 What's in the Box?
Notes From the Field  Welcome to Week 8 of your CSA! You can feel a bit of a transition taking place on the farm as fall grows ever closer. For me, one of the things that symbolizes the coming of the next season is when the garlic comes out of the ground. Last week, we pulled the rest of this year's garlic harvest and it is looking quite nice. Garlic is one of the few crops that we plant in the fall, harvesting the following season. Last October, the cloves were split and planted into the cool soil. The cloves will start to awaken in the late season, then hibernate under the snow until spring. Once the temperatures start to rise, the garlic receives the wake up call and it is one of the first things to emerge. This time of year, we harvest and hang the fully formed bulbs to dry, or cure, for about three weeks. This is what allows the garlic to be stored, and transforms it from the fresh garlic you have received in your shares, to the cured garlic you have probably seen in the store. Garlic is the first crop I ever worked with as a farmer, and perhaps because of that, it is one of my favorite. Keep an eye out for upcoming shares that include this kitchen staple, but for now, it'll be hanging in the barn, drying down and warding off vampires. Collin Thompson Farm Manager Recipes and Resources
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 What's in the Box?
Notes From the Field Welcome to week 7 of your CSA; we hope you enjoy your selection of veggies this week as we continue on through our summer bounty! This week is our first cabbage harvest, and soon we'll be including some other delicious brassica crops. Along with our plethora of tasty vegetables, these warm summer days bring out many insects and other critters on the farm, some friendly, and some not so much. One of the most important aspects of farming within a regenerative and sustainable framework is the monitoring and control of insects that will damage our crops, and managing them in an ecologically responsible way. While each season varies in terms of pest pressure, we try our best to stay ahead of the curve and take preventative measures to deter and keep out the critters that find our crops as tasty as we do! If you've been out to the farm before, you may have seen long white pieces of fabric laying on top of some of the beds; while theses “frost fabrics” serve several purposes, one of them is to exclude certain insects from eating our leafy brassica crops, which include the braising mix, baby arugula, and baby kale. Our newest addition to our management strategy is beneficial insects! Last week, we released hundreds of lady bugs into our large greenhouse—where all of your summer fruits are being grown—in order to eat the aphids (small green insects that damage the leaf and stem tissues of the plants) that inevitably show up every year. In addition, we released lacewing eggs, which will eventually hatch and also act as predatory that will eat the pest insects, without damaging our crops. While beneficial insects may never eat every single aphid, they reduce the pest pressure and may help our other management strategies become more effective. As the season goes by, we will face other pest challenges, and will continue to keep you updated on our progress! If you have any other questions about pest management at the North Farm, or other topics you're curious about, feel free to drop us a line in the survey at the bottom of the page. Enjoy this week's share, and we'll have plenty of more delicious produce for you next week! Allison Stawara The North Farm Assistant Production Manager Recipes and Resources
Featured Item Tomatoes Tomatoes are perhaps one of the most coveted summer crops, and there are almost too many varieties to count! This summer, we have a few larger slicing tomatoes that you'll come across in your CSA box, but where we really shine is with our cherries and grapes With 12 different varieties, we've got a little of every color and flavor. Some of them you may be familiar with, like the super sweet Sun Gold (the orange-yellow cherry), while others may be entirely new, like the Indigo Kumquat (the ovular purple and orange grape). One of my new favorites for the 2017 growing season is the Sungreen Garden, the perhaps misplaced-looking green cherry tomato in your pint. While most tomatoes turn from green to red, yellow, or purple, this cherry turns ripe with only a slight yellowish blush forming on the bottom of the fruit. Bite into one of these, and I hope their sweet flavor puts them at the top of your list as well! Enjoy these summer beauties in a salad, with your favorite dip, or in your palm! . Try them out and see if you have any favorites. If you think there are some great (or not so great) ones, feel free to let us know - there is the button at the bottom of this post where you can provide feedback. Storage Recommendations
