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ORAL HISTORY
Eliza MacLean
Cane Creek Farm is located in the rural community of Snow Camp in Alamance County, North Carolina, some twenty-five miles west of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market. Eliza MacLean manages herds of pasture-raised pigs, cows, and goats, along with flocks of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea hens. A Carrboro Farmers’ Market vendor since 2004, MacLean comes to Market every Wednesday and Saturday with a variety of meats and eggs. She also brings a small selection of fruits and vegetables from her garden, which thrives with the help of plenty of natural fertilizer produced by the Cane Creek menagerie. A single mother of eleven-year-old twins Enid and Quinn, MacLean is a master of multitasking. Between shuttling her children to and from their Quaker school in Durham, she fills restaurant orders, oversees a small team of employees, keeps the animals fed, and makes trips to separate processing facilities for meat and fowl—all while maintaining a sense of humor and a love for her work.