The Market Gardener

By: Jean-Martin Fortier

Narrated by: Diego Footer

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

Growing on just one and a half acres, owners Jean-Martin and Maude-Helène feed more than 200 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 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.

Jean-Martin Fortier is a passionate advocate of strong local food systems and founder of Les Jardins de la Grelinette, an internationally recognized model for successful bio-intensive micro-farming.

©2014 Jean-Martin Fortier (P)2016 West Coast Permaculture

Great book

Awesome book for any gardener! Definitely will change the way my family gardens after listening to this book. Very helpful to have the printed version as well. I will be going back to this book for years to come!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great and very detailed information.

I have listened to this book multiple times and have heard something new and useful each time.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not that great for Home Gardener

A lot of other reviewers said that this book would be great even if you are not a market gardener. Although there are some definitely meaningful things to learn in the book (I think the best part is actually the appendix) it is not really as applicable to the home Gardener as some other people have stated. I have a very large home Garden where I'm trying to grow virtually all of my produce for my family for the entire year. For this reason, I thought that many things in the book would be applicable for me. I realize after reading it that there's way too many things that are not practical or useful for a home gardener. That being said I still enjoyed the book and learned quite a bit.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

great book for staring organic farmers

so much detail and great tips for anyone who's never farmed at that scale and with such limitations.
I loved the book, but the narrator reads words in a certain way which was a bit annoying along with pronouncing the name of Jean-Martin's farm incorrectly! Les Jardin is not pronounced Le Hardin!
I wish the author read it, because he actually has a nice voice.

Defiantly one of the best market garden books ever

seriously if you only read to books to start your market garden this has to be one of them!!!!!!

perfect for the aspiring farmer only hands on

could be better like he says. the how to instruction for nearly every situation is priceless.

Very helpful.

I really enjoyed the details of such a market garden. if I learned nothing else it is that row covers are not optional! I have no harvest because of stink bugs/squash bugs. They kill everything and I am not willing to use any posion. Great solution..

Great information but a little bland.

I really loved the science shared on each faze of development. where the venture started how it's progressd and the step by step layout of how a novice Gardener can make a living farming with continued education and a little hard work. I've been studying this subject off an on for years, this book gave me some great information and ideas for my own operation.
My only criticism was it's a little bit like a text book. I think if it we're written a little more like a story of success and narrated by the right voice, it would inspire millions of people.
I completely agree with the part in the beginning about the need for the return of the small family farm operation and how it really is possible. In the last year I've started a small home grown beef operation and before long it will be my lively hood.
For the reader. If your interested in starting any small farm/garden operation and need solid information on how to, you found it. this book is a great guide.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazing book - naration needs work

Where does The Market Gardener rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is an amazing book - a must read for anyone interested in organic farming. However, the butchering of the French words and place names was a real distraction from the content.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Diego Footer?

The narration really detracted from my enjoyment of this book. The author is French-Canadian. I would have appreciated the narrator being cast with that in mind. Someone who has a working knowledge of french pronunciation would have better suited to this task.

1 of 4 people found this review helpful

NOT organic practices

You lost me at factory farm blood meal, bone meal, feather meal and chicken manure pellets. No way is that organic fertilizer. I would like to test this soil for antibiotics.

Second, lost me with the customer will pay a ton of money for this pretend organic food.

I really can't stand the fact that people are copying this model. people pay money for food they believe is healthy. This farm uses any and all practices to make money, pesticides, fungicides, antibiotic tainted manure, it's all about the money. This type of permaculture is just another type of factory farm.

Become rich on a half an acre. Only until the customers find out how you do it.

1 of 5 people found this review helpful

Good for beginners by a passionate no dig farmer.

Really great. Quite long and drawn out but detailed and helpful knowledge, giving you the overview. probably the most successful in the biz.