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Notes From the Field Welcome to week 6 of your CSA! We are happy to be offering up our first delivery of tomatoes and hot peppers this week. Maybe not quite enough to make salsa, but it won't be long and we will be swimming in them. Be sure to check out the information below about the different types of peppers we included in the distribution - you'll want to make sure you know what you have before taking a bite out of them! I wanted to make sure we introduced our second farmer - Treasa Sowa. Treasa owns and operates Treasa's Treasures, both at her home in Au Train, as well as on our land as part of our farm incubator program. She is one of the most hard working people I know, and her produce shows it. You will be able to find Treasa's produce in your shares this year, as well as at the Marquette and Munising Farmers Markets. Treasa has always been attracted to gardens and farming since she was very young. Her Grandma Daisy would haul her in a wheelbarrow to her garden as a toddler. Treasa grew up on a farm south of Chatham. She started working in the dairy barn at the MSU Experiment Station in 1973. Later, she married a farmer from Trenary, who was formerly employed there. They dairy farmed, ran an 85-cow beef herd, 350 ewe sheep flock, and 2000 tap maple syrup operation over the years. Farm tours and field days were held. Lamb market prices were terribly poor, so in 1996, Treasa wanted to go back to dairy farming, so they gradually developed a 60-cow herd of Registered Jerseys. Her beloved Jerseys were rotationally grazed on pasture six months of the year and bred to all freshen in a two-month calving window. All cows and calves had a name. In 2002, juustoa was being made in a licensed, small cheese plant attached to the milk house. Moving on, Treasa worked for six years in housekeeping and the kitchen at a local hospital, while struggling to build a farm out of nothing. She has been a vendor at two farmer's markets since 2010, and also sells a small quantity to the Marquette Food Co-op. Treasa has been in the Michigan Farmers Market Association's Certificate Program, and is the Market Manager for the Munising Farmers' and Artisans' Market. She has served two years on the MIFMA Board of Directors. She was introduced to seed saving as a child from her grandma, and still has a few family heirlooms. Last year, Treasa became an MSU Master Gardener Volunteer Program Trainee. She will be seeking projects in which to use the required 40 hours of community education volunteer work this year. Her small farm near Au Train is Certified Naturally Grown and MAEAP Certified. She has participated in the USDA GAP Program. She has two 30' by 72' hoophouses, one from the MIFMA Hoophouses for Health Program. Transplants are grown in a 17' by 24' heated greenhouse. Treasa keeps honeybees and a few chickens. She practices biodynamics, companion planting, planting for beneficials and permaculture. She is grateful for the opportunity to gain additional production space, and to learn new ideas to incorporate on her present small farm. Treasa has two children and two grandchildren. She is married to John Sowa. Recipes and Resources
Featured Item Peppers You got a couple of peppers in your box this week - one sweet and one hot. The picture above shows the different types we included, as well as their rating on the Scoville scale, which represents how hot they are. The higher the number, the hotter the pepper. We haven't grown a lot of hot peppers in the past, but we are sampling several varieties this year to see what people like. There are more options that will likely be included in your upcoming shares, but if you have any thoughts on the peppers you received, feel free to take a minute to give us feedback by using the button at the bottom of this newsletter. We'd love to hear what you have to say! Storage Recommendations
 What's in the Box?
Notes From the Field Welcome to week 5 - it's hard to believe we are already on the downhill slide into August, but we can tell as we look around the farm and start too see the colors of vegetables changing, fruits fattening, and leaves swelling. It is a nice time to be on the farm! We wanted to introduce to you the other two farms that are providing produce for your weekly shares. These two farms are participating in what we call the Apprentice Farmer Program, which is a business incubator hosted at The North Farm. Through this incubator, we welcome growers who are looking for access to land and resources to start or expand their farm business. They settle on The North Farm for up to five years, using this time to establish their business, create a marketing plan, fine tune their growing skills, and build revenue. They are their own, independent businesses, using the resources at The North Farm to get a solid footing. This week we would like to introduce Landen Tetil, of Bean Pole Farm: Landen, owner of Bean Pole Farm, chose her path based on the desire to fully immerse herself in a sustainable agriculture career. Landen originates from a rural area of lower Michigan, and has been surrounded by agriculture her whole life. Growing up, she spent countless summer days on her grandparent’s farm; as a teenager, she worked on a hybrid corn and soybean farm, and spent her college summers on an organic vegetable farm. These experiences, along with a never-ending thirst for dirt under her fingernails, all contributed to the advent of Bean Pole Farm. Landen is a 2013 Northern Michigan University graduate, earning her B.S. