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100: Chris Blanchard on Lessons Learned from the Farmer to Farmer Podcast, Consulting, and His Own Farm

1/5/2017

5 Comments

 
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For episode 100, several listeners requested that I either do an interview with myself, or get somebody to interview me. So I invited my good friend Liz Graznak to do the job – Liz was also the first guest on the podcast, so it seemed to me to have some nice symmetry.

Liz reached out to many of the previous guests on the show to get their input on what to ask me, and we dig into what I’ve learned from interviewing over a hundred farmers since the show’s beginnings during a drive to a field day in Minnesota.

We explore how I came to farming in Iowa from an urban childhood in the Pacific Northwest, and Liz gives me a chance to share how my farm grew, the challenges we faced, and what led me to leave the farm behind to pursue my current work as a farm educator.
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Quotes from the Show

[from Paul Wellstone:] We all do better when we all do better.

If you’re going to play the small market farmer game, somehow your food has to resonate at a deeper level for people. It has to be a tool for connection in some way.

Managing your weeds is something that, when you do that, everything else gets easier. And not just a little bit easier.

I think that three years is that point when relationships get hard. You can coast a certain distance on adrenaline, but you’re going to run into a position where… the shine comes off the penny.


There’s room at any scale to fail dramatically.


The garden answered all of these questions for me about life and death and about the cycle of things. Things live, things die. It’s just part of what happens.
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As a business decision, putting an emphasis on your relationships is really important.

​Show Links

Chris spent years as the presentations coordinator and then as the co-director of theMOSES Organic Farming Conference. 
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Chris coauthored the Fearless Farm Finances book.  

We mentioned Patreon as a way to directly support the show.

And one of Chris’ favorite things to mention: the weird and wonderful Deep Springs College  had a tremendous influence on his life’s trajectory.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode is brought to you by Growing for Market. Get 20% off your subscription with the code podcast at checkout. And by EarthTools, offering the most complete selection of walk-behind farming equipment and high-quality garden tools in North America.Earthtools.com.
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5 Comments
Landis Spickerman
1/5/2017 02:16:50 pm

Loved hearing about your life and your viewpoint. Love how you balance the facts with the mystery in farming or as w. berry said:
Spell the spiel of cause and effect
Ride the long rail of fact after fact;
What curled the plume in the drake's tail
And put the white ring round his neck?

Reply
Jackson Rolett
1/6/2017 11:31:51 am

One of the best episodes yet. Really enjoyed hearing your big-picture perspective of the small-farm movement, where it's succeeding and where it's failing, and your emphasis on farming being emotionally, as well as economically, sustainable. Now, someone needs to write a book about THAT.

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Ben
1/6/2017 02:21:20 pm

Thanks for doing this, what a great idea. Liz did a great job interviewing you. Thanks also for the podcast in general, such a valuable tool for us. I absolutely think you need to get the Nordells and Wendell Berry on. There's a good chance you'll have to take a mic and recorder and go to their farms! But wouldn't it be incredible to make happen!?

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Greg Alder link
1/10/2017 05:14:55 pm

Chris, you should know that your podcast is so good that non-farmers like me listen every week too!

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Doug Trott link
2/12/2018 02:03:30 pm

I enjoyed listening to this one again while bumping up snapdragons. Some thoughts on why some farms fail, and it the same reasons why some business fail - I think it's often because the owners don't know how to recognize that they're failing (until it's too late) and even more so, don't know how to change in order to be successful. On that first point, you discussed the important financial aspect (I'm a big fan of a rolling three year cash flow plan, though one also has to be aware of whether or not one is selling off assets), but there are some other aspects. On my farm, my sales and profits don't grow simultaneously - my production and sales will grow (and perhaps my margin will decrease), then I'll get more efficient and my profitability will improve. At any given point there are financial indicators that look good, and some that don't look so good, and so I do also rely on non-financial indicators to help me know how I'm doing. You mentioned the importance of relationships, but not so much in the context of business success, but it's an important criteria. Do you have good relationships with your customers, vendors, crew and family? Are the relationships improving? Are you building a good reputation? Granted, you can't deposit reputation in the bank, but these are all factors that can help one know that one is on a good trajectory, and things are improving, or have the potential to improve.

Regarding the second point, I have seen several people in business fail, and at some point they know they're failing, but all they can think of to do is hope things turn around. One needs to have a plan for growth, and some ideas of new enterprises, channels and operations that can be tried - the proverbial Plan B. Do you know where your next customers are coming from - do you have a pipeline? Can you recognize a potential customer, or potential opportunity? Are you going to find more products for your customers, or more customers for your products? Have you thought about alternate enterprises that would make the most use of your investments in facilities, equipment and knowledge? And perhaps most important - have you thought about the trigger - at what point do you try the new thing?

I could go on and on...Keep up the good work!

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