This Week at the South Durham Farmers' Market

As is usually done for the Durtham Farmers' Market, these reports for the South Durham Farmers' Market will aso be published in the Durham News Service.

South Durham Farmer's Market

Market Hours/Information
Winter hours:  10AM-1PM (December-March)

Market Swag
The Farmers' Market has T-shirts made by TS Designs in Burlington, NC, and are made of organic cotton grown and sewn in NC. Keep your money in the local economy by buying a market shirt, and show off your favorite farmers' market, wherever you go in the world! All sizes S-XXL are available at market on Saturday for $20! Bumper magnets are also available. Be one of the first two people to find Ben the Market Manager and tell him the last three mayors of Durham. Otherwise, they will be on sale for $3.

Volunteering & Spreading the Word
Farmer Foodshare is rolling! The Durham Crisis Response Center was incredibly thankful for your donations and support, cheers to a great community! We still need volunteers for our FF donation station to be sustainable, as well as general market volunteers! Love food? Love people? Perfect. By being a volunteer, you can get to know our farmers and vendors even better, and get to understand all the goings-on in food and agriculture in the area. We need help with event planning, the donation station, market breakdown, marketing, community engagement, or you could probably even pitch me a great idea for what you could do to help the market and community grow together.  You can email me at: manager@southdurhamfarmersmarket.org

Be sure to check out our seasonal recipe of the week at the bottom of the newsletter, and here on our Pinterest provided by our super, fantastic, equestrian, amazing community member, Rhiannon, as well as one of our new interns, Samantha! We will be adding more photos and seasonal inspiration to our Pinterest.

You are the community, and you know better than anyone else, where to find more people like YOU. Please consider posting this flyer in your work, favorite cafe, gathering space, or wave it in the streets, to spread the word about our market! Click here! (inverted the poster so there is not a ton of black ink)

As a reminder, please bring a reusable bag if you can. Big thank you from vendors and the environment. Thank you for being a part of the market, and for letting us be a part of your community. Remember to spread the word, and tell your friends to buy local.

Keep Durham Beautiful Awards Twelve Community Grants

Residents of Durham value the way this place looks. By a ratio of almost four to one, Durham residents rate appearance and physical upkeep a high community priority. Destinations hoping to attract visitors and newcomers understand that curb appeal is an essential investment that delivers a high rate of return. In the coming months, Durham will see a dozen new volunteer beatification projects accomplished thanks to grants from Keep Durham Beautiful (KDB).

Through its semi-annual community grant program, Keep Durham Beautiful assists those organizations and volunteers that take responsibility for their community environments and agree to engage other volunteers to create more beautiful and vibrant places in Durham.

Keep Durham Beautiful grants are funded entirely through individual and corporate donations and fundraising activities. Donors and volunteers share its vision for a litter-free, healthy community, filled with green and attractive spaces.

”The impact to roadside appearance and public spaces will make our city more welcoming for everyone. It is very gratifying to see so many dedicated volunteers working together to identify needs and complete projects with fantastic results for very little money,” says Tania Dautlick, Director, Keep Durham Beautiful.

Keep Durham Beautiful selected 12 projects from grant applications submitted in the fall of 2012, awarding a total of $5,683:

• Birchwood Heights Homeowners Association: Neighborhood: entrance signs and planting - $450 
• Bountiful Backyards Cherry Grove Park: edible garden, mulch, plants, seeds, soil - $500 
• Briggs Avenue Community Garden: 20 fruit trees for community orchard - $500 
• Build a Better Block with Tootie: planters, benches, trash cans, paint - $500 
• Creekside Elementary PTA: topsoil, sand and plants for school landscaping - $500 
• Durham Community Land Trustees: supplies and landscape materials for 2012 Make a Difference Day - $500 
• Epworth United Methodist Church: curbside landscaping - $250 
• Hope Valley North Neighborhood Association: entrance signs and planting - $400 
• Kestrel Heights School: courtyard beautification - $583 
• Ninth Street Bakery: planters, plants and compost for courtyard - $500 
• Scrap Exchange: soil and plants for landscape of building front - $500 
• Top Teens of America: sign, garden bed, landscaping for historic Pauli Murray House - $500

Each grant recipient completes a post-project report that measures success by detailing the project’s accomplishments, budget, volunteer contributions and time with Keep Durham Beautiful reimbursing grant recipients for expenses after project completion.

