The Farm
At Burkett Farm we rely solely on sustainable/organic methods, including cover cropping, crop rotation, and providing food and habitat for beneficial insects. We focus on enriching our soil and managing pests and disease while being good stewards of the land.
WHAT WE GROW
Every season we grow a diverse variety of vegetables, flowers, and perennials. In choosing which crops we grow, we focus on maximizing yield (with first priority given to nutrient-dense food); maximizing seasonal biodiversity; balancing soil health through crop rotation, cover cropping, and resting the soil; and providing educational opportunities and experimental undertakings.
FOOD & FLOWER DONATIONS
Our project was founded with the core belief that everyone should have access to fresh, healthy food. So we donate the majority of the produce grown at Burkett Farm to local food pantries and non-profit groups that work with food-insecure communities. We have donated more than 78,000 pounds of fresh food since we started farming.
We also donate the majority of the flowers we grow to organizations such as the Flower Shuttle, a local non-profit organization that provides flowers to people living with sickness, terminal illness, poverty and disability who don't normally get flowers.
FOOD & FLOWER SALES
We work with a small network of local restaurants and florists to supply food and flowers for their businesses. We divert 100 percent of the revenue from these sales to a partner non-profit organization. This fundraising model helps support the anti-poverty work of experienced community partners, while strengthening the local food system.
EXPERIMENTS & COLLABORATIONS
We believe that experimentation leads to innovation. We reserve a small section of our garden to trial new-to-us crops, and in some cases we partner with local chefs to tell these stories, from seed to table.
This partnership with culinary experts in our community uses a narrow lens to tell a larger story about seeds and farming, culture and cooking, craft and community.
Our hope is that these crop vignettes provide inspiration and serve as a catalyst to engage with locally grown food.
Recent Crop Collaborations
LIME BASIL
Lime basil, a specific and less common varietal of the common herb, has small leaves, grows slowly, and has a distinctly citrusy scent, like the aroma emitted when zesting a lime, combined with notes of camphor, clove, and mint.
Grown in collaboration with Lon Bounsanga of SAAP in Cary.
ULTRACROSS OKRA
This cultivar, from the Utopian Seed Project, is the result of seed from plants that had been cross-pollinated from more than 80 different types of okra, and then selected for specific traits related to climate resiliency in the Southeast, North Carolina specifically.
Grown in collaboration with Adé Carrena of Dounou Cuisine in Raleigh.
AGRETTI
Agretti is an annual shrub that is most popularly known, foraged, and cultivated in Italy (specifically central Italy). It features needle-like leaves (almost like rosemary, but longer) that have a crunchy, vegetal, and slightly briny flavor. Part of the amaranth family, it’s loosely related to spinach and beets, but more closely associated with sea beans in flavor.
Grown in collaboration with Matt Kelly of Nanas Restaurant in Durham.