Wednesday, December 12, 2012 
LaCrosse, Wisconsin

Event Link: 2012 Midwest Value Added Agriculture Conference

Organized By: Midwest Value Added Agriculture Conference

Chris' Presentations:

Scaling Up to Meet the Demand for Local, Organic Broccoli - Chris Blanchard shares his experience and that of other growers an NCR-SARE-sponsored project to scale up the production of local, organic broccoli for the Twin Cities marketplace.

Scaling Up to Fill the Plate - With pressure from every direction to scale up market farming operations to meet the growing demand for local food, growers need to consider their goals, roles, capacity, and skills. Join Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard for an exploration of the challenges and opportunities in expanding your market farm.

Practical GAPs Compliance - From restaurants to college dining halls, wholesale buyers have begun demanding food safety assurances, and now the Food Safety Modernization Act has opened the door for FDA regulation of the production and handling of fresh vegetables and produce. Join Rock Spring Farm's Chris Blanchard for a review of post-harvest handling practices, and the methods developed at Rock Spring Farm for meeting the documentation and record-keeping requirements of the GAPs audit process in a way that flows with the work on the farm, rather than existing as a separate set of tasks and requirements.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Event Link: 2012 Great Lakes Vegetable Growers Expo

Organized By: Great Lakes Vegetable Growers 

Chris' Presentations:

Growing and Adapting to a Changing Market: Reflections from Fifteen Years of Organic Vegetable Farming - Chris Blanchard shares the experience of Rock Spring Farm from inception to maturity during a period of great change in the organic and local markets.

Organic Under Glass - Hoop houses can provide a competitive advantage, a more-certain crop, and a way to spread income and work over a longer growing season. Join longtime high tunnel producer Chris Blanchard for a look at construction options, cropping techniques, and how to extend the growing season for warm-season crops as well as produce greens through the winter. 

Thursday, October 18, 2012 
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Event Link: 2012 Sharing Spaces Kitchen Entrepreneur Workshops

Organized By: Linden Hills Co-op

Chris' Presentations:

Values and Scale in the Local Foods Marketplace - Balancing the reasons we choose to farm with the economic realities of the modern food system can challenge even the most-experienced grower, and while beginning growers wash up on the rocks of scaling-up, questions about size and values creates conflict within the local foods movement. Join farmer, activist, and poet Chris Blanchard for a look at how we can root our growth in good business while not losing sight of the fertile values in which that growth occurs.

Sunday, July 15, 2012 
Decorah, Iowa 

Event Link: 2012 Rock Spring Farm Field Day

Organized By: Practical Farmers of Iowa

Chris' Presentations:

Saving Labor on the Market Farm - Market farming is all about moving stuff around, whether you're moving vegetables from the soil to the packing house, water from the well to your transplants, or seeds from their packet to the soil. Join Rock Spring Farm for a tour of the systems they use to make moving stuff easy.

We'll explore Rock Spring Farm's systems for seeding crops in the field and greenhouses, transplanting sets, pruning and greenhouse crop maintenance, weeding tools, harvesters, post harvest handling, materials handling, and record keeping.

Organized by Practical Farmers of Iowa, and sponsored by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service.

1:00pm - 5:00pm at Rock Spring Farm - directions available here: http://rsfarm.com/map/

From the evaluations: "This was hugely useful in small, practical, tangible, and affordable purchases and home DIY projects mixed with larger systematic suggestions. Fabulous!"

Thursday, April 19, 2012 
Prairie Du Chein, Wisconsin

Event Link: 2012 Sharing Spaces Kitchen Entrepreneur Workshops

Organized By: Sharing Spaces Kitchen

Chris' Presentations:

Ten Simple Steps to Food Safety - As the demand for local and organic food has exploded in the last five years, so has the expectation on the part of consumers and institutional buyers for production and handling systems designed to minimize microbial contamination. Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard guides you through ten simple steps you can take to put you and your farm on the way to safe food production.


