Called by many the most influential farming book of the last decade, The Market Gardener, A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming has now sold over 200 000 copies, won numerous awards and earned accolades from the foremost experts in the field.
- Paperback
- 240 pages
- ISBN 9780865717657
Grow better not bigger with proven low-tech, human-scale, bio-intensive farming methods. As local organic agriculture continues to flourish, young professional growers like Jean-Martin Fortier are leading the way with their innovative ideas about how to start a farm. Growing on just 1.5 acres, he and his wife have been making a good living from their vegetable operation for over 10 years, feeding more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stand.
Based on low-tech, high-yield methods of production, The Market Gardener 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.
The Market Gardener is a complete, modern, micro-scale farming handbook which shows that making a living wage growing food without large capital outlay or access to an acreage may be closer than you think.
"…should be of great use to market growers everywhere." — Eliot Coleman, organic farming pioneer and author of the Winter Harvest Handbook
"This is a fantastic addition to any aspiring market gardener's library… Jean-Martin has laid out all of the basics for how we can farm more profitability, productively, and passionately on a more human-sized scale." — Josh Volk, Slow Hand Farm, Portland, Oregon
"… picks up right where Eliot Coleman has left us, applying many of his core principles, but doing it in such a brilliant way as to provide beginning farmers a solid framework of the information they need to start up and become successful small-scale organic growers themselves." — Adam Lemieux, Product Manager of Tools & Supplies, Johnny's Selected Seeds
"In France, The Market Gardener has quickly become a book of reference for small-scale farming. Both visionary and practical, it is a work of rare intelligence." — Charles Herve-Gruyer, permaculture teacher and grower at la Fermedu BecHellouin, France
Learn more about Jean-Martin at www.themarketgardener.com.
Paperback / 240 pages