It's hard to believe that it is already the middle of October. I feel like I blinked and the season had slipped by. It feels like only yesterday that we were putting together harvest lists for our first share delivery - remember the strawberries? But here we are, on the final week of the 2017 CSA season. 
We have really enjoyed growing for you this year and we hope you have found pleasure in eating straight from the farm. There were certainly challenges this year, many of which we have shared with you through this newsletter. The weather was certainly more of an obstacle than it has been in previous years. However, with the support for you, our CSA members, we were able to continue to grow and invest in the farm. We feel fortunate to have the support of the community so we can do the work that we feel is so important.
We are hoping you would be willing to participate in our end-of-the-year survey, which can be found here.. The feedback you provide in this survey is very helpful and will help us to continue improving our offerings in the coming year. There will also be a bonus for those of you who complete the survey, so be sure to give us your two cents!
Again, thank you for such a great year. We're going to be continuing to finish this year's storage harvests and then take a breath to enjoy the transition from fall to winter. That is when we get to recharge and think about all the great things that we will be growing in 2018. We hope you can join us for it!

Collin Thompson
​Farm Manager

As we wind down to the end of this year's CSA, I realized something. We went through introductions in the first few newsletters, but I did not provide much of an overview of the farm as a whole. You have met all the farmers involved in the production of your food, but I wanted to take a moment before the end of the program to give you some of the details on why The North Farm is so unique - better late than never!
The North Farm sits on the original site of the UP research station, which is the longest running experiment station in the state of Michigan. It was established in 1899 as a location for researchers and the public to explore agricultural production in northern climates. It has a long, winding history that includes cattle, poultry, vegetables, fruit, and much more. In the more recent past (mid-80s), the research station, now named the UP Research and Extension Center (UPREC), was relocated to a new farm site, about a mile south of the original site. This left the original site vacant, still under university management, but mainly used as pasture and storage.
In 2014, the farm was reopened as The North Farm, an education, research, and production farm focused on small scale, diversified, organic vegetable production. Our main goal is to help beginning and experienced growers build and improve their production systems through relevant research and educational opportunities. The production that we do (of which you are part) is used to support the ongoing programming at the farm, which includes:

• ​The Apprentice Farmer Program
  • The AFP is our on-farm incubator, in which beginning growers build their farm businesses. They are able to access resources from the farm while they fine tune their operations and build capital over a five year periods. Landen and Treasa, the two participants in this year's cohort, have been providing many of the items in your CSA shares.
• Skill Seeker Short Courses
  • These five hour workshops provide the public an opportunity to learn about agricultural skills and concepts through on-farm experience. The topics vary from year to year, but focus on the farm and garden ecosystem and aim to help improve skills and understanding of production systems.
• MSUE Internships
  • Each year, we host a MSU student for a 12-week summer internship in which he or she gains experience working on a vegetable farm and participating in Extension outreach programming. You may remember Morrison from this year, who spent her summer planting, harvesting, and working with Extension staff on programming.
• School Outreach
  • We offer school tours and programming to engage students with food and food production. By using the farm as a living laboratory, we can expose students to agriculture and link it back to the science, math, and social studies classrooms.
• Teacher Training Institutes
  • We are developing teacher training opportunities to equip teachers with the skills and knowledge necessary to build a strong agricultural curriculum for UP schools. With limited access to formal ag programs, UP students haven't had great entry points to the agriculture industry. We are working with teachers to help develop these curricula and create opportunities for students interested in agriculture.
• Ongoing Production Research
  • We work with various organizations to develop on-farm research in organic production systems. We have ongoing research in organic grains, beekeeping, and northern climate berry production. We are also looking at developing studies to focus on tillage practices in northern organic vegetable systems. There are ongoing variety trials at the farm, as well as continual data collection in our season extension systems to better understand the limits and opportunities for UP farmers.

The reason I wanted to share all of this is because the share that you purchased not only goes to support the production of local food, but it also helps us offer other resources to the community and local growers. If you have any questions about the work we do at the farm, please feel free to get in touch. Thank you for continuing to support local UP agriculture!

