some of the volunteers were just about frozen solid too, so the first order of business was building two fires to keep warm! Fortunately Triangle Land Conservancy's AmeriCorps member Molly had a collapsible fire pit on hand and we found an old tin barrel to start the day out with a blaze. One team of volunteers worked on measuring and staking out the locations for fence posts for the garden, even getting marker flags into the ground required a hammer! However, the complicated conditions did create valuable c