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability. After graduation, she moved to northcentral Wisconsin, where she studied the art of permaculture and received her Permaculture Design Certificate. These teachings of sustainable life systems and closed-loop functions spurred a shift in her, and a determined search to begin a career in sustainable agriculture commenced. When word got out of a new farm incubator opening in the Upper Peninsula, she knew it was time to bid Wisconsin farewell and begin her journey as a small-scale organic vegetable farmer. Now, she grows vegetables, flowers, and herbs through a lease from the MSU North Farm incubator program in Chatham, Michigan. To learn more about the incubator program, visit the webpage: www.msunorthfarm.org/apprentice-farmer-program.html Bean Pole Farm, now in year 3 of production, has big plans for its future. The farm’s main goals include becoming a fully self-sustaining closed-loop system, thriving off the natural inputs a working farm provides, while absorbing the outputs in a cyclic pattern. Beyond that, Landen is working toward the dream to provide a whole-diet food share, based on a CSA model including every part of the human diet. Components will include grains, protein, vegetables, fruit, nuts, herbs and a form of sweetness. Landen hopes that one day Bean Pole Farm will be an educational farm, where the community can gather and learn about food, sustainable life systems and farming. Recipes and Resources
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Notes From the Field Welcome to week 4 of your CSA from The North Farm. We hope you have enjoyed the fruits of our labor so far, and we are excited to bring to you some of the actual fruits this week, including cucumbers and peppers. These, along with the first turning tomatoes and eggplants mean summer fruit season is nearly upon us. For now, enjoy the first of this year's broccoli, and old favorites like garlic scapes and some wonderful radishes from Bean Pole Farm. I figured I had better take a moment to introduce myself - my name is Collin Thompson and I am the farm manager at The North Farm. I've been running the farm since it's inception in 2014, and have felt fortunate to have the opportunity to design and build this farm into what it is today. I am originally from northeast Iowa and have a background in four season, organic vegetable production, as well as in season extension (think hoophouses and greenhouses). I hold a Bachelors degree in biology and a Masters in sustainable food systems. While farming is one of my greatest passions (meaning I spend the majority of my time in the fields), I try to get off the farm to enjoy all the UP has to offer. I hit the trails as often as I can, mountain biking with my dog, Finn. I am an avid skier and snowboarder in the winter months, and also enjoy getting out and paddling the rivers and lakes in the area. Now that you have met the whole crew through these first few newsletters, we encourage you to introduce yourselves to us! We have a Facebook group that I would like to invite you all to join. There you can share recipes, tips, or thoughts on the week's shares, the farm, or on food in general. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing the two resident farmers as part of our Apprentice Farmer Program so we can round out the image of who is producing your food. As always, thanks for your support, and if you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns, please feel free to be in touch! Collin Thompson Farm Manager Recipes and Resources
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Notes From the Field Welcome to week 3 of the North Farm CSA! My name is Morrison and I'm the summer intern here at the North Farm. I arrived mid May and I’ll be working through August. In the fall, I’ll be heading back down to Michigan State University for my final year of school in Sustainable and Organic Horticulture. I hope to open my own little organic farm someday, so I'm happy as a clam to be involved with the many exciting things happening at The North Farm. Time has been flying by as I learn to drive tractors, prune tomatoes, and move hoop houses. When I'm not working I like to hike, rollerblade, swim, sleep, visit local farmers markets, read, and do yoga. Taking in the beauty of the Upper Peninsula could be a full time job in itself, so I try to get out and experience as much as I can when I have free time! With June coming to a close, our warm season crops are really taking off, and I look forward to harvesting and packing your beautiful and diverse shares in the weeks ahead. This week, your share consists of some of the great transition crops as we move from spring to summer. Garlic scapes are included, which are a sign that the year’s garlic harvest is not too far off! We also are coming close to the tail end of the strawberry season, which breaks my heart. But we have plenty more great food coming your way! Recipe ideas can be found below, along with an anonymous survey so that you can tell us your thoughts about the shares thus far - we love getting your feedback. I'm glad that you have signed up for a share. In doing so you have done a service to the earth, your local farmers, and yourself. Congrats! I hope to meet you all as the season goes on. I hope you had a happy 4th of July and enjoy the veggies! Morrison MSU Extension Intern Recipes and Resources
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 Please Note: Due to the Fourth of July, next week's shares will be delivered on Wednesday, July 5th.What's in the Box?
