The market gardener
by Jean-Martin Fortier · first published 2014
70% recommend20% neutral10% critical
Why HN recommends it
Practical, information-dense guide to running a profitable small-scale organic market garden. It offers a concrete blueprint for small farms and for home growers scaling up.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 Gr
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
…opportunities in using robots. Take a look at a very smart people running a small farm[0], he is relentless in using and building the right tools to save work and improve output etc. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Market-Gardener-Successful-Handbook-S...
on “Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?” ↗…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.
on “People are planting more vegetable gardens” ↗> 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…
on “You can’t eat just any leaf (2018)” ↗…too. But in my interviews with farmers from rural India they said, cost/benefit isn't much for the such aerial reports. 2. One Million Dollars!!! Thats what Jean-Martin Fortier says in his book; The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming. Its a great read as its not just about tech but also market.
on “Ask HN: What's happening in agricultural technology?” ↗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)
on “A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm” ↗…"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…
on “Farms that create habitat key to food security and biodiversity” ↗> 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
on “No-till no-herbicide farming system in trial since 1981” ↗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
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗There appears to be at least one counterexample, if you count "supporting one's family" as commercially meaningful. Currently reading The Market Gardener and it's surprisingly fascinating for a guide to intensively cultivating on about 1.5 acres - about 140k CAD gross, 60k revenue on 1.5 acres - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18406251-the-market-gard...…
on “How America Uses Its Land” ↗>The book “The Market Gardener” by Jean-Martin Fortier is a good resource about those topics. It is? He doesn't do no-till, doesn't do regenerative ag or permaculture. He just grows lettuce conventionally and sells it at high prices…
on “People are planting more vegetable gardens” ↗Yes, JM Fortier (who I and another mention elsewhere in this post - the author of The Market Gardener), says that Coleman was one of his main inspirations.
on “No-till no-herbicide farming system in trial since 1981” ↗Would love to learn more about what you're doing. I just read The Market Gardener and am getting a little bit of land, but still very new.
on “A remote UK community living off-grid” ↗>I just read The Market Gardener What's your impression of that book? Asking because interested in that area, have done some on it (organic gardening in general, though not the intensive kind like in that book), and have read a similar…
on “A remote UK community living off-grid” ↗