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