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Meet the Farmers at Duke’s Market

Local farmers sell goat cheese, mushrooms and more at Duke Farmers Market

(From left to right) Ted Domville, Anni Saludo, Deb Stanton and Stephen Gillis.
(From left to right) Ted Domville, Anni Saludo, Deb Stanton and Stephen Gillis.

Toward the end of one Friday at Duke Farmers Market, Beverly Williams stopped by the Elodie Farms stand to pass along a gift of thanks – honey, blackberries and raspberries to the farm owner. 

Nearly every Friday for the last three years, Williams has purchased fennel crackers and a log of garlic and herb or fig and honey goat cheese from Elodie Farms owner Ted Domville.

“Stopping by the market always feels like a treat at the end of the week,” said Williams, a medical laboratory scientist in Duke Flow Cytometry Laboratory. “Ted knows my name and is always very friendly. I wanted to give him something a little in return.” 

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday, about 15 farmers and vendors set up shop on the Duke Medicine Pavilion Greenway, outside of the Trent Semans Center for Health Education. Keeping the atmosphere lively are the vendors selling produce and other goods through Sept. 28. 

“Our vendors form strong bonds with customers,” said Cassandra Callas, health education specialist and market coordinator with LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s employee wellness program. “We want people who adore what they do and love getting to connect with employees, students and patients at Duke.”

Meet some of the farmers at the Duke Farmers Market:

Ted Domville and Sandra Vergara
Elodie Farms
Years at Duke Farmers Market: 2

Ted Domville

Domville and his wife Sandra Vergara, a postdoctoral associate for Duke’s Sherwood Lab, were looking for a reason to get back to Durham when they heard about the opportunity to own Elodie Farms, in Rougemont. 

The two had previously lived in Durham from 2008 to 2012 before moving to Worcester, Mass., so Vergara could work on her postdoc in genetics. Domville, who knew the owner of Elodie Farms from his time working as executive chef at Durham’s Six Plates Wine Bar, thought purchasing the farm was too good of an opportunity to pass up.  

The couple took one trip to visit the goat farm in 2016 before deciding to buy and suddenly became the caretakers of 27 goats. 

“I had some experience working with cheese and my wife had some experience working on a farm,” Domville said. “It just felt like the right decision.”

The couple has upped the number of goats to 78 over the last two years. Domville describes them all as intelligent, personable and unique. 

“They’re happy, healthy goats that live a stress-free life,” he said. “Sometimes we get really bummed out if we’re busy doing other things on the farm and can’t spend much time with the goats.” 

Domville and Vergara currently milk about 14 goats every morning. On Sundays, they pasteurize the milk to begin the cheese making process. Elodie sells goat cheese flavors like fig and honey, sour cherry and garlic herb. 

“The Duke Farmers Market treats us very well,” Domville said. “I love seeing people buy cheese and crackers to share with their coworkers.”

Stephen Gillis
Bump Nose Road Farm
Years at Duke Farmers Market: 1

Stephen Gillis

Stephen Gillis often gets a lot of inquisitive glances because of the three-foot wood logs he has resting on a table at the market. 

Gillis, owner of Bump Nose Road farm in Bahama, is a mushroom farmer. He sells a selection of mushrooms, duck eggs and inoculated logs every week. Log inoculation is when someone drills holes into logs and fills them with mushroom spawn in order for the fungus to grow.  

“I wanted to farm something that would naturally do very well in the North Carolina climate,” he said. “It’s hot and humid in the summer, which makes it perfect for tropical oyster mushrooms.” 

This is Gillis’ first year at Duke Farmers Market. He opened Bump Nose Road Farm on a piece of land owned by his father S. Malcolm Gillis, former dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences at Duke University. 

The farm is a tribute to Gillis’ father, who passed away in 2015. The name comes from a bumpy road in Marianna, Fla, where Malcom grew up. 

Gillis said he typically sells about 15 pounds worth of mushrooms during the weekly market at Duke and fields dozens of questions. He’s learned to litter his booth with books about growing mushrooms to help explain the logs on his table. 

“A lot of people ask me if I’m selling firewood,” Gillis said. “People are definitely interested in the process.” 

Anni Saludo and Deb Stanton
Rockabilly Farm
Years at Duke Farmers Market: 3

Anni Saludo and Deb Stanton

“Oh, trust me.”

Those three little words uttered by Deb Stanton to her wife, Anni Saludo, have come to represent their journey from New York City to Rockabilly Farm.

Tired of the city and wanting a career where the two of them could spend more time together, Saludo and Stanton began looking for farms along the East Coast in 2009. They found land in Hillsborough and named it “Rockabilly Farm.” The name stems from the genre of music that merges rock and roll, represented by Stanton, and rhythm and blues, characterized by Saludo. 

“When we were living in New York City, we began to think life was too short not to be outside full time,” Saludo said. “We felt connected to Durham’s culture and diversity.”

Before moving to Hillsborough, Stanton worked as a restaurant owner and executive chef in New York City and Miami; Saludo worked in food production and marketing. 

They now specialize in growing foods that can’t typically be found on grocery shelves, like lemon cucumbers, lamb brats and salsify, a root vegetable. Saludo said people often approach them at the Rockabilly stand to ask what strange new produce they’re growing.

Duke Farmers Market is the only market Rockabilly attends. The rest of the year they do private chef dinners, catering and produce a variety of seasonal and preserved jarred goods.  

“It’s super exciting to be part of the Duke community,” Saludo said. “We’ve become so close with our customers and the other vendors.” 

Find a list of other farmers and more market information here.

Share your market photos with Working@Duke on social media using #HealthyDuke.