A new lease on land

When Dr. Richard Martin bought farmland south of Gordonville in 1987, he didn't know what he would do with it.

He certainly never imagined the land that he found tilled and barren would one day be a densely forested spot filled with 20 species of trees and producing 7,000 walnuts annually. Nor did he imagine he would play host to the annual meeting of the Missouri Walnut Council this month.

"I wanted land with trees on it," he said, "and when I came to look at it there wasn't a tree in sight, so I was disappointed. But when the guy took me out there, he said, 'Well, you can always grow trees.' And I thought, 'Well, why not?'"

The L-shaped patch of 172 acres was in the middle of a once-fertile area that had recently decreased significantly in value by the time Martin inquired about it.

After buying the land for a bargain basement price, Martin chose not to squeeze the last bit of fertility out of it. Instead, he took advantage of what was then a fairly new program for retiring land.

The Conservation Reserve Program, started in 1985, is a joint federal-state program intended to return cropland to nature and reverse the effects of soil erosion. The CRP gives short-term benefits to participants through small initial incentive payments and by funding 75 percent of the improvements that have to be made to the land under the program.

As a practicing ear, nose and throat specialist, Martin was fortunate that his financial security afforded him and his wife, Susan, the ability to look at the land through a longer lens.

"When I bought it, I had something planned for the land and I knew God had something planned for the land," Martin said. "I knew doing this meant that if there was ever profit, it wouldn't be sooner than 50 years down the road and that I'd never see any of it. But looking back, I've really enjoyed it."

With one part inspiration from the federal program and one part inspiration from Isaiah 55:12 -- which reads in part, "the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" -- Martin chose to reforest the acreage.

Today, when he's not practicing medicine at Doctor's Park, Martin drives a golf cart under the shade of pines, oaks, and walnuts with assistant Mike Edmunds riding alongside and white Labrador Molly barking at the wheels.

"I like to call it Narnia," said Martin, referring to the lowland area of his farm.

'Changing people's minds'

Because Martin grows an unusual variety of eastern black walnut, people are taking notice of Narnia.

At the end of the month, Martin will play host to the Missouri Walnut Council's annual meeting, where enthusiasts will trade techniques and get a firsthand look at Martin's farm.

Martin sees it as a chance to show off this area of the state because there's a myth is that any walnut tree south of Interstate 70 is not worthy.

"We're changing people's minds," he said. "We catch the apex of the delta of the Mississippi River, so this is very fertile ground."

The fertile ground paired with what Martin and Edmunds believe is the best cultivar around (purchased from an Iowa farmer named Archie Sparks) has had a dramatic impact.

"Sparks took the best of the best," said Edmunds. "And we take the best from that."

Last year, according to Edmunds' meticulous records, 30 percent of the farm's trees produced walnuts; a high figure for such young trees.

By only planting seeds that come from trees with high spur counts (spurs are the small branches where nuts grow) Martin and Edmunds effectively breed trees for productivity.

"The key is if I plant this, what I want to know is how good is it," Martin said, gesturing to a tree.

And the cultivars named after Sparks have been good. Last year, three variations of Sparks' nuts ranked near the top in a nationwide survey.

This makes Martin, who is one of the few growers with a full farm of trees from Sparks cultivars, an intriguing figure.

Professor Mark Cogeshall of the University of Missouri's Center for Agroforestry has examined the Sparks nuts and came away impressed.

"Sparks had a very keen eye and selected nuts that produced very thin shells to maximize the meat," he said. "Most nuts you crack the husk off and the meat accounts for 14 to 20 percent of the total weight, but the nuts Dr. Martin is growing, they are 30 to 37 percent meat."

Walnut trees have a life expectancy of 200 to 250 years. Martin and Edmunds harvest the nuts by shaking the tree and test for their health by floating them in water. A good nut will sink; a nut affected by insects or disease will float.

Cogeshall said the trees on Martin's farm are exciting because they tend to produce a more even crop of nuts from year to year, they produce nuts at a younger age and they are hardier when it comes to diseases.

"I'm very interested in these trees," Cogeshall said. "They look pretty darn good."

To date, Martin has only made three sales of walnuts to seed new trees. Those walnuts go for between 30 and 50 cents apiece because of their pedigree.

'The remarkable thing'

Playing host to the annual council meeting will shine a spotlight on Martin's farm. Arlen Palm, president of the Missouri Walnut Council, said the farm was chosen partly for its location, because the council tries to rotate meetings around the state. It was also chosen for its success.

"The remarkable thing is that his accomplishments are testimonies to what can be done on CRP acreage," Palm said. "These are acres that have been taken out of grain crop, and he is well on his way to a profitable nut production, and further down the road logging will be rendering profits."

Aside from 33 acres of walnut trees, the farm also has oak, white pine, loblolly and bald cypress among others.

"We try to plant trees where they belong," Martin said. "So we planted pines on high grounds, hardwoods on the intermediate land, and bald cypress on the low ground. It's the only way to do it, because if you plant the wrong tree in the wrong area, it won't grow."

But for the Martins, the project is not all about the trees. Most weekends the farm plays host to church groups that take advantage of the serene landscape and ample camping room for Bible study and team-building exercises. The farm also boasts a lake, canoes, a horseshoe pit and a Wiffle-ball golf course invented by Edmunds.

Many of the trees at the farm were planted by participants of Teen Challenge, a faith-based organization that helps young men overcome addiction.

"This is less a farm and more a ministry," said Martin.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245