Notes From the Field Welcome to week two of the 2017 North Farm CSA! My name is Allison Stawara, and I'm the Assistant Production Manager here at The North Farm. I joined the team in February of this year, and I'm looking forward to meeting all of you, as well as sharing our wonderful veggies with you this season! While my educational background is in vegetable production, I did not grow up on a family farm, but rather in Northern Oakland county, north of Detroit by about 45 minutes. Although my family only had a small garden and a moderate backyard, I spent many of my “growing-up” years playing outside, as well as cooking nightly meals with my parents and siblings. Food has always been a large part of my life, and when I went on to attend Michigan State University, I decided that food would continue to play an important role in my professional career. While I was at MSU, I worked both on the university's student vegetable farm, as well as a small passive solar hoophouse (like the hoophouses here at The North Farm) on campus next to the dormitory I lived in. Both of these experiences continued to fuel my love of local and responsibly grown produce, and after graduating in May 2016, I continued to pursue that role as a farmer in the Petoskey/Boyne City area at Spirit of Walloon Market Garden. After two seasons of working at Spirit of Walloon, I decided that Petoskey wasn't far enough north, and came on to join the team at The North Farm! Since moving to Chatham, I've had the opportunity to enjoy cross country skiing, rock climbing, and plenty of hiking. When I'm not at work pulling turnips or peppers out of the ground, you may see me swatting mosquitoes along the North Country Trail, reading a new book out on my front lawn, biking along our lovely country roads, or in Marquette at a local concert. Some of the crops you may see in your CSA box this year that I'm particularly excited about include hot peppers, hakurei turnips, ginger root, garlic, scallions, and carrots! We will have some unique and exciting recipes to accompany these awesome crops! This week's CSA share brings you some classic spring crops, like strawberries, scallions, and head lettuce. Included are a few fresh and delicious recipes to bring some new ideas to the table (in case you didn't finish eating those strawberries before you got out of your car!). Let us know what you thought of the produce and the recipes with a quick, anonymous survey we have included in the newsletter at the bottom of the page. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you and hearing about all the great ways you've used your North Farm produce! Enjoy this week's bounty, we are so grateful to be able to share it with you. Allison Stawara Assistant Production Manager Recipes and Resources Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
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 What's in the Box?
Notes From the Field Welcome to the 2017 North Farm CSA! We are thrilled to have you as part of the farm community this year and hope you enjoy connecting with your food on a whole new level. These newsletters will contain a lot of valuable information as the season goes on, so please be sure to read through them each week to learn about what's happening at the farm, as well as how to make the most of your produce. This spring has been a wet one - we've received about double the average amount of rain between April and June, which has made some things difficult, while helped other things along. Regardless, we are starting to see a lot of quick growth, now that the days are longer and the temperatures are climbing. A couple of housekeeping notes - Each drop site will have a list of participants, so please check your name off when you grab your box so we can make sure everyone gets their delivery. Most weeks you will receive your share in a waxed box - we would like to reuse those, so please be sure to bring them back the following week. This week, your share will come in a tote bag that is our gift to you. Finally, each newsletter will have a link to an anonymous survey that you can fill out with your feedback - this helps us improve the offerings and make sure you are getting the most out of your share. A button can be found at the end of each newsletter to take you to the survey. Thanks again for supporting the farm this year. We will introduce the members of our crew and the participating farms in the coming newsletters, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. Until then, please get in touch with any questions or comments - we always love hearing from you! Collin Thompson Farm Manager
Featured Item Strawberries The strawberries you are receiving are some of the first available from the farm. It is possible that the crew has sampled a few, but we assure you that is just for quality control! The variety is called Chandler and was developed for growers in Southern California, but fell out of favor as growers turned to less-flavorful, firmer berries to ensure they traveled well when shipped cross-country. We prefer our berries to taste exceptional, even if it means they are slightly softer and don't ship as well. That is one of the benefits of sourcing straight from the farm - you get the freshest and most flavorful produce available! Enjoy these berries while they last - they have a relatively short season, but we will be sure to pack your boxes with them as long as they are producing. Storage Recommendations
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AuthorThe North Farm is a research, education, and production farm located in the central Upper Peninsula. Archives
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