The Winter Market Gardener - by Jean-Martin Fortier & Catherine Sylvestre (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Winter Market Gardener is a guide to year-round vegetable production. Based on years of experimentation in techniques, tools, and cultivars, it presents planting, care, and harvesting details for dozens of winter crops that earn money and provide the highest quality, most delicious produce for local markets."--

Book Synopsis

The Complete Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables Year-Round in Northern Climates for Local Markets

MANY SMALL FARMS shut down during the dark winter months. Yet with the right techniques, equipment, and cultivars, year-round growing can produce the highest quality and tastiest fresh local vegetables, all while banking a profit.

Building on years of research, experimentation, and collaboration, The Winter Market Gardener is a beautifully illustrated practical guide to winter vegetable production for small farmers growing in northern climates. Coverage includes:

• Unique aspects of year-round vegetable production
• Dozens of detailed vegetable profiles
• Start-to-finish winter crop planning
• Selecting shelters, from row covers to high tunnels
• Tool selection and use for efficiency
• Winter storage crops and successful autumn growing.

Whether you are an experienced farmer or market grower, enthusiastic amateur, or committed consumer, The Winter Market Gardener will excite, inspire, and empower you to embrace the seasons and work with nature to produce and enjoy superior-quality local vegetables all year.

Review Quotes

"The essential guide for winter market gardening for the new generation of growers is here!!! "
-Zach Loeks, edible ecosystem designer, author, The Two-wheel Tractor Handbook and The Permaculture Market Garden

"The core challenge of growers in the north is learning how to feed our communities with fresh, local, real food in the winter. With great research and detailed charts, this book shows exactly how to do just that. I think every grower should buy it, read it, and incorporate its ideas. An indispensable book."
-Ben Hartman, author, The Lean Micro Farm

"In this book, you will find all manner of useful planning considerations and practical tips and evaluations of structures, tools, diseases and pests, crop notes, and optimal storage conditions to help you extend your seasons and production for as long as possible through the winter months ... A lovely extension to Jean-Martin's previous handbook, and a great resource for those looking to up their winter growing practices."
-Richard Perkins, author, Regenerative Agriculture

"...this book was written by two people who have devoted their lives to helping feed communities better. Winter is no longer off-limits, it's open to all of us."
-Michael Kilpatrick, educator, Growing Farmers, farmer, The Farm on Central

"Drawing on the Parisienne market garden tradition and Eliot Coleman's seminal works, The Winter Market Gardener presents years of new research, experimentation, and practice. It covers every aspect of growing vegetables for market year round in a cold climate to build community resilience and reduce imports. It's comprehensive, well laid out, full of information, and engaging."
-Maddy Harland, editor, co-founder, Permaculture Magazine

"Jean-Martin's passion for organic farming is contagious. He is always innovating, experimenting, and sharing his findings with others and The Winter Market Gardener is no exception. This book is practical, thorough, well-researched, and an invaluable resource for cold-climate growers."
-Erin Benzakein, Floret

About the Author

Jean-Martin Fortier is a farmer, author, educator, and advocate for regenerative, human-scale, profitable agriculture. For over 20 years he and his wife Maude-Helene Desroches have operated les Jardins de la Grelinette, a successful 2-acre microfarm. His bestselling book The Market Gardener, which has sold a quarter million copies in nine languages, describes the biointensive principles used at his micro-farm. In 2015, he established a research farm, la Ferme des Quatre-Temps, where he trains apprentices and develops new strategies for market gardening, including year-round production. His methods of production are taught to a worldwide audience through the Market Gardener Masterclass, an online course of the Market Gardener Institute, which is tailored to small-scale food growers. He is the founder of Growers & Co., a tool and apparel company which celebrates sustainable, local, and equitable food producers. Jean-Martin farms and lives in Quebec, Canada.

Catherine Sylvestre is the director of vegetable production at la Ferme des Quatre-Temps, a collaborative farm project inspired by the principles of ecological polyculture and regenerative agriculture. Leader of the market garden team, she trains program participants and develops and implements best practices for cold season growing, specializing in crop protection and greenhouse production for northern climates. She is also technical advisor at the Market Gardener Institute, where she studies and teaches organic agriculture. In addition to her field experience, Catherine has a BSc in Ecological Agriculture and Professional Agrology and a Master's degree in Political Science. Her academic focus has been the rich and complex relationship between human beings and nature, which meets in agriculture. Through her research, writing, and training, Catherine hopes to provide other farmers and market gardeners with the tools and knowledge to produce their own successful winter harvests. She lives in Quebec, Canada.