Name: The market gardener
ISBN: 9780865717657

The market gardener

Les Jardins de la Grelinette is a micro-farm located in eastern Quebec, just north of the American border. Growing on just 1.5 acres, owners Jean-Martin and Maude-Helène feed more than two hundred families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands and supply their signature mesclun salad mix to dozens of local establishments. The secret of their success is the low-tech, high-yield production methods they've developed by focusing on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process. The Market Gardener is a compendium of la Grelinette's proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods. This complete guide is packed with practical information on: setting-up a micro-farm by designing biologically intensive cropping systems, all with negligible capital outlay; farming without a tractor and minimizing fossil fuel inputs through the use of the best hand tools, appropriate machinery, and minimum tillage practices; growing mixed vegetables systematically with attention to weed and pest management, crop yields, harvest periods, and pricing approaches. Inspired by the French intensive tradition of maraichage and by iconic American vegetable grower Eliot Coleman, author and farmer Jean-Martin shows by example how to start a market garden and make it both very productive and profitable. Making a living wage farming without big capital outlay or acreages may be closer than you think.

What Hacker News says

fuzztesterSep 2023

Yes.

Search for videos with pattern "Gabe Brown" or "Treating the farm as an ecosystem" (a 3 part series, first one already posted here by someone), Masanobu Fukuoka (posted too), Jean-Martin Fortier / Les Fermiers video series and other videos by him, The Market Gardener book by him, Richard Perkins farm / Ridgedale permaculture in Sweden, Aanandaa Farms in North India near Chandigarh, Clea Chandmal short video about how forests harvest maximum sunlight and how that can be copied by farms, Geoff Lawton work on permaculture in Australia and consulting about it worldwide, etc., Elaine Ingham video "The Roots of your Profits", etc.

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voisinJul 2022

> I've seen difference estimates, but you need ~5 acres of land to feed one person for a year with a balanced diet.

Check out “The Market Gardener” by Jean Martin Fortier. The quoted statement is a myth. Farms historically were nowhere near as large as today and we able to provide a balanced diet to those literally on the same block (think “in-fill market gardens”)

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voisinOct 2020

> I couldn't sustain my family for a year on a 1-acre garden plot even if I had the time to work it intensively and used nothing but recycled organic byproduct

Check out “The Market Gardener”[0] if you need help learning how to do far, far better than this. We need more, smaller farms. Biointensive farming and permaculture can save our planet.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18406251

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mastaziApr 2020

Yes, I like no-till gardening, especially where it’s combined with other techniques like mulching, cover crops etc.

In traditional agriculture no-till is associated with increased use of herbicides but in regenerative agriculture and permaculture there are other ways to deal with weeds that don’t require the use of chemicals.

The book “The Market Gardener” by Jean-Martin Fortier is a good resource about those topics.

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squish78Dec 2018

The Market Gardener is incredible. It's so information dense I need to read it 5 more times though. I'm going to some of the principles on my small suburban lot and scale up someday

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DylanfmNov 2017

If you’re interested in a recipe for running a profitable, small farm I recommend the book The Market Gardener by Jean-Martin Fortier.

There are a lot of other examples around of similar farmers, e.g Curtis Stone, Ridgedale Permaculture (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Knn7ZH4Tiw)

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