My Summer at Spring Forest

By Brooke Reardon

This summer I had the delightful opportunity to partner with the community at Spring

Forest in Hillsborough NC through the Office of Community Engagement at Duke. Before I began my time at Spring Forest, I imagined I would spend most of this summer working in the garden and writing; however, being a part of the Spring Forest community turned out to be so much more. I spent eight weeks living in their community—working on the farm, preparing free farmers markets, cooking farm to table meals, and joining their community spiritual practices. During this time, I learned a lot about building the commons, food security, and caring for the land through sustainable farming practices.

As a scholar, my interest in being at Spring Forest has primarily been rooted in their

communal living practices—the way they see themselves as a kind of local commons. In my own studies, I have been researching a current resurgent of interest in building the commons as a post-capitalist movement. When I heard about Spring Forest, I believed that by working with them I would find one example of a community that was doing this work practically. I can confidently say now after completing my internship with them that I was right. The people at Spring Forest are invested at finding alternative ways to engage the local economy than in traditional markets. For example, Spring Forest offers Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes where members of the local community can purchase a share of the produce for a weekly bag of fresh vegetables. CSA shares are a simple way for the community to directly support the farm, ensuring that the farm can continue to practice sustainable farming techniques, as there is no need to use synthetic fertilizers, or chemical products for mass production at market value. Instead, the farm can prioritize the use of

agricultural practices that help restore the soil’s health. While CSA shares still function as a kind of market, they challenge the traditional capitalist market by enabling the focus to be on the health and well-being of the community and land, rather than on maximizing profits. In addition to CSA shares, Spring Forest has had an abundance of crops this year which allowed us to engage the community in other ways this summer as well. For example, on Wednesdays, Spring Forest welcomes families from the community to enjoy a day at the farm, cooking and communing with one another. During this time, young kids, with the help of Spring Forest chefs, get to harvest produce together and prepare a meal with it for all to enjoy. Similarly, on Thursdays, I got to help Spring Forest set up free farmers markets and cooking classes for refugee families in Durham, in partnership with World Relief. Each of these programs represent the kind of community Spring Forest embodies, which I find compatible with recent writings on the commons.

Another important aspect of my internship that heavily overlaps with the previous idea

regarding the commons is how Spring Forest helps build local food security. Through each of their programs, I saw how invested Spring Forest was in not only ensuring people have access to fresh produce, but that they are equipped in knowing how to cook that produce in culturally appropriate ways. For example, during their Thursday programing with World Relief, Spring Forest knew it was not enough to just offer a free farmers market, they also needed to provide a farm to table cooking class. Furthermore, since the people at world relief come from all over the world, it was also vital for the chefs at Spring Forest to incorporate lessons on cooking meals that were culturally attuned to the people present. For this same reason, this summer Spring Forest also offered free cooking classes for a community in Durham that has people with different kinds of disabilities. In these

cooking classes the focus was on making cooking accessible, fun, and delicious.

A final important aspect of this summer was getting to be on the farm, learning more about

sustainable farming practices. In the past, I have worked on small farms with similar agricultural practices to Spring Forest, as such I came into this internship already having a base of knowledge about sustainable agriculture. I am grateful that this summer I was able to continue learning and building upon that base—from learning about different techniques for mitigating invasive bugs, to learning how to use new farming equipment. That said, perhaps my favorite thing to continue learning (and relearning) is how connected we all are to the land and soil. Indeed, the more I have learned about caring for crops in restorative ways, the more I find myself becoming attuned to the needs of the land, the soil, and my own body. Being on the farm has allowed me to continue learning the things I am most passionate about—all in the midst of an incredibly loving and life-giving community.