Collin Thompson
​Farm Manager

Welcome to week 16 of your CSA. It's hard to believe that we have only two more weeks before our program comes to a close. We have really appreciated having you all as part of this year's program. It was a challenging year, primarily due to unpredictable and difficult weather, but the CSA program really helped us through it, both through providing the financial assistance, but also because the excitement and enthusiasm we would hear in response to the weekly boxes was really uplifting. So, thank you for your support!

I keep saying this as part of each newsletter, but we are busy hauling in storage crops. The potatoes are our current focus, as they don't like getting hit by hard frosts. They can take cold temperatures, but the tubers can be damaged by frost if they are too close to the surface. Once those are complete, we will move on to carrots, beets, cabbage, dry beans, and popcorn. It also won't be long until we start planting garlic for next year's harvest. We will be splitting bulbs over the next couple of weeks before planting the cloves towards the end of the month so they can start their long winter hibernation.

We had originally planned to offer a winter CSA this season, providing access to storage crops and greens throughout the winter months, but due to the loss of our winter squash harvest, those plans have been scrapped. However, I did want to offer the opportunity for any of our members to stock up for the winter season with any of our storage crops. Below you will find a list of what we can offer in terms of storage items - just email me your order at thom1264@msu.edu, and we can deliver them along with your weekly box. The final delivery will accompany your last share, which will be on October 17, so be sure to get any orders in before then.

• Potatoes - $15 per 20# box
  • Russets
  • Red/White Flesh
  • Purple/Yellow Flesh
• Onions - $15 per 20# box
  • ​Yellow
  • Sweet
  • Red
  • Blush (what is in your box this week)
• Garlic - $30 per 5# box
• Cabbage - $18 per 20# box
  • Red
  • Green
• Carrots - $18 per 20# box
  • Orange
  • Purple
  • Yellow

If you have any questions about any of these items, please feel free to get in touch. Otherwise, I hope you all have a wonderful week, and as always, thank you for your continued support!

Collin Thompson
Farm Manager

​Even though the equinox may not have felt autumnal this past weekend with our blistering 90 weather here at the North Farm, our hoophouse finally looks like summer has said its goodbyes. With that, we have moved on into our winter and fall hoophouse crops, like we had mentioned in Week 13's newsletter; lots of leafy greens and some roots to get us through the chilly months ahead.
 
Summer fruits like tomatoes and peppers are some of my favorite crops, and seeing them go is always an important closing chapter for the farms' main growing season. And while we have the luxury to purchase tomatoes even in the depths of winter (albeit from somewhere much warmer), they never quite taste the same as our beautiful northern tomatoes do in the height of the season. One of the important experiences of the CSA model is the illustration of crop changes throughout a given growing season, and the immense diversity of crops we can grow this far north. Some crops, like our lettuces, kales, and spinach, seem to withstand a wide range of growing conditions; while things like our cucumbers make their debut only in the warmer months. The seasonal changes allow us to savor each crop as it comes and goes, to look forward to the next season, new crops, and new flavors to mark the passage of time with.
 
As we draw towards the closing of the season, we'll be busier than ever bringing in our storage crops, prepping the farm for winter, and planning for next year. This was certainly a challenging year for myself as a new farmer to the area and to this farm; it has been a great season of learning, experiencing the ups and downs of Mother Nature's unpredictability, and the joys of each new vegetable as I see it grow from sowing to harvest. With each year, we learn more and work hard to bring you all the beautiful CSA boxes you've received, and your support and feedback has been invaluable in allowing us to continue to provide food for the Central UP community. If you have any additional feedback or comments, please click on the link below to let us know!
 
