Young Agrarians is thrilled to host Jean Martin Fortier for a five stop workshop tour around BC. Please help us get the word out!
THE WORKSHOP: Six Figure Farming for Small Plots: how you can start a market garden and make it both productive and profitable— without a large acreage or big capital outlay!
“If you’re serious about farming, I urge you to attend Jean-Martin Fortier’s workshops while he’s in BC. I have toured farms all over the west coast of North America, and I have yet to see anyone compare in production methods, soil management, crop health, product quality, and most importantly a balanced lifestyle. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet one of the most cutting edge organic farmers of our time!”
– Curtis Stone, BC’s own small-scale farmer extraordinaire.
Learn six figure farming for small plots from Jean-Martin Fortier, one of Canada’s rock star young farmers (and our very own Eliot Coleman 2.0). Jean-Martin marries smart, intensive farming with solid business sense—all while finding time to enjoy life. In this series of five workshops across BC, and in his new book, The Market Gardener, Jean-Martin Fortier demonstrates how adopting intensive methods of production can lead to optimal cropping systems. He will discuss how to:
—Set up a micro-farm & design biologically intensive cropping systems with negligible capital outlay
—Farm without a tractor & minimize fossil fuel inputs through the best hand tools appropriate machinery, & minimum tillage
—Grow mixed vegetables systematically with attention to best practices for weed and pest management, crop yields, harvest periods and pricing
Tickets are available through Brown Paper TIckets. All proceeds from ticket sales go towards Young Agrarians 2014 programming.
Check our our recent interview with Jean Martin Fortier on the Young Agrarians blog!
WORKSHOP DATES:
RICHMOND
Co-Sponsored by: Kwantlen Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems
Friday, March 7th, 2014
Doors 9:30am, Workshop 10am-5pm
Location: Kwantlen Polytechnic University, 8771 Landsdowne Road, Richmond, V6X 3V8
Melville Centre for Dialogue Conference Centre, Room 2550, 2nd floor, pay parking onsite
Tickets: http://jeanmartinrichmond.brownpapertickets.com
Join this event on Facebook and tell all of your friends about it!
KELOWNA
Co-Sponsored by Summerhill Winery
Sunday, March 9th, 2014
Doors 9:30am, Workshop 10am-5pm
Location: Summerhill Winery, 4870 Chute Lake Rd, Kelowna V1W 4M3
http://jeanmartinkelowna.brownpapertickets.com
Join this event on Facebook and tell all of your friends about it!
CRANBROOK
Co-Sponsored by Wildsight! Wednesday, March 12
Doors 9:00am, Workshop 9:30am-4:30pm
Location: Ktunaxa Nation Gym – 220 Cranbrook St North, Cranbrook, V1C 3L1
Tickets: http://jeanmartincranbrook.brownpapertickets.com
Join this event on Facebook and tell all of your friends about it!
NELSON
Co-Sponsored by Kootenay Co-op
Friday, March 14th
Doors 9:30am, Workshop 10am-5pm
Location: Hart Hall, 501 Carbonate St., Nelson V1L 4P4
Tickets: http://jeanmartinnelson.brownpapertickets.com
Join this event on Facebook and tell all of your friends about it!
VICTORIA
Sunday, March 16th, 2014
Doors 9:30am, Workshop 10am-5pm
Location: Fernwood Community Centre: 1240 Gladstone, Victoria, V8T 1G6
Tickets: http://jeanmartinvictoria.brownpapertickets.com
Join this event on Facebook and tell all of your friends about it!
THE BOOK: The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming by Jean-Martin Fortier
Over 15,000 copies of the French edition sold!
Local organic agriculture is flourishing in this country. Farmers’ markets are popping up everywhere and across Canada hundreds of CSAs (community supported agriculture) are focusing on the production of high quality food for local communities. Leading the way in this trend is cohort of young professional growers with innovative ideas about farming.
Jean-Martin Fortier and his wife Maude-Hélène Desroches are the founders of Les Jardins de la Grelinette, a micro-farm located in Eastern Quebec, just north of the American border. Growing on just 1.5 acres, they are able to feed more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands as well as supply vegetables to dozens of local establishments. For more than a decade the market garden has provided their only household income, generating close to $140,000 in annual sales with a profit margin of around 45%.
Instead of a tractor and mechanized growing systems Jean-Martin and Maude-Hélène opted to stay small-scale relying on hand and light power tools. Jean- Martin stated “After much research and many discoveries, our journey led us to what is now a productive and profitable micro-farm. Every week, our market garden produces enough income to comfortably support our household. Our low-tech strategy kept our start-up costs to a minimum and our overhead expenses low. The farm became profitable after only a few years.”
In his new book The Market Gardener Jean-Martin shares the secret of their success — low-tech, high-yield production methods that focus on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process. The Market Gardener is a compendium of La Grelinette’s proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods, and is packed with practical information.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jean-Martin Fortier is a leading practitioner of biologically intensive cropping systems with more than a decade’s worth of experience in organic farming. He is a graduate of the McGill School of Environment and is a passionate advocate for strengthening local food systems, notably working with Montréal’s Équiterre to help create Canada’s most important network of CSA farms. He helped create and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Brome-Missisquoi Land Base Project, which aims to match landowners with aspiring farmers. He has also facilitated more than fifty workshops and conferences in Canada, France, Belgium and the United-States promoting the idea of micro-scale farming as an alternative lifestyle. Jean-Martin has written articles about his work for popular magazines such as Canadian Organic Grower, La Terre de Chez Nous and Growing for Market.
The Market Gardener
A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming
Jean-Martin Fortier
New Society Publishers – February 2014 – $24.95
I am a board member of the Valley Permaculture Guild. Would there be any interested in hosting on of these events in Abbotsford or Chilliwack?
Hi, Slow Food Columbia Valley would be very interested in hosting a presentation in Invermere in March. We are en route between Kelowna and Cranbrook!! Look forward to hearing from you.