Well, here we are! Week 15 of 15, and somehow we've made it through another Summer CSA season! We've gone from garlic scapes and lettuce to sweet potatoes and winter squash, with a whole lot of peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini in between.
Of course, the end of Summer CSA doesn't mean the end of farming around here. We're still harvesting, washing, packing, and trying to find storage for several months' worth of vegetables. But for many of you, this is where we say goodbye until next spring.
Whether you'll be joining us for Winter CSA, visiting us at farmers markets, or taking a break from seasonal eating until next year, we're grateful you chose to make us your farmers this summer!
CSA Reminders
It's the final week of Summer CSA!
If you have any empty CSA boxes hanging around, please bring them back this week! You can leave your final box at your pickup location or return it to us at a farmers market.
Winter CSA registration is open!
We're offering our usual November–April Winter CSA, plus a new, shorter Holiday Share for November and December. Both have options for one or two pickups per month, so you can choose what works best for your household.
Pickup locations include our farm in Leslie, Meridian Farmers Market (Saturdays only), and Allen Farmers Market (Wednesdays).
Not interested in Winter CSA? No worries! We know winter shares aren't for everyone, and we'd still love to see you at farmers markets!
Meridian Farmers Market:
Saturdays, 8 AM–2 PM through October 31
Saturdays, 10 AM–2 PM November 7, 14, and 21.
We'll move inside Meridian Mall beginning December 5.
Allen Farmers Market: Wednesdays, 3–6:30 PM beginning in November.
Already thinking about next summer?
Registration for our 2027 Summer CSA will open in February! We'll send out more information as we get closer.
Around the Farm
We finally started harvesting sweet potatoes in earnest!
We’ve been eyeing the sweet potatoes for a couple of weeks now, but there's always something else that needed to happen first. We had to finish harvesting the winter squash, then there were potatoes to dig, and somewhere in there we still had to keep up with harvesting everything else for CSA and farmers markets.
The crew spent most of Wednesday, part of Friday, and all day Saturday working on sweet potatoes. The tractor does some of the work, but most of the harvest is still done by hand. Using a large machete, they cut through the vines, then pull up the plastic mulch by hand, and dig around in the dirt to get the sweet potatoes out of the ground. It’s definitely not one of our cleaner or easier harvests!
Fortunately, the sweet potatoes are looking pretty good! Our orange variety is yielding better than normal this year, while the purple and white varieties are coming in a little lighter than we’d hoped. All things considered, though, we’re happy with the harvest, and there should be plenty of sweet potatoes to carry us through the winter. Of course, getting them out of the ground is only part of the project. They still need to be cured, sorted, and tucked away for winter.
Meanwhile, plenty of other crops are still growing out in the fields. We got some of our fall plantings in a little later than intended, so the Brussels sprouts have yet to make an appearance, our storage cabbage is still growing, and the broccoli and cauliflower are running a bit behind schedule. We also have tons and tons of leeks, and if this warm weather keeps up, the kale might just keep producing into December!
And then there’s the list of things we still need to harvest for winter storage: daikon radishes, watermelon radishes, turnips, rutabagas, kohlrabi, and Gilfeather turnips. All of those need to come out of the ground and find a home in storage before winter really settles in. So while Summer CSA might be wrapping up, our harvest season is far from over.
The most beautiful zinnias we've seen all season!
Perhaps the strangest thing of all? Our flowers are still blooming! We wrapped up our flower shares two weeks ago, which is pretty typical for us. Normally, we’d have had a killing frost by now, but here we are, nearly halfway through October, with so many flowers going strong.
Of course, when we’re planning CSA and flower share schedules back in February, we can’t exactly predict what the weather will be doing eight months later. We plan around what usually happens, and sometimes the weather surprises us.
So that’s where we are. Summer CSA is ending, the flowers are still blooming, half the fall crops are still growing, and we’ve got a whole lot of vegetables left to harvest. Apparently, nobody told the farm that the season is supposed to be winding down!
This Week's Harvest
If you do not customize, you will receive the Farmer’s Choice Share this week, which includes theitems marked with asterisks (**).
Standard/Alternating/Monthly Shares: select up to 30 credits
Large Shares: select up to 60 credits
For this week:
Apples, EverCrisp: From C & S Family Farms. A cross between Fuji and Honeycrisp apples, known for their crunch, sweetness, and juiciness.
Carrots**: Without tops. Orange only this week and probably from here on out.
Celeriac: Aka celery root. This lovely root is our replacement for celery as the weather turns. Peel it and eat it.
Daikon Radishes (Korean-Style): A mildly spicy radish that can be 2–6" long and, while traditionally white, also comes in red, purple, and green variations.
Fennel: An anise-flavored vegetable that's great raw or roasted. One large or two smaller bulbs with tops.
Garlic
Hot Peppers: A mixed bag of 10–20 hot peppers from mild to hot. Varieties may include jalapeños, serranos, Golden Dagger, habaneros, cayenne, chilaca/pasilla, and poblanos.
Kale, Green Curly**: You'll find kale gets sweeter as the temperatures cool.
'Kossak' Kohlrabi: Huge! But sweet, tender, and reminiscent of broccoli stems.
Leeks**: Perhaps getting a little smaller, so you may see 2 per share.
