The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic F...

A lot of people that don't read this book are quick to say things like, "yeah, you say he makes 6 figures, but he's in a city and supplies restaurants", and that his method wont work in other locations. First off, yes, he does make 6 figures, but he lives in the country (60 min or so from the city), and while he does supply restaurants, he mostly supplies families and sells at farmers markets. Him and his wife also work about 40 hrs a week and he hires one or two people seasonally and shuts down for about 3 months in the winter. His book shows in excellent detail how he has achieved his success over time (not overnight), and the steps are very practical for other locations. OF COURSE there will be things you need to adjust if you apply this method in other areas (and any potential farmer should know that), but the information is extremely practical and relevant no matter where you are. If you want to do micro-intensive farming, this is a wonderful resource and shows you the things you need to do and start thinking about. I am currently looking for land where I will start my own micro-farm operation, and while I will not use this book exclusively (every farm is different), it's going to be a major reference. Of note, Jean Martin has recently started to integrate permaculture into his operation, and that information is not contained in this reference since he's just started in that endeavor. It is still an excellent reference for the aspiring organic grower. Personally, I very-much appreciate his common-sense approach on standardized beds and hand tools that are designed for those beds. His practices will not only give me fantastic food, but will also help me to become more physically fit through efficient manual labor, which as someone who works behind a desk, I am craving. He also shows how he looks at his crop value, crop rotation, how he works his greenhouse, transplants, and many examples of his spreadsheets that keep his business running a profit; the list goes on and on... I can't recommend this book enough.

I purchased this book many many years ago and still refer to it from time to time. It contains timeless information about starting a market garden and running a thriving small-scale farm. It gave us the push we needed to start the business we had been dreaming of.

This book, "The Market Gardener," feels like you're conversing with a fellow traveler on this journey of nurturing the land. As someone who’s been digging in the soil for many years and even taught my children the value of agriculture and farming, I appreciate the practical wisdom shared within these pages. This isn't just theory; it's real, hands-on advice from someone who’s clearly made it work. I like the focus on small-scale organic farming. It is a focused, intentional approach that yields rich results. The chapters are laid out clearly, much like a good lesson plan. You can tell the author has a deep respect for the land and a desire to share his knowledge. It’s inspiring to see how one can create a thriving market garden using organic methods. This book reinforces my belief that we can be good stewards of the earth while also providing for ourselves and our communities. It’s a valuable resource for anyone looking to cultivate not just vegetables, but also a more sustainable way of life. I'll be recommending this to my gardening friends and even my grandchildren who are starting to explore their own green thumbs.

Pros: Great information. Well written. Has already been extremely helpful as I start planning a small market garden. Nicely organized and plenty detailed with topics covered. Great information for the financial side of starting a market farm. Very, very helpful charts throughout including crop rotation, record keeping examples, and (my favorite) their sales by crop (with info on % of space used, price, profitability, and more!) Fun and helpful illustrations. Plenty if information on soil building and organic management of pests and fertilizing. Cons: Very light on business management of a small farm, which I don't need and can be found in other books. And very light on crop specific information. Very little more than what I had already found online. Some of the information is not relevant to my garden as I don't have seed starting room, cold storage room, nursery, or greenhouse/hoophouse. Overall: Love this resource! It has been so helpful with my planning, especially since they have a similar growing season (about 120 days). As I'm figuring out what to grow to maximize profitability in my garden I have referred to this book (especially sales chart on page 14) a lot. I purchased Sustainable Market Farming by Pam Dawling (review on that coming soon) along with this book and use that for crop specific management (I love and recommended it!!!). This book is primarily about producing a very profitable yield on small space without massive debt or damaging the local ecosystem. If I am able to expand from my backyard garden to a larger operation I will be digging into different areas of this book more and more.

After reading this book, I was excited about the possibilities of intensive, market gardening. Fortier teaches you how to garden for maximum profit on small parcels of land. First, this book was revolutionary for me because he combines aspects of the mechanized, large scale farm with the intensive small scale organic farm via specialty hand-held and walk-behind tools, which he details in this book. These tools (many of them newly designed innovations I'd never heard of) are much more nimble and require less investment than a large tractor designed for large fields. Second, Fortier details his crop rotation and garden bed layout plan, which will save you hours and/or years of racking your brain to try to figure out the best system. Finally, he details the economic return for each different vegetable on his farm, which is very helpful since the goal of market gardening is to earn money. This book can jump start you into beginning a small scale farm. The chapters are laid out well and it reads naturally (especially considering the book was translated from French). In fact, I had trouble putting it down! I gave it four stars because Fortier seems to hold some secrets and techniques back. For example, he doesn't provide enough information on growing and grafting tomatoes—one of the most lucrative crops. It's also written for people who live in a Northern climate, so those who live in a Southern climate will need to do some research to figure out their own unique growing calendar and use of greenhouses. Overall, it is a great read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in gardening for profit.

