JM Fortier Wants to Help More Small-Scale Farmers Grow Vegetables in Winter
In his latest book, the Canadian market farmer and educator hopes to inspire a new generation of small-scale farmers to extend their growing seasons in an effort to boost food sovereignty.
December 18, 2023 | Source: Civil Eats | by Twilight Greenaway
On a recent video call, the renowned Canadian market farmer and educator Jean-Martin “JM” Fortier stood in a greenhouse, wearing a winter vest and talking about the wide variety of fresh herbs and greens—from sweet spinach to cilantro to frilly mustard greens—tucked snugly into rows behind him.
“Here we are in mid-November, and we’re just under 10 hours of daylight [a day],” said Fortier, who added that the challenges of growing in winter have always been much more about lack of light than temperature. “We got all our crops in a greenhouse, eight to 10 weeks ago, and now the crops will be staying in the ground, not really growing anymore because there’s not enough light, but just staying in a cool place. We will harvest them every week until the growth picks back up in February.”
For the last few years, Fortier and Catherine Sylvestre, a professional agronomist and director of vegetable production at the Ferme des Quatre Temps or Four Season Farm—one of three farms at the heart of Fortier’s Market Garden Institute—have gotten serious about winter farming. When the pandemic disrupted multiple supply chains and made it challenging to get fresh vegetables from southern climates in Eastern Canada, policymakers in the region started thinking seriously about food sovereignty. As Fortier writes in the introduction to his new book, The Winter Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Year-Round Harvests: