Market garden
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For the World War II operation, see Operation Market Garden
A Market Garden is, typically, a small business growing fruits and vegetables, perhaps in glasshouses or in the open, which is sufficiently near a city – its market – for produce to be transported there and arrive in a fresh condition.
For example, in the United Kingdom, south Sussex was famous for growing tomatoes for the London market, using the train in order to get the produce to the market. The arrival of railways to in the 19th century would initially stimulate the market gardens in certain areas who were then able get fresh produce to the city quickly but would eventually lead to commuting residents moving to the area causing the market gardens to be redeveloped as suburbs.
In today's days of refrigerated transport and bulk supply agreements for supermarket chains, the concept of a market garden has been dying, although it still exists in developing countries. Other businesses have transformed themselves by the construction of a retail outlet on their land where they sell produce grown on that land, it's freshness allowing for a premium price over the revenue from the supermarkets, and, frequently, other local suppliers as well. Such producer/retail outlets often style themselves as 'Farm Shops'.