Catawba Trail Farm was completely overgrown, covered in fallen trees and trash and abandoned for over 70 years when volunteers first arrived at the plot of land in 2018. It looked nothing like the community garden in place now. But, after years of work, the space has been transformed and now contains a wide variety of crops all grown using sustainable practices with the mission to fight food insecurity.

Sisters Delphine Sellars and Lucille Patterson founded the Urban Community AgriNomics (UCAN) nonprofit in 2016. The Triangle Land Conservancy granted them access to the plot of land in November 2017. The following year, they began the process of reclaiming the dilapidated farmstead.

Now, the farm is home to a greenhouse, 47 raised garden beds, cold storage containers and a newly constructed farmers’ market set to open in the spring. UCAN built 47 raised garden beds available to be rented out by community members to grow whatever they want. The beds are filled with mint, okra, sweet potatoes and an array of other crops. UCAN hands out free boxes of food to community members each month through a food distribution program.

They also teach the community lessons on how to cook the allocated food and grow the vegetables at home themselves. UCAN has numerous programs in progress including the green bucket program. This initiative gifts farm visitors a bucket filled with nutrient-rich soil and seeds that they can take home to grow their own food.

“I’m all about teaching people to do for themselves,” Sellars said. “I wanna teach people how to be resilient.”

UCAN is looking to work with formerly incarcerated individuals to teach them agricultural skills so they may get a job in agriculture or start their own farm. Leaders of UCAN are also planning to clear an additional acre of land on Catawba Trail Farms to create taller raised beds that wheelchair users can more easily reach.

Over the last six years, UCAN’s biggest obstacle has been finances, Sellars said. She serves as the organization’s grant writer and often starts her day writing grants.

“I mean you can have all the volunteers you want, but the number of costs, you know, things cost money,” Sellars said.

The farm certainly has plenty of volunteers. Patterson manages the volunteers for the farm and says they are booked until November with groups scheduled to volunteer.

“It has truly grown,” Sellars said, looking around the farm with a smile.

When Sellars and a small group of volunteers first arrived at the plot of land, they realized they would need contractors to finish the job. But they’d already come out for the day and were going to do whatever they could to get the process started, Sellars said.

“Hand saws started this,” UCAN Associate Director Justin Wooley said. “And now we’re sitting in a refurbished corn crib.”

The original buildings on the property have been renovated for new use. UCAN plans for the last broken-down building to be turned into a museum, recognizing the farm’s heritage.

Catawba Trail Farms was built on an old plantation and is home to the oldest gravesite in Durham County. UCAN worked with the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University to conduct a geographical survey of the land and found multiple unmarked graves of enslaved people.

Sellars is a Black woman who wants to make sure the stories of the previous generations are told. She plans to have the refurbished corn crib turned into an intergenerational house.

“Let’s sit down. Let’s story tell. Let’s talk. Let’s create some value between the generations,” Sellars said. I got a lot to learn from young people, and I like to think that I still have a little bit they can learn from me, you know?”

Many local schools visit Catawba Trail Farm. Sellars said when Black children come to visit the farm they often have reservations about the implications of a Black person farming and its correlation with slavery. Sellars thinks of it as honoring the slaves who farmed the land so many years ago. The children usually ask if the farm really belongs to her. She said her response is always the same.

“‘It belongs to us,’” Sellars said.

Edited by Leah Paige & Will Kleinschmidt