Forum Friday// Masterclass Review, Everbedding, & Podcast Improvements
The Market Gardener’s Masterclass Review
Here’s a review of JM’s Market Gardner’s Masterclass. And here are the cliff notes……
Focus on crops. If you’re looking for how to set up a farm, infrastructure designs, employee management, other courses offer more (though, JM is adding more components on these things soon). Which may be a downside for prospective students. However, none that we have seen—yet—have such intense focus on crop planning and crop-by-crop best practices. If you aren’t able to produce a solid crop, the rest of your farm may be irrelevant. Further, due to the scale of FQT, they are adding crops most market gardeners don’t cover: melons, beans, etc. that may be of use to us stubborn growers that won’t give them up in the name of efficiency.
No-frills. The course is quite dense. Though the production quality is high, there isn’t much waste here. The course is so dense, in fact, you cannot step away from it without missing something. The videos show explicit examples of what you’re hearing as you’re hearing it. It’s almost as if you are there with him, one-on-one, but be ready to spend some time in front of a screen, as it doesn’t translate well into just audio.
Yes, we know it’s expensive. To be clear, we wouldn’t have been able to afford it given our similar stages of life (farms full of kids, side projects, etc). However, I would invest—because that’s what it is, an investment—in this tool—because that’s what it is, a tool—for my beginning farmer self. It does not replace on farm experience of any kind, market garden or not. But, this is a powerful tool, and the effects will just compound over the years.
Everbedding
“The best fertility your soil will ever receive is photosynthesis. Straight-up.”
Following the principles of no-till and soil conservation, Farmer Jesse explores the potential of the EverBed, or staggering intercroppings in a permanent bed to maximize photosynthesis, soil coverage, root matter, production capacity, etc. He also goes into some of the downsides (especially if you’re not a fan of Tetris).
Help us improve the podcast
We asked the question a couple weeks ago, “What can we do to imrpove the podcast?” There have been a lot of great ideas on how we can improve the podcast for the next season and they keep rolling in… but we want more feedback. Our aim, given we reach our $1k Patreon challenge, is to do more interviews, but also dedicate entire episodes to exploring specific topics. We want to know, well, what you want to know! If you have any guest suggestions, requests for topics, or ideas about how we can just make the show better, let us know! Also, if you want to hear a season two of The No-Till Market Garden Podcast…
Ps. It’s Spring, in case you haven’t noticed. We know that everyone is a bit busy, we are as well (we’re full-time growers, too). We really appreciate y’all taking the time to follow us on Instagram, listen to the show (rate and review really helps if you have a sec), and check in on the site. That said, iti’s time to farm hard. #getafterit