Allison Stawara
Assistant Production Manager 

From The North Farm
​Brussels Sprouts
Cherry Tomatoes
Slicing Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Spinach
Rutabaga
Celery
Cauliflower or Broccoli
Garlic
Apples
Butternut Squash
Sweet Onion

I've told a few people lately that we are entering what I call the Fall Overwhelm. This is probably not correct grammar, but it gets to the point. We are at the point in the season when the big harvests begin/continue - carrots, beets, potatoes, onions - while we still try to find time to sneak in planting some of the fall and winter crops. For example, the other day we began by planting all of next year's strawberries, which was approximately 4,000 plants, then transitioned into harvesting some of the storage onions that we will clean and pack over the winter months. Most of the year, there are long to-do lists at the farm, but it is this time of year when they get extra long, and also consist of all sorts of tasks, including harvesting, planting, field clean up, prepping for winter, etc. It is a lot of fun, but it sure is a lot of work!

It also is one of the most satisfying times of year, too. I know I have mentioned the fact that the big fall harvests are some of my favorite tasks, but it goes a little beyond that. Fall and the coming winter allow us a moment to think back on the season and analyze what went well, what was a challenge, and what we hope to change for the coming season. I know we have mentioned that this year has been particularly challenging for growers in the UP, mainly due to cool temperatures and excessive rain. This serves as a data point in the set that forces us to consider ways of building in resilience for when the next bad year comes. These are sometimes hard lessons to learn, but they will inevitably make us better growers.

So when I take a moment to sit back and think about the season, I can't help but dream of new varieties, more refined schedules, improved systems, and tastier food for next year. Perhaps this is a bit premature, but when it comes to farming, everything is measured on a long-term scale, so next year already feels like it is right around the corner!

However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We hope you enjoy this week's box. It includes some of my absolute favorites, most notably Brussel Sprouts. I prefer them small, as they are at this point in the season, because there is no need to halve them before steaming or roasting. Just toss them in some oil and roast them whole. This will also likely be the last week of tomatoes, though we might try to sneak in some green ones next week. We hoped you liked the varieties we grew this year - please let us know if there were any that stuck out for you!

As always, thanks for your support. We hope you have been enjoying your shares each week, and feel free to use the link at the bottom of the newsletter to give us any feedback.

Collin Thompson
​Farm Manager

While we still have some summer fruits coming in from the field, you've no doubt noticed, along with the color of the trees, some changes to your box. Our cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant have spent a nice summer in our main hoophouse, soaking up the sun and bringing you all of the tasty dishes that highlight these warm months. With fall approaching quickly, and the night temperatures dropping, our plants have begun to slow down their production, and soon it will be a bit too cold, even under the hoophouse, for our Solanaceous and Cucurbit crops to keep going.
 
One of the big advantages of a hoophouse is it's ability to give us crops through all of the months of the year. We've already began the transition from summer to fall and winter within the main house; transplants of chard, peas, parsley, and kale, along with a seeding of cilantro, have begun to fill in the gaps. These crops are much hardier than their summer companions, and are productive even throughout the winter.
 
In addition to those fall staples, we will be trying out some different greens that you may or may not have heard of before. Chicory and endive are two leafy greens that are in the same family as lettuce, and resemble it in shape, but with a more bitter taste. We'll be growing those, along with a cultivated variety of dandelion (slightly different than those you find in your yard). Keep your eyes peeled for these tasty gems later on in the year!
 
Thank you again for another week of support, we hope you enjoy this week's box!
 
Allison 
Assistant Production Manager

It is a fun time to be a farmer.

As fall settles in, we start to think about the big harvests. As you can tell, we have spent a lot of the season harvesting to bring you the items in your box each week, but usually these are relatively small harvests. We will bring in a few hundred pounds of produce each week, with each item representing a percentage of that total. However, there are the few items that we wait for all season and then spend much of the fall harvesting, washing, and packing for the upcoming months.

These are my favorite types of crops. Carrots, cabbages, potatoes, Brussels sprouts - these all will be harvested and packed away in our root cellar so that we can continue to offer products throughout the winter. We will haul in thousands of pounds of these items, which can be tiring, but is also incredibly rewarding. There is not much more satisfying than seeing literal tons of carrots stacked on trailers from a day's harvest.