More information can be found on Facebook or on Twitter with updates and photos of completed projects.

The next deadline to submit applications for a Keep Durham Beautiful Community Grant is January 31, 2013 which will be preceded by a community information session (TBA) in early January.

To learn how to apply for a grant and other ways to make a positive impact in Durham, visit the KDB website and register to receive their newsletter.

DPAC Celebrates Fourth Birthday

The entertainment industry got a wake up call from Durham, NC with the opening of DPAC - the Durham Performing Arts Center in 2008.  The venue started off with a bang, and it continues to roll forward with the determination of a, well, Bull.

DPAC will celebrate its fourth Birthday this week and continues to set new attendance milestones as one of the top five ranked theaters in America. DPAC opened November 30, 2008 with a sellout concert with Blues legend BB King and has been breaking records ever since. Four years to the date of that first show, this Friday, November 30th, the venue will host Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, DPAC's 223rd sellout since opening. In total, DPAC has hosted 704 performances and welcomed 1.5 million guests over the past four years.

"Before we opened our doors, we knew we wanted to be known for one-of-a-kind live entertainment experiences and to be our guests favorite place for live events. Triangle audiences quickly caught on, that not only did the really big shows play at DPAC, but guests also noticed there was an attention to customer service that was both authentic and extra special." said Bob Klaus, General Manager.

Pollstar, the only trade publication covering the worldwide concert industry with tour schedules and sales results, listed DPAC #4 in the U.S., and #5 internationally in their recent report for "2012 Worldwide Ticket Sales - based on 2012 attendance through September.  DPAC was also recently ranked as the #1 Performing Arts Organization in the region by Triangle Business Journal for the third consecutive year. Other DPAC accolades include:

• Billboard Magazine 2012 ranking - 4th highest grossing venue in the world in the capacity category of 5,000 or fewer seats 
• The Independent Weekly’s “Best of” winner for Best Theater Venue - 4th Consecutive Year
• The Herald Sun’s Reader’s Choice Award for Best Live Entertainment - 4th Consecutive Year 
• Raleigh's Metro Magazine’s Standing Ovation for Best Theater - 3rd Consecutive Year
• Durham Magazine - Best Place for Live Music and Best Place for Live Theater - 2nd Consecutive Year
• TripAdvisor.com Certificate of Excellence 

There are lots of great theaters in Durham, as well as many other exciting things to do.  Learn more about them online.

History Hub Teams With Duke and NCCU for Dec. 6 Pop-Up

Durham is a place rich with history and great stories. Fortunately, it is also a place with a strong sense of preservation and a desire to know and catalog the past as it barrels ahead to an exciting future.  The Museum of Durham History is helping make that desire a reality now.

The Museum of Durham History’s second Pop-Up Museum, scheduled for 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM on Thursday, December 6, will exhibit a dozen local history projects completed by Duke and NCCU students. Located at the Museum’s History Hub at 500 West Main Street, the event is free of charge and open to the public.

Two NCCU graduate students in Dr. Rhonda Jones’ Museum Interpretation class are taking an in-depth, multi-media look at the Piedmont Blues. Duke undergraduates working with Dr. Joshua Clark Davis will display mini-projects ranging from movie-going in Durham and the origins of our Bull City nickname to school desegregation.

This pop-up museum is the second in a series designed to invite the community into the process of creating a history museum in Durham. Currently a work-in-progress, the Museum’s History Hub is slated to open in 2013.

“We’re raising the money needed to design and install some top-flight, engaging exhibits about Durham’s past,” said the Museum’s Executive Director Katie Spencer. “But until we can open our doors, we’re hosting temporary, pop-up museums to bring people into the Hub and start telling some of Durham’s stories. Our first pop-up in September featured ‘Tools of the Trade’ that Durhamites used in their jobs or homes in years past.”

