About Rock Spring Farm

Rock Spring Farm is a family-owned, certified organic farm located in the Driftless Region of Northeast Iowa, just south of the Minnesota state line.

Founded in August of 1999, the farm quickly earned a reputation for producing high-quality vegetables and herbs. Before winter set in, we had built two large, mobile greenhouses for producing greens year-round without any supplemental heat, and made our first sales in December of that year.

Before we purchased the operation, the farmhouse had been abandoned for several years and the farm was in a general state of disrepair. We worked hard to renovate the house and farm buildings, as well as to transition the fields from conventional corn and soybeans to a thriving environment for organic vegetables.

We grew the operation quickly, marketing through a CSA and farmers markets in Rochester and Decorah before expanding to the Twin Cities in 2001. That year, we certified our transplant production as certified organic; the entire farm completed its transition to certified organic production in the spring of 2002.

In 2012, Rock Spring Farm continues to be known for the quality of its produce and its customer service. We no longer market through a CSA or a farmers market, choosing instead to focus on serving retail stores, restaurants, and wholesale distributors in the Twin Cities and Decorah.

In recent years, farmer Chris Blanchard has used his experience at Rock Spring Farm to serve as a springboard for a new education and consulting enterprise, Flying Rutabaga Works, where he provides outreach to groups and individuals about systems development, food safety, business planning, horticuture, and more.