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Page Count:160
Images:Full Color Throughout
Dimensions: 7.5 × 10 × 0.38 in
Publication Date:December 03, 2024
ISBN:9781774060049
Translated:Laurie Bennett
Sustainability:Printed on 100% recycled paper
Printed in:Canada

Microfarms

Organic Market Gardening on a Human Scale

Launch a profitable, regenerative vegetable farm using time-tested biointensive methods designed for efficiency, community health, and ecological resilience.

Discover a revolutionary approach to local agriculture that proves you don’t need massive acreage or heavy machinery to feed a community and make a living. Microfarms serves as a practical distillation of the methods Jean-Martin Fortier has refined over two decades of hands-on farming. By grounding production in agroecology and permaculture, this guide offers a blueprint for creating highly intensive vegetable farms that thrive on a human scale.

The heart of the book explores the four essential pillars of farm success: meticulous crop planning, low-investment manual tools, organic soil fertility management, and sound business practices. To ground these theories in reality, the authors present eight detailed case studies from across Canada and Europe. These stories follow diverse growers—from the heart of the Perche in France to the mountains of Italy—detailing their journeys through land procurement, team coordination, and the nuances of local sales.

Whether you are looking to boost crop yields while preserving biodiversity or seeking a career that honors the environment, this richly illustrated resource provides the technical and narrative tools to succeed. It is an invitation to join a global movement of growers who are reclaiming the food system, one small, profitable plot at a time.

Earn up to 35 Points.

Who This Book is For

  • Aspiring market gardeners: Individuals ready to transition from dreaming to doing with a proven, low-tech framework.
  • Homesteaders: Those looking to scale up their production into a viable small business.
  • Local-food advocates: Proponents of CSA models and farmers markets who want to understand the mechanics of successful local supply chains.
  • Professional educators: Teachers and researchers focused on regenerative agriculture and biointensive production.

What You'll Learn

  • Biointensive methodology: Implement high-density planting and intensive rotation strategies to maximize output on minimal land.
  • Appropriate technology: Master the use of low-tech, high-efficiency tools like broadforks and flame weeders to keep overhead low.
  • Soil fertility: Manage organic nutrients and ecosystem health to produce nutrient-dense food without synthetic inputs.
  • Human-scale business: Develop profitable marketing strategies, including CSA boxes, farm stands, and direct-to-restaurant sales.
  • Operational management: Organize daily farm tasks, team structures, and seasonal workflows for long-term sustainability.

Praise for the book

Hailing Jean-Martin as my market gardening guru!

Dan Brisebois, farmer, Tourne-Sol Cooperative Farm, author, The Seed Farmer

Jean-Martin has laid out all of the basics for how we can farm more profitability, productively, and passionately on a more human-sized scale.

Josh Volk, Slow Hand Farm, Portland, Oregon

Jean-Martin’s passion for organic farming is contagious.

Erin Benzakein, Floret Flowers

What Makes This Book Unique

This guide is built on practitioner-led wisdom, authored by world-renowned farmer Jean-Martin Fortier, whose seminal work The Market Gardener has served as the blueprint for thousands of successful small-scale farms globally. Unlike localized manuals, this text offers global perspectives by incorporating diverse case studies from Canada, France, Italy, and Germany, demonstrating the universal applicability of the “Fortier Method” across varying climates and markets. To ensure these techniques are reproducible, the book is practical and highly visual, featuring 250 full-color photos and illustrations to function as a step-by-step manual, simplifying complex agricultural systems for immediate implementation.