Practical GAPs Implementation for Organic Farmers - From restaurants to college dining halls, wholesale buyers have begun demanding food safety assurances, and now the Food Safety Modernization Act has opened the door for FDA regulation of the production and handling of fresh vegetables and produce. Join Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard for a review of post-harvest handling practices, and the methods developed at Rock Spring Farm for meeting the documentation and record-keeping requirements of the GAPs audit process in a way that flows with the work on the farm, rather than existing as a separate set of tasks and requirements.

Saturday, March 10, 2012 
Chicago, Illinois

Event Link: 2012 Green City Market Farmer Forum
Organized By: Green City Market 

Chris' Presentations:

Scaling Up to Fill the Plate: Sizing Your Vegetable Operation - With pressure from every direction to scale up market farming operations to meet the growing demand for local food, growers need to consider their goals, roles, capacity, and skills. Join Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard for an exploration of the challenges and opportunities in expanding your market farm.

Capturing and Organizing Data for Organic Certification, GAPs Compliance, and Other Endeavors - Paperwork can be the bane of the certified-organic, GAPs-audited, and financially-aware farmer. Learn how to capture information, get on top of your paperwork, and wow your inspector, auditor, and banker. Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard will provide an overview of the basic techniques he and his crew use to gather information and keep it organized for easy access with a minimum of effort

Thursday, January 12, 2012 
St. Cloud, Minnesota

Event Link: 2012 Minnesota Organic Conference
Organized By: Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Chris' Presentations:

Full-Day Training: Practical GAPs Implementation on Your Diversified Vegetable Farm - As the demand for local and organic food has exploded in the last five years, so has the expectation on the part of consumers and institutional buyers for clean produce that lasts on the shelf and in the refrigerator. At the same time, institutions have begun demanding food safety assurances, and now the Food Safety Modernization Act has opened the door for FDA regulation of the production and handling of fresh vegetables and produce. Join Rock Spring Farm's Chris Blanchard for a review of post-harvest handling practices, and the methods developed at Rock Spring Farm for meeting the documentation and record-keeping requirements of the GAPs audit process in a way that flows with the work on the farm, rather than existing as a separate set of tasks and requirements.

Organic Under Glass and Plastic - Hoophouses can provide a competitive advantage, a more-certain crop, and a way to spread income and work over a longer growing season. Join longtime high tunnel producer Chris Blanchard for a look at construction options, cropping techniques, and how to extend the growing season for warm-season crops as well as produce greens through the winter. 

Thursday, January 5, 2012 

St. Joseph, Missouri 

Event Link: 2012 Great Plains Growers Conference
Organized By: Great Plains Growers

Chris' Presentations:


Thursday full-day seminar: 


Post-Harvest Handling, Food Safety, and GAPs: Making It Work on a Real Farm - As the demand for local and organic food has exploded in the last five years, so has the expectation on the part of consumers and institutional buyers for clean produce that lasts on the shelf and in the refrigerator. At the same time, institutions have begun demanding food safety assurances, and now the Food Safety Modernization Act has opened the door for FDA regulation of the production and handling of fresh vegetables and produce. Join Rock Spring Farm's Chris Blanchard for a review of post-harvest handling practices, and the methods developed at Rock Spring Farm for meeting the documentation and record-keeping requirements of the GAPs audit process in a way that flows with the work on the farm, rather than existing as a separate set of tasks and requirements

Buy My Rutabagas: Marketing Horticultural Crops for Retail Sales - To market your produce to food stores, you need to understand the world of retail produce. Chris Blanchard will share Rock Spring Farm’s approach to marketing to produce buyers, including communication, branding, how to determine your price, and how stores determine their prices.

Ten Things to Think about about Getting Started in Market Farming - Getting started in market farming means more than just growing vegetables. It means taking on the responsibilities of owning a business, managing markets, grappling with philosophies, and managing a labor force. Join Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard for a look at ten things to think about as you prepare the ground for starting your market farm, or as you seek to expand your market farm into a significant income-generator for yourself and your family.


Transplant Production Systems - Greenhouse-grown vegetable transplants are an important part of a successful vegetable farm, and the systems you use for everything from transplant trays and benches to the transplanter you use to set your crop in the field have a significant impact on the quality of your transplants and the cost of producing them. Join Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard for a review of transplant systems on farms throughout the Upper Midwest.