Food trucks will be on site for the Dec. 6 event. See the museum website for more information about this and upcoming events, as well as History Hub plans.

Durham Bulls Athletic Park To Host 2013 ACC Baseball Championship

One of the ways Durham is known is as the City of Champions.  So then it would only seem fitting to be host to the ACC Baseball Championship in 2013 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.


The round-robin, pool-play tournament will showcase the top eight ACC teams and will feature three games on May 22-25 (Wednesday through Saturday). The championship game between the two pool winners will be played on Sunday afternoon.

The ACC Baseball Championship annually features many of the nation's top-ranked teams. The ACC placed seven teams in the 2010 NCAA Tournament field, and a total of 15 ACC teams have reached the College World Series over the past six seasons. The 2012 season marked the ninth straight year that at least six ACC teams had been selected for NCAA postseason play and the 11th consecutive year that at least five conference teams were chosen.

Located in Downtown Durham with a seating capacity of 10,000, the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) serves as home to the Tampa Bay Rays Triple-A affiliate and has been the host venue for the ACC Baseball Championship on five prior occasions (1996, 1998, 1999, 2009 and 2011).

Passes for this tournament are available now online here.  Individual tickets will go on sale at a later date.  To get more information about planning a visit to Durham for this sports spectacle, have a look at Durham online.

Downtown Durham Dec. 5 Annual Meeting to Feature Game Show with Crowd Participation and a Performance

The 2012 Downtown Durham Inc. (DDI) Annual Meeting, presented by American Tobacco, will be held on December 5th, at Bay 7 at the American Tobacco Campus in Downtown Durham.  The program will begin at 11:30am and run until 1:30pm, featuring the usual high-energy entertainment the DDI meeting is known for.

The program will begin with lunch and proceed with a presentation of the Annual Downtown Awards, including awards for Outstanding Downtown Business, Development Project, Renovation Project, Board Member and Downtown Visionary. There will also be a special holiday performance from Downtown Durham resident and Grammy nominee Nnenna Freelon.

The main event will feature a game show titled “The Amazing Downtown Showdown!”  To kick off the show, six tables will be randomly selected and each of these tables will choose a contestant to compete on their behalf. Three contestants will compete in Round 1, and another three in Round 2, with the highest scoring contestant from each round going on to the Final Downtown Showdown.  Highlights of major projects and openings over the past year, as well as a broad overview and future challenges will be interspersed between the questions during the show.

The table that wins the Grand Prize will walk away with a special “Night out in Downtown” package, which includes tickets to the Nutcracker at DPAC, tickets to Nnenna Freelon and John Brown at the Carolina Theatre, and a gift certificate to a Downtown restaurant.  DDI will also provide a giveaway item to all attendees. For more information and for tickets, contact Matthew Coppedge at DDI.

Durham is 299 square miles of great things.  Learn about more of them here.

Sustain-a-Bull Presents Third Annual Holiday Shop Independent Durham Week

Durham loves its hometown and independent businesses, that's for sure.  It's a place where all sorts of people from all walks of life come together to make a diverse community that welcomes everyone.

That same spirit of community and inclusion helped to drive the creation of SustainABull, a consortium of independent businesses.

Through Dec. 2 over 40 local businesses throughout Durham will participate in Sustain-a-Bull, Durham's annual shopping event. The event will feature special discounts and promotions at over 40 locally owned businesses throughout the city of Durham. Participating businesses are offering deals and exclusive offers on everything from restaurants to art galleries, clothing, home and garden supplies, and beyond.

