Jean-Martin Fortier's "The Market Gardener"

Jean-Martin Fortier and
Maude-Helene Desrochas

ABOUT:

Jean-Martin Fortier is a market farmer in Quebec who, along with his wife, Maude-Hélène Desroches, and their two children, operates Les Jardins de la Grelinette. After 10 years of refining their craft, they’re able to support a CSA with over 140 members and attend two local farmers’ markets weekly.

Jean-Martin has clearly been influenced by the writings of Eliot Coleman, as many of his methods are straight out of Eliot's playbooks.  As a result, he employs many tools that were developed by Eliot and Johnny's. He has even named his farm after one of them. 'La Grelinette' is the French name for what we call the Broadfork, a two-handled fork invented in France by André Grelin in 1946.

Andre Grelin

THE BROADFORK:

The Broadfork was redeveloped in 1998 by Eliot Coleman and Johnny's Selected Seeds. For many years now Jean-Martin has been describing his growing strategies and use of scale-appropriate technology on a website and blog, where he promotes the idea of farming with hand tools (i.e., they don't have tractor) as an alternative way of farming professionally.

In 2012, Jean-Martin published Le jardinier-maraîcher, a 200 page manual for small-acreage organic agriculture. The book quickly became a Canadian best-seller and has sold more than 15,000 copies. In it, he describes (in French) the technical aspects of his operation and the tools that they use to make their labor efficient and cost-effective. Many of the drawings in the book illustrate Johnny's tools, including Broadforks (of course), the Tilther, several seeders including the Six Row Seeder, the Bed Prep Rake, Collinear and Stirrup Hoes, and the Wheel Hoe.

Le jardinier-maraicher

His approach is that 'small is beautiful'. That is to say that he keeps his operation small yet profitable, but it is more than that. It is also about enjoying life, enjoying what you do, and remembering to take time off regularly so that your work remains enjoyable. All this is feasible, he stresses, if your operation is super efficient all the way through.

THE MARKET GARDENER:

In 2013, Jean-Martin also set out to publish an English version of Le jardinier-maraîcher, and in January of 2014, The Market Gardener was published.

Our Tools & Supplies Product Mgr., Adam Lemieux, has this to say about the book:

 “Jean-Martin Fortier extols the virtues of being small-scale, and expertly details the use of scale-appropriate tools (such as Broadforks, seeders, hoes, flame weeders, low tunnels, high tunnels, and many other unique tools) designed specifically for this brand of farming. 

Jean-Martin Fortier

He picks up right where Eliot Coleman has left us, applying many of his cotre principles, but doing it in such a brilliant way as to provide beginning farmers with the information they need to start up and become successful small-scale growers themselves.”

Jean-Martin remains a tools collaborator and field tester for Johnny's; we are proud to carry this fine publication in our line of books. 

You can find The Market Gardener on our website here. 

Learn More About Johnny's Selected Seeds

This 10-minute film serves as a brief overview of Johnny's Selected Seeds. It includes a discussion of corporate philosophy, customer service, plant breeding, company history, employee ownership, product development, marketing, and international sales.

The video features several short interviews with Johnny's Chairman and Founder Rob Johnston, Jr. and Eliot Coleman, along with a few Johnny's customers and employees.  

Learn more about Johnny's Selected Seeds >>>

Eliot Coleman's Organic Farm, Winter Growing Subject of New York Times Story

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a great story -- "Living Off the Land In Maine, Even in Winter" -- about Four Seasons Farm here in Maine.

New York Times photo

Barbara Damrosch harvests Tatsoi at Four Seasons Farm in Harborside, ME. See story in the NY Times.

The story, written by gardening columnist Anne Raver, is about the organic farm owned by gardening book authors Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. The article details many of their winter growing techniques, season extension ideas, and managing a small commercial growing operation. It is accompanied by an online photo slideshow with a dozen shots from the farm.

Johnny's exclusively carries many of the tools that Eliot helped develop and design, including Broadforks, the Long-Handled Wire Weeder, the Bed Preparation Rake Row Markers, the Hand Tiller, and the Tilther.

These books, written by Eliot and Barbara, are also available on our website.

• "The Winter Harvest Handbook" by Eliot Coleman
• "The New Organic Grower" by Eliot Coleman
• "Four Season Harvest" by Eliot Coleman
• "The Gardening Primer" by Barbara Damrosch

We also carry the DVD -- "Year-Round Vegetable Production with Eliot Coleman"