Jean-Martin Fortier

The Market Gardener (eBook, ePUB)

A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Grow better not bigger

...should be of great use to market growers everywhere.
- Eliot Coleman, organic farming pioneer and author, Winter Harvest Handbook

This is a fantastic addition to any aspiring market gardener's library...
- Josh Volk, Slow Hand Farm, Portland, Oregon

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.

... 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

JEAN-MARTIN FORTIER and his wife Maude-Hélène Desroches are the founders of Les Jardins de la Grelinette, an internationally recognized micro-farm known for its high productivity and profitability using low-tech, high-yield methods of production. A leading practitioner of biologically intensive cropping systems, Jean-Martin has more than a decade's worth of experience in organic farming. Jean-Martin lives and farms in Southern Quebec, Canada, with his wife and their two children.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: New Society Publishers
• Seitenzahl: 224
• Altersempfehlung: ab 16 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. März 2014
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781550925555
• Artikelnr.: 40391061

Autorenporträt

Jean-Martin Fortier and his wife Maude-Hélène Desroches are the founders of Les Jardins de la Grelinette, an internationally recognized micro-farm famous for its high productivity-profitability using low-tech, high-yield methods of production. A leading practitioner of biologically intensive cropping systems, Jean-Martin has more than a decade's worth of experience in mixed organic farming. He has written articles about his work for popular magazines such as Canadian Organic Grower , La Terre de Chez Nous and Growing for Market . He also contributes occasionally as a tool and equipment advisor for companies such as Johnny's Selected Seeds and Dubois Agrinovation. The original French language version of this book, Le Jardinier-Maraîcher , released in Fall 2012, has sold more than 15,000 copies

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface
1 Small Is Profitable
Can You Really Live ff 1.5 Acres?
Not Just Making a Good Living, but Making a Good Life
2 Succeeding as a Small-Scale Organic Vegetable Grower
A Biologically Intensive Approach
Minimizing Start-Up Costs
Minimizing Production Costs
Direct Selling
Adding Value to the Crops
Learning the Craft
3 Finding the Right Site
Climate and Microclimate
Market Access
Growing Space Needed
Soil Quality
Topography
Drainage
Access to Water
Infrastructure
Assessing Possible Pollution Problems
4 Designing the Market Garden
Buildings and Foot Traffic
Standardizing the Garden Layout
Locating the Greenhouse and Tunnels
Protection against Deer
Windbreaks
Irrigation
5 Minimum Tillage and Appropriate Machinery
Permanent Raised Beds
The Two-Wheel Tractor
The Broadfork (Grelinette)
Tarps and Pre-Crop Ground Cover
To Till or not to Till
6 Fertilizing Organically
Soil Tests
Crop Requirements
Managing Soil Fertility
Good Compost
Relying on Natural Fertilizers - Why?
Establishing Crop Rotation
Crop Rotation at Les Jardins de la Grelinette
Green Manure and Cover Crops
Connecting with Soil Ecology
7 Starting Seeds Indoors
Seeding in Cell Flats
The Soil Mix
Filling Cell Flats
The Seedling Room
The Evolving Plant Nursery
Heating and Ventilation of the Nursery
How to Water Seedlings
Potting up
Transplanting into the Gardens
8 Direct Seeding
Precision Seeders
Seedbed Preparation
Record Keeping
9 Weed Management
Cultivating with Hoes
Weeding with Tarps
The Stale Seedbed Technique
Flame Weeding
Mulching
Weed Control Technology
10 Insect Pests and Diseases
Scouting
Disease Prevention
Using Biopesticides
11 Season Extension
Floating Row Cover and Low Tunnels
Caterpillar Tunnels
Hoophouses
12 Harvest and Storage
Harvesting Efficiently
Harvest Help
The Cold Room
13 Crop Planning
Setting Farming Objectives
Determining Production
Establishing a Crop Calendar
Making a Garden Plan
Record Keeping
Conclusion: Farming for Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle
Appendix 1: Crop Notes
Appendix 2: Tools and Suppliers
Appendix 3: Garden Plan
Appendix 4: Annotated Bibliography
Appendix 5: Glossary
Index
About the Author