fae folk and gardening in the Midwest...

A Sprite might. (ha-a rhyme! ) Or a Pixie. Their usually your average Tinker Bell size, shape, and build, with a few abstract color variations. They are the most troublesome, mischievous ones. If you're going for a nice faerie, you might want to try a traditional fairy or a garden nymph/gnome. At first I thought brownies, but they wouldn't help; all they do is clean things. If you want to move a faerie inside, a boggart would be just the thing. They're invisible, but they can change their shape. They like to play tricks on people—exasperating tricks, humiliating tricks, hilarious tricks. But they want to be recognized, laughed at, appreciated for their tricks, because it's a rare thing to make such friends with a boggart. It's a two-way relationship. And they like food.

Does that help? There's probably tons more I can't remember, but they seem to be your best bet.

The upper midwest at least does not have much tradition of faeries - ghosts yes - but pixies leprechauns elfs - those are all pretty much viewed as old world in my experience

I like the tree spirit in the orchard though.

That's true, too. But not all fae are related to one specific region. Lots of times they move with the people. They could be anywhere...depending on where anywhere was. Old world is still in.

That does help, actually. It's given me some choices to consider. I especially like the gnome idea. I might do gnomes in the vegetable garden or a dryad in an orchard. I've got some books on faeries. I'm going to look through them and see if I can find anything else. Thanks for the information, guys!

According to The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures by John & Caitlin Matthews, gnomes are fairy folk that protect the natural world in all its forms. They are elemental spirits of the earth. British gnomes have been known to swipe things from gardens.

Good luck!

That puts me in mind of the 14th century tale of Sir Orfeo. His lady slept under an "ympe" tree--meaning a grafted tree, the standard form of propagating fruit trees nowadays, actually, but there's also the pun on "imp of Satan"--at noon on May Day when she was stolen away by the fairies. The rest of the story is how he wins her back. The fae folk in this story are neither cute nor harmless, though they seem rather fond of music.
(Not sure how this tale links in with produce going missing, unless your characters could bribe the fae folk to return a stolen person by means of some really choice fruit out of season.)
Anyway, the story of Sir Orfeo can be found in a translation by Tolkien, usually packages with Gawain and the Green Knight, and also as Child Ballad 19, in much abbreviated form.

(And Sir Orfeo is simply a corrupted retelling of Orpheus bringing his beloved back from beyond with his music)

Perhaps you can use some other retelling of a myth of life/death , the cycles of the seasons.

Try this web page http://www.fairywoodland.com/

It's one of my favorite sites. John makes wonderful fairy houses and often has stories to go along with them.
I asked permission to use a couple of his designs to make wall hangings for children at Give Kids the World, the Florida location where groups like Make a Wish Foundation send critically ill children for fantasy vacations. He not only granted me permission but sent me some of his detailed line drawings to use for the patterns. A great guy and a friend to the fairies of the world.