I learned about the author and this book via cozy circle of internet focused marketers seemingly trading off each other's internet brand for commercial gain. What could possibly go wrong with this purchase? Nothing does, the author hits it out of the park and my cynicism skulks back to its dank lair. If you are a market gardener unhappy with how things are going or considering being a market gardener read this book. It is partly story of authors successful market farm and and humble beginnings but is mostly about intensive market garden techniques, practices, underlying principles author adapted or developed over 10+ years of focus, diligent planning, intelligence, practical sense and clarity on what is important in life to the author. This guy makes a lot of sense. Many charts, planning tools, crop rotations soil, pest, cropping, harvest techniques and insight to marketing approach(es) throughout the book as they apply to author's situation. Series of 20 minute recordings on Youtube that roughly follows the book without the book's detail. Is not intended to be a market gardening recipe book but I believe that with a decent work ethic, clear understanding of yourself and life goals plus judicious application or adaptation to local conditions solely of author's techniques and practices as described in the book an inexperienced market gardener with limited capital could easily become sufficiently successful in 2 growing seasons regardless of location.

Every topic has generations of development. It starts out with the pioneers and concepts then as people start practicing it starts to develop into personal art. Where Elliot Coleman started, and did a great job of launching thousands of small farms that are well enough organized that a couple of acres can give a family and some employees a good income and fill in the gaps left in our industrialized food system, this book brings down to earth in the most succinct way possible every part of operating a market garden. Fortier is the next generation, one of the acolytes that took his master's work and greatly expanded on it. I have a library of such books but none of them are as readable or as information rich in a short chapter as Fortier's book. While most of these books sit in my library as reference material I actually could not put this book down because from cover to cover material was covered in as few words as possible while giving a rich detailed cover of topic after topic, walking you through the entire operation and then following with very good resources on where to find the materials used and mentioned in the book. It might be possible to improve on this book but it is hard to imagine how. It would be nice to see this book folded into a larger picture as part of a larger permaculture site that includes perennial fruits and herbs but I find no fault with the author for sticking to his topic and area of expertise. No matter what your accomplishments in the area of vegetable or market gardening, this book can give you some ideas for how to do some things better. If you have a permaculture site but want to grow your own food, this is probably the only book you will ever need on how to make growing vegetables a viable operation with the least amount of work and investment.

What an amazing book! I follow The Market Gardener, and his book is so practical and helpful! I have marked it up with highlighting and comments to remind me of important gardening details. J. M. Fortier is an excellent teacher and model!

Great book! Well written and very informative.

Ever since I had an interest in organic farming and was searching for sustainable methods to maximize revenue while also caring for the environment, Jean-Martin Fortier's book was one that really interested me. After watching several of the YouTube videos which outline his method of approach in planning, operations and harvesting, I grew all the more curious and just needed to get my hands on his book. Bought it just about a week ago and have now gone through it from cover to cover and feel glad that I did purchase it. JM has written the book with good detail, in such a manner so as to make even a new entrant into farming / market gardening confident of success. Although it is obvious that majority of the practices, crops and market around which his operations are based have a world of difference to the same in India, it is his methodology and approach to the operations that are the real lessons to be learnt. The efficiency with which he runs his operations are described right down to the very details and this gives the reader confidence that success can truly be achieved even on a small scale. Would highly recommend this book to all newcomers (irrespective of location) to this field of work, in order to learn the approach required to make market gardening a success. Glad I bought it and am pretty sure it will be a good reference for me as I start on my journey in Market Gardening.

Es un libro muy bueno ya que te da muchos datos que necesitas para iniciar una granja con producción de hortalizas a pequeña escala, lo bueno es que te datos muy técnicos y que puedes replicar en cualquier momento, lo "malo" es que la mayoría de los datos son basados en condiciones canadienses o de EU y muchos de los productos no lo puedes conseguir en México. Muy recomendable.

Can recommend

JM Fortier is arguably one of the best organic market gardeners in the world and this book clearly sets out how he has achieved such remarkable success on his not very large piece of land. If you are thinking of becoming a market gardener this is a must read. In the end you may decide that you don't have what it takes in which case you've saved yourself a lot of heartache finding out the hard way and you still have the knowledge to grow good, healthy food for your family.