 | Thursday, March 5 - Saturday, March 7, 2015 Danville, Indiana Event Link: Indiana Small Farms Conference Organized By: Purdue Agriculture The third Annual Indiana Small Farm Conference with pre-conference workshop activities taking place on Thursday, March 5th. With numerous networking activities, this conference provides small farmers with many opportunities to learn and interact with other farmers, producers, extension educators, researchers, and students. Chris' Presentations: Making Your Market Farm Work for You Thursday, March 5, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Your market farm should work for you, in addition to you working for your farm – and that requires you to take care of your vegetables and your business, as well as your life. Learn how you can put it all together, from the market farming fundamentals of weed control, irrigation, post-harvest handling, and marketing, to the management of your farming systems, employees, and finances. From big ideas down to practical examples, consultant, educator, and veteran farmer Chris Blanchard draws on 25 years of farming experience around the country at a wide variety scales to provide this engaging session that will help you understand and control the factors that lead to a profitable market farm that won’t drive you and your family crazy. Please note: this pre-conference workshop is offered at an additional charge beyond the standard conference registration. Capturing and Organizing Data for GAPs, Organic Certification, and other Endeavors Friday, March 6, 9:00 AM 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. Consultant and veteran farmer 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. Evaluating Investments and Operational Changes Friday, March 6, 1:30 PM Want to purchase new equipment? Thinking of expanding your operation? This presentation will show you the tools you need to evaluate your options. You’ll get a down-to-earth approach to help you better understand the economic and other impacts of investments and operational changes, including a look at practical tools like partial budget analysis and investment analysis, as well as considerations for quality of life and business development. |
|
0 Comments
Tuesday, September 16, 2014 Online Organized By: Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Presentation Summary Want to purchase new equipment? Thinking of expanding your operation? This free webinar will show you the tools you need to evaluate your options. You’ll get a down-to-earth approach to help you better understand the economic and other impacts of investments and operational changes, including a look at practical tools like partial budget analysis and investment analysis, as well as considerations for quality of life and business development. Tuesday, August 5, 2014 Online Organized By: Countryside Conservancy Presentation Summary In the local foods movement, everybody's talking about "scaling up" - but what does that mean for your farm's operations, business, and quality of life? Join me for a lunch-hour session (at least in the Eastern time zone) on Planning for Growth, exploring the practical impacts and requirements of increasing the size of your business. Friday, April 4, 2014 Belleville, Wisconsin Event Link: New Farmer Summit Organized By: Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Chris' Presentations: With 24 workshops focused on the issues that are on the minds of new farmers, the MOSES New Farmer Summit is sure to be a great show. Add in daily large-group strategy sessions, formal informal networking, a seed swap, and local, organic food, and I don't think there's any way that a young farmer can afford to miss this! I'll be presenting here on scaling up (or not), record-keeping, and things to think about when you're getting started in market farming. Follow-up: I have had several request for the slides from my Capturing Data workshop, as well as the forms used in the lot-coding example. I've linked to these here:
Thursday, February 26, 2014 LaCrosse, Wisconsin Event Link: http://mosesorganic.org/events/organic-university/ Organized By: Mosesorganic.org Chris' Presentations: Your organic market farm should work for you, in addition to you working for your farm—and that requires taking care of your vegetables and your business, as well as your life. Learn how you can put it all together, from irrigation and weed control to employee management and organizing your life. With practical examples and big ideas from farms and businesses around the Midwest, this engaging session will help you understand and control the factors that lead to a profitable market farm that won’t drive you and your family crazy. 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. 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. 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 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. |
RSS Feed