Onions:
Red: a sweet and simple onion.
Yellow (storage): a more pungent onion.
Pawpaws:
Our supplier Dick Von Tersch in Williamston is harvesting these beauties.
Eat them when they are soft. Ripen them on the counter.
Potatoes, Farmer's Choice**: Likely redskins from Monroe Family Organics.
Rutabaga: From this year's harvest!
Sweet Peppers: A mix of bell, Carmen, and other sweet peppers. We have plenty of gorgeous peppers to finish out the season!
Sweet Potatoes**: Orange only this week. The harvest is looking great!
Turnips, Hakurei: Our sweet, tender white salad turnips without their tops. A white turnip that tastes better than a radish (at least, we think so)!
Watermelon Radishes**: Beautiful white on the outside and bright pink/red on the inside. Eat raw or cooked, roasted, or in soup. Without tops as well.
Winter Squash:
Butternut**: the classic squash for soup, with a smooth texture and limitless possibilities! Let this ripen a little on your counter if you can.
Honey Bun: a smaller version of the Acorn with fantastic flavor.
Honeynut: the cult classic. It may need some additional curing (let it turn a little browner if you can!).
CSA Store Extras
Fresh Eggs- still limited! Plan to purchase them via Farmigo if you need extra, as they will likely NOT be for sale at our stand.
Homemade Jam
Blueberry
Raspberry
Strawberry
The People Behind Your Produce
Every week, you get to see the vegetables that come out of our fields, but you don't always get to see all the people who make that happen.
Growing vegetables is a team effort, and there's an awful lot of work that happens between planting a seed and putting something in your CSA box. From transplanting and weeding to harvesting, washing, packing, and hauling everything around, we couldn't do what we do without the people who show up and help make it happen.
Cari B. Cari has been working with us for a little over two years now, and she does a little bit of everything! From working in the fields to helping with harvests, flowers, organizing, cleaning, and whatever else needs doing, she's one of those people we can count on to jump in wherever she's needed.
When she's not working at Titus Farms, Cari also runs The Crystal Garden, her own small business creating handcrafted, plant-based skincare and aromatherapy products, including soaps, salves, and lip balms.
Erica B.
Erica was a CSA member for years before joining our crew, and she's now one of the backbones of our CSA packing line and farmers market operations! Although she works with us part-time, she's been part of the Titus Farms crew longer than anyone else and knows our systems inside and out.
When she's not helping out at Titus Farms, Erica is an avid gardener, library fiend, mom of three, and active member of the Okemos community.
Bee Queener
If you've picked up your CSA at the Allen Neighborhood Center, you've probably met Bee!
She runs our Allen Farmers Market stand and helps out on the farm, too. Bee is also a graduate of MSU's Organic Farmer Training Program (OFTP) and runs her own urban farm, Kale Mountain. Outside of Titus Farms, she's a mom and is a wonderful massage therapist at Bee Queener Massage Therapy in Lansing. Apparently, one job just isn't enough!
Sophia T.B.
Sophia first joined us while on break from Oberlin College, then came back to work with us through last winter, spring, and summer. After graduating from Oberlin with a degree in mathematics, she's now off at Cornell University pursuing a graduate degree!
A lover of cats, reading, soccer, and the environment, Sophia is just an all-around great human. We already miss having her around the farm, but we're excited to see where life takes her next and wish her all the best in her future adventures!
Jose
Rodrigo
Alfredo
Our Field Crew: José, Rodrigo, and Alfredo
Much of the work in our fields is made possible by our crew from Mexico, who join us through the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. Between planting, weeding, harvesting, and everything in between, they tackle some of the farm's biggest and most physically demanding jobs.
If you've enjoyed our vegetables this year, there's a very good chance these guys had a hand in growing or harvesting them. From the heat of summer to the dusty sweet potato harvest we've been working on this week, their hard work has been an enormous part of keeping the farm running. We're incredibly grateful for everything they've contributed this season.
Jose is expecting his first child in November, and Rodrigo and Alfredo both have children who cannot wait to see their fathers. They all head back to different parts of Mexico, just in time for Día de los Muertos.
Our Market Crew
We've also had a number of people helping throughout the season at our farmers markets, including Coden, Marin, Kirsten, Jessa, Semma, and Stella. From setting up displays and helping customers to hauling produce, keeping things stocked, and packing everything up again, there's quite a bit more involved in a farmers market than just selling vegetables!
We're grateful to everyone who's stepped in to help us throughout the year.
And Our Family
Of course, Titus Farms is also a family operation. Justin, Rose, and Paul, along with family friends Ned, Pearl, and Renee, all help keep things running, often doing work that customers never see. Whether we're growing vegetables, figuring out logistics, or dealing with whatever unexpected problem the farm has thrown our way this week, having family involved makes an enormous difference.
Thank you for a great season!
And finally, a huge thank you to all of you who supported our farm this season! Whether you've been with us for years or this was your first CSA experience, we appreciate you choosing to eat locally and seasonally with us.
We know many of you won't see us again until next spring, and that's perfectly okay!
We hope you've enjoyed the vegetables, tried a few new things along the way, and maybe discovered a new favorite or two. Most of all, we hope you'll continue to choose us as your farmers for many seasons to come.
