The Market Gardener’s Toolkit
An educational film about tools and techniques for a profitable, human-scale agriculture
The Market Gardener’s Toolkit is an educational documentary in which small-scale organic farmer, educator and author Jean-Martin Fortier shares the tools and techniques used on his highly productive 1.5-acre farm.
From soil preparation to strategies on dealing with insect pests, discover how this micro-farm manages to generate $150,000 CAD in sales annually – without the use of a tractor or any heavy machinery.
Filmed over an entire growing season in Quebec’s beautiful Eastern Townships, The Market Gardener’s Toolkit offers an unprecedented insight into the daily operations of the farm, from seeding to transplanting, from weeding to harvesting.
Over 90 minutes of beautiful HD footage, Fortier takes you through the following subjects and demonstrates a variety of tools and techniques :
- Greenhouse and nursery
- The permanent bed system
- Standardization for efficiency
- Bed preparation with the minimal tillage approach
- Compost, fertilization and crop rotation
- Green manures
- The bio-intensive system
- Transplantation
- Direct seeding / Seeders
- Irrigation
- Weeding / Flame weeding
- Plastic and organic mulches
- Insect control
- Harvesting
No matter the scale of your project, whether a small urban farm or a full-scale commercial market garden, this film will offer valuable information and help make your operation more efficient and profitable. The emphasis is put on low-tech, high-efficiency tools and techniques, with an aim toproduce more with less work and less capital investment.
The film is being produced in two versions, English and French, so we filmed everything twice, and the editing also requires almost double the work (Click here to see the French-language version of this campaign).
We’re currently shooting for a mid-May release date, but we’re working hard to finish the film as soon as possible. The final product will be available in digital download format (720p and 1080p versions) and on DVD.
Our rewards for this campaign (you can see them in the sidebar on the right of this page) also include reproduction prints from Québec artist Eric Chouteau (sanscravate.ca), who’s working on illustrations to spice up the film. Here’s one of the illustrations he’s working on:
To see more footage from the film, you can watch a short trailer we released a few weeks ago:
What are the funds for?
We’ve already invested a lot of time, effort and money into the project, and all the footage has been shot. We’re making good progress in the editing phase, but now we need your support to help cover the costs of post-production, music, audio mastering, illustrations, subtitles, DVD production, distribution, and the final phase of editing and color grading. Here’s a breakdown of where we’ll be spending the money.
About the project owner
Olivier Asselin works as a professional photographer and film-maker since 2004. He has traveled on assignment for media and development organizations to over 25 countries on three continents. Since 2012, he works mainly on video and film projects to document, share and promote positive initiatives for a more sustainable future. He is the founder of Possible Media, directed The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic, and co-directed the Permaculture Skills video series (both projects were funded through highly successful crowdfunding campaigns).
Barthelemy Glumineau is a multi-talented artist. A circus performer working on his own creations or for companies such as Cirque du Soleil, he’s also very active in video/photo production, involved in every step from scripting, directing to post-production. In parallel to those areas, Bart is a world traveler, builds open-source hardware and is deeply involved in permaculture and natural building movements. He became involved in Possible Media in 2013 and co-directed thePermaculture Skills video series. He also filmed and directed the crowdfunded educational video The Art and Science of Natural Plaster.
Jean-Martin Fortier is a farmer, educator and author specializing in organic and biologically intensive cropping practices. His award-winning book,The Market Gardener, has inspired thousands of readers worldwide to reimagine human-scale food systems. His message is one of empowerment in order to educate, encourage and inspire people into pursuing a farming career and lifestyle. With his wife, Maude-Hélène Desroches, he runs Les Jardins de la Grelinette, an internationally renowned micro-farm in Quebec, Canada.
The Market Gardener’s Toolkit is an educational documentary in which small-scale organic farmer, educator and author Jean-Martin Fortier shares the tools and techniques used on his highly productive 1.5-acre farm.
See Campaign: https://www.ulule.com/market-gardener/
Contact Information:
Olivier Asselin
Tags:
ulule, Men, Equipment & Supplies, Donation, Consumer, Agriculture, English, European Union, France, Industry verticals, Regions, Types of Crowdfunding deal, Language
Source: icnw