We are also trying a few new items this year, as well. We planted a few new varieties of popcorn, including one with black kernels. We are not yet certain that they will mature in time, given that we have not gotten much heat this year, which is something corn loves. We also planted several varieties of dry beans. These will be harvested, dried (as needed), threshed to remove the pods and stems, and then cleaned for storage. They are gorgeous, and I am sure they will be delicious, though it is still a little early for them to be eaten.

We hope you are enjoying your fall as much as we are, and as always, thank you for your support!

A quick note - some of you are receiving edamame in this week's share, which is a Japanese soy bean. If you have a soy allergy, this should be avoided - it may be obvious, but we wanted to make sure that was noted, in case there was any question.

Collin Thompson
Farm Manager

From The North Farm
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cherry Tomatoes
Garlic
Slicing Tomatoes
Spring Mix
Sweet Onion
Sweet Pepper

Welcome to week 11 of your CSA. It's been quite a week for a variety of reasons, one of which I am going to share with you, despite it not being the most uplifting of stories.

As you all know, the Upper Peninsula can be a challenging climate. We take pride in our ability to withstand the harsh winters and are not scared by the short seasons or cool summers. However, every once in a while, Mother Nature throws us a challenge that we cannot quite prepare for, leaving us at the mercy of our climate.
Last week, we had the earliest frost we have experienced on the farm. Temperatures dipped down to the mid 30s, which allowed the dew on the surface of our crops' foliage to crystallize into ice. Many of the items in the field were not affected - they can withstand temperatures below freezing without any damage. However, some of the sensitive crops were hit pretty hard, resulting in dead foliage and possible total crop loss.

The most heartbreaking of these losses was the squash and watermelon field. We didn't have the ability to protect our large planting, so when the cool temperatures hit, the tender cucurbits were vulnerable. We saw pretty substantial damage throughout the field which you can see in the picture above. 

So what does this mean? Well, it means that we may not get a crop of watermelons or winter squash. The watermelons were hit harder than the squash, so those seem unlikely to pull through. I am hoping that the squash can grow through the damage and still manage to ripen fruit, but it is hard to say at this point. This is one of the many realities of farming in northern climates - we can't always protect our crops from the weather, and because of this, we may lose them. Please know that we do everything we can to ensure a diverse and delicious box for you each week, but also understand that there are some things out of our control. I hope that boxes later in the fall will still be able to feature some of our favorite winter squashes, but if not, we will continue to pack them with other fresh and delicious items from the farm.

We hope that you are staying warm, even on these cool nights. If you have any thoughts, questions, or feedback, please feel free to get in touch. As always, thanks for your support.


Collin Thompson
Farm Manager

From The North Farm
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Sweet Pepper
Hot Pepper
Onion
Garlic
Cabbage
Spring Mix
Cucumber
Potatoes​

Welcome to week 10 of your CSA. It's starting to feel a little bit like fall on the farm, now that we are planting fall and winter crops, turning fields that used to hold crops, and saying goodbye to our intern, Morrison. There is something sad about the transition to fall, but for the farmer, it is an exciting time of year. We start to haul in the crops that we've been watching grow for the summer months, we fill our coolers and cellar with produce that we will continue to offer throughout the winter months, and we start thinking about next year, trying to remember what we want to do differently and what new things we want to try. It is a time to say good bye, but it also is a time for us to think ahead with excitement.

On that note, we have an exciting announcement pertaining to one of our farmers. Landen Tetil, owner of Bean Pole Farm, and our longest running farm incubator participant, just bought her own farm! She has been with us for three years now, and decided it was time to find property of her own that she can settle down on and continue to build her business. She bought 40 acres about 8 miles from the farm, so we are excited that she will continue to be close while working to realize her dreams on her new property. We are incredibly proud of Landen, and excited to see what Bean Pole Farm becomes! She will likely continue at The North Farm for one more season as she transitions to her new property, so keep an eye out for her products in this year's and next year's CSA boxes from The North Farm.

We hope you enjoy this week's share, and as always, thanks for your support. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please feel free to follow the link at the end of this newsletter. 

Collin Thompson
​Farm Manager