Table of Contents

  • Publisher’s Foreword
  • Preface
  • The Fortier Method for a Successful Microfarm
    • Farming on a Human Scale
    • Principles of the Method
    • Steps to Success
    • Effective Farm Management
    • Sales and Marketing
    • Insights from Jean-Martin Fortier
  • Profiles: A Look at 8 Successful Microfarms
    • Les Jardins de la Valette, France Sylvain Couderc
    • Une Ferme du Perche, France Tom Rial
    • Le Potager des Ducs, France Mathieu Lotz
    • Les Jardins de la Banquise, France Suzanne Esteve and Antoine Régeard
    • Azienda Agricola Foradori, Italy Myrtha Zierock
    • Wilmars Gaerten, Germany Maria Gimenez
    • La Fermette, Canada Annie-Claude Lauzon and Justine Chouinard
    • La Microferme des Anges, France Jean-Michel Le Guen
  • Glossary
  • About the Authors
  • Resources and Bibliography
  • About New Society Publishers

Accessibility Information

Product Page Accessibility Display

Conformance Status: EPUB Accessibility Compliant | WCAG level AA Compliant
Screen Reader Compatibility: Designed for an optimal screen reader experience and fully accessible to persons with disabilities.

Content Enhancements

Alternative Text for Images: Descriptive text is provided for all images, ensuring visual content is fully accessible.
Table of Contents: Easy, direct navigation through a clean, structured table of contents.
Reading Order: Enforces a logical and consistent reading order for sequential, uninterrupted content consumption.
Page List: Includes an accurate page list for physical book page referencing and exact academic citation synchronization.
Structural Navigation: Built with a clear hierarchical layout for easy content traversal and section hopping.
Semantic Structure: Employs appropriate semantic markup to ensure absolute text clarity, meaning, and text-to-speech accuracy.

Reading Optimization

Unrestricted Formatting Preferences: User-configured assistive tools, custom typography scaling, line-spacing modifications, and native reading application options are never locked or disabled.
Color Independence: Textual layouts, data states, and links use distinct styles or symbols so that color changes are never the sole method of conveying critical information.
High-Contrast Design: Typography contrast levels comfortably exceed standard baseline parameters to reduce eye strain under any lighting environment.
Non-Visual Accessibility Support: All non-decorative editorial text and data visualizations are optimized to support reading entirely without sight.
Language Tagging: Embedded text attributes direct text-to-speech engines to use correct pronunciation defaults automatically.
Blank Page Removal: Unnecessary blank pages are completely eliminated to ensure a streamlined, smooth reading flow.

Contact Information

For further information or questions contact [email protected]

Book Extras and Resources

More from Jean-Martin Fortier

Microfarming: Frequently Asked Questions

How much land do I need to start a successful microfarm?

While traditional farming requires vast acreage, the biointensive methods in this book allow growers to be highly profitable on as little as one to two acres.

Is it possible to farm profitably without heavy machinery?

Yes. By utilizing appropriate low-tech tools and focusing on high-value crops and direct marketing, farmers can eliminate the massive debt often associated with industrial equipment.

What is the "Fortier Method" mentioned in the book?

It is a holistic system of market gardening that combines agroecological principles with efficient business management to ensure both environmental health and financial viability.

Meet the Author

author Jean-Martin Fortier

Jean-Martin Fortier is a farmer, author, and educator who has been at the forefront of the ecological, human-scale farming movement for more than two decades. Since 2004, he and his wife have operated Les Jardins de la Grelinette, a model two-acre microfarm celebrated for its remarkable productivity and efficiency. In 2017, Fortier founded the Market Gardener Institute, which has trained and supported over 11,000 farmers in 91 countries, helping them establish profitable small-scale organic farms rooted in regenerative practices. He is the bestselling author of The Market Gardener and co-author of The Winter Market Gardener, which together have sold more than 300,000 copies in 12 languages. His pioneering work has inspired a global shift toward resilient, soil-based food systems and earned him the Meritorious Service Cross from the Governor General of Canada. Fortier lives and farms in Quebec, Canada.

Aurélie Sécheret is a freelance author, journalist, and editor specializing in social and ecological issues with a particular interest in food security. A passionate urban farmer, she works with the noted grassroots French agricultural association Veni Verdi to develop local farming projects in the heart of busy city neighborhoods.

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About the Publisher

New Society Publishers has been a leader in sustainable living books since 1980. Our books are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper to support the health of the planet.

B Corporation, SDG, and FSC Mixed Paper.

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