Duke Farmers Market Season Opens April 25

Fresh produce and more will be available at the Duke Medicine Pavilion Greenway every Thursday through October

An array of fresh produce available at the Duke Farmers Market
Fresh produce will be available at the Duke Farmers Market when it begins for the season April 25.

Over the years, whenever Nakisha Harris has gone to the Duke Farmers Market on her lunch break, she’ll come back to the Kidney/Pancreas Transplant Clinic at Duke Hospital South and hear her co-workers gush over all the fresh fruits and vegetables she’s gathered.

Harris loads up on the fresh cucumbers and cherries when she can find them, but she’ll snag anything else that looks tasty and in season, too. And her weekly habit has become contagious.

“My co-workers started going, the nurses down the hall – everybody,” Harris said. “I just started coming in with my bag and showing everybody what I got, and they just started going, too.”

Harris says she’ll be at the Duke Farmers Market on April 25, when the 22nd season opens. The market runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday until Oct. 10 on the Duke Medicine Pavilion Greenway, with a bonus fall “Hol’AHH’day” market on Oct. 31.

Nakisha Harris
Nakisha Harris enjoys going to the Duke Farmers Market every week. Photo courtesy of Nakisha Harris

As in years past, about 12 to 14 vendors are expected to host stalls each week, some selling fresh fruits and vegetables and prepared foods. Some of the confirmed vendors this year include Gabor Farms, Lyon Farms, Dojo Fresh and Ouda’s Food, while food trucks will include Bulkogi, Poblanos Tacos and Fiori Trattoria, among others.

“Our main goal is really to bring farm-fresh whole foods, produce and local goods and have it convenient for employees to be there,” said Brian Zelanko, Health Promotion Manager at LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s employee wellness program.

The weekly gathering also will feature live music, games and giveaways to enter at the LIVE FOR LIFE table. And for the first time, some vendors will accept credit and debit cards; previously, the Farmers Market had been cash only.

Harris likes that the Farmers Market is convenient to where she works as a phlebotomist for the kidney transplant unit, and that she can spend 20 to 30 minutes during her lunch break gathering what she needs to cook healthy meals each week.

“You know it’s fresh, it’s healthy. You know it’s always grown in a field nearby,” Harris said. “Everything always looks so good, and everything tastes so good.”

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