Also new this year, Sustain-a-Bull has partnered with Bull City BUCK$ to create a Shop Independent Durham Week SCANvenger Hunt, creating even more incentives to visit participating locally owned businesses. Customers can download the free Bull City BUCK$ app onto their smart-phones, and scan special QR codes that will be posted in every participating business to earn BUCK$ redeemable for prizes, such as a free cup of coffee from Respite Café or a free concert ticket from Casbah. In addition, all SCANvenger Hunt participants will be entered into daily drawings where they can win gift certificates to Sustain-a-Bull Member Businesses. There will also be a Grand Prize awarded to the SCANvenger Hunt participant that scans the most codes during this event, including a one-night stay at the Morehead Manor Bed & Breakfast and a signed copy of Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen.  Get more information about this event, including a full list of discounts and promotions  online.

Durham Tech To Receive $215,000 Grant

Durham Technical Community College (DTCC) has been selected as one of only four community colleges in the nation to participate in the new Catalyst Fund Program and will receive a $215,000 grant.

The Catalyst Fund grants are administered by Achieving the Dream, Inc. (AtD), a national nonprofit leading the nation’s most comprehensive non-governmental reform network for community college student grants with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AtD will assist the college in the process of scaling effective interventions to reach a significantly large population of students. Durham Tech was chosen because of its known commitment to student-centered, evidence-based reforms and outstanding increases in student outcomes.

"The name of this grant is particularly appropriate, as this initiative is a real catalyst in bringing to scale some of our most promising student success efforts,” says Dr. Bill Ingram, president of Durham Tech. “Students who complete our College Transfer Success course are far more likely to persist from one semester to the next and also perform better academically than those who don’t enroll in or complete the course. We are delighted and honored that Achieving the Dream and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have decided to invest in Durham Tech and in our students."

For 50 years, Durham Technical Community College has provided high-quality, affordable, and convenient technical and career education in Durham; served as the springboard to a bachelor’s degree; enabled tens of thousands of Durham and Research Triangle-area residents to enjoy continuing education offerings; and given many thousands more a second chance at success through adult literacy programs.

Durham's Washington Duke Inn Ranked In South's Top 50 By Conde' Nast Traveler

There is a gentility for which the south is known; fine settings, service, food, and accommodations are all part of the package. In Durham, The Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club doesn't disappoint on any of those accounts.

The readers of top travel magazine, Conde' Nast Traveler, noticed, too.

The magazine recently announced the results of its 25th annual Readers' Choice Awards, ranking the best cities, islands, cruise lines, airlines, hotels, and resorts worldwide. Both the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club in Durham, N.C. made the grade emerging as winners this year.  A record 46,476 readers participated, rating 370 hotels, resorts, and cruise lines worldwide. In total, the readers elected a grand total of 1,306 winners—so many, in fact, that the magazine had to make it easier for readers to locate by separating the United States into regions—the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club was within United States/South which included Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia based on rooms, service, food, location and design.

The Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club is located on the campus of Duke University, only twenty minutes from Raleigh-Durham International Airport and ten minutes from Research Triangle Park, and is the only AAA Four Diamond hotel in Durham, N.C. Nestled on 300 acres filled with tall pines and hardwoods, the Inn is known for its beautiful facility and grounds, 271 elegantly appointed guest rooms and suites, extensive meeting and event facilities, a Four Diamond Award-winning restaurant, a Robert Trent Jones-designed 18-hole championship golf course, and convenience to local points of interest. 

Durham is an easy place to get to by car, plane, and train.  Learn more about ways to enjoy Durham online.

NC Museum of Life and Science Santa Train Tickets On Sale On Nov. 12

Durham is a great place to celebrate the holidays, and the Museum of Life and Science has a special way to set the season's mood.

The Santa Train, as they would have children believe, takes a "festive ride to the North Pole."  The reality is a fun spin through a few acres of woods on the museum property in the cool and crisp evening air.  As the train chugs along, holiday lights twinkle and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer magically flies by. Upon returning to the station, riders enjoy an evening of crafts, complimentary hot chocolate and face painting plus holiday music.

This year is the 35th anniversary of the the Santa Train at the Museum of Life and Science. This holiday tradition is also a fundraising event for the whole family.  Learn more about the train on the museum's website where reservations can be made, and the schedule is posted. Advance registration for the train is required.

Visit Durham online before visiting in person, there are many tools to help with trip planning located  on the official visitors website.