Farm forges a long-term financial plan in black walnuts

Today, it's hard to believe the 288 acres of the Martin Walnut Tree Farm were nothing more than plowed ground when Dr. Richard Martin bought the land 26 years ago.

It took about three or four years of seed planting by Martin, his family and volunteers to bring his groves of trees alive.

"There wasn't a tree out here in 1988," said farm manager Mike Edmunds.

The farm features many types of trees, such as oak, pine and cypress. But the black walnut trees have always been Martin's passion. He purchased the initial seeds from the National Walnut Council founder Archie Sparks. Sparks' trees were known for growing fast and straight and for producing a large volume of nuts, so Martin bought $200 worth of seeds.

Edmunds said the trees that sprouted from those seeds now are considered a rarity in the black walnut world. Studies performed just after Martin bought the seeds in 1988 found Sparks' trees were some of the top strains of black walnut trees in terms of production, quality and ratio of nut to shell. Martin was left with the largest collection of Sparks' trees in existence after the state of Iowa claimed Sparks' tree farm under eminent domain laws and destroyed nearly all of his trees.

Jake Edmunds bags walnuts using a gravity wagon Tuesday at Martin Walnut Tree Farm. (Laura Simon)

The farm twice has hosted the state meeting for the Missouri Walnut Council and was nearly selected to host a national convention. Edmunds said it took several years to bring the farm to its existing condition. He started in 2003 just cleaning up the grounds.

Edmunds recalls a time when the neat rows of trees were choked with underbrush and weeds. While Martin had a passion for the farm, he's also a physician and couldn't devote enough time to keep up with maintenance. While he had a difficult and lengthy task before him, Edmunds never doubted the tree farm's potential.

"I had this vision in my mind that this place could really be something," he said.

While the farm's marketing purpose is walnuts, it serves a greater purpose. A hand-painted map of the farm in one of the main sheds has a biblical verse from Isaiah 55:12: "For you will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

Peaceful is the word to describe the atmosphere around the farm, which is helpful for couples visiting for marriage retreats. Edmunds estimates 60 to 70 couples have stayed at the farm. It allows them time to focus on communication and reflect, alone and as a couple.

The house has a guest book filled with signatures and notes of thanks from those who have visited. Edmunds recently received a letter from a frequent customer who buys walnuts to use for homemade baking goods. She enclosed payment for her order and $40 extra because she knew the farm frequently gave away walnuts, and she admired their actions.

"That's it. That's the kind of atmosphere we want to portray," Edmunds said.

The tree farm also hosts youth group events for churches. Many are local, but one group comes from as far away as Nebraska. Edmunds said the farm has recreational areas and is family- and group-friendly.

There is no charge for those who use the farm for social events, although many make donations -- as small as paper towels and napkins to larger contributions such as a new barbecue grill.

In addition to maintenance, Edmunds helped work on recreational additions to the farm. He and his wife cleared out pine trees in one area for a whiffle ball field -- dubbed the "Pine Monster" after Boston's Fenway Park left-field wall's nickname, the Green Monster -- and an 18-hole whiffle ball golf course. Players use drivers and hit softball-sized whiffle balls. Edmunds said people enjoy the game because it requires a real swing, unlike putt-putt golf, but is easy enough for the less experienced to play.

There also are swings, benches, a fire pit and a teepee, built by Edmunds' son and daughter-in-law, tucked away along one of the farm's many trails.

The trails have been used in October for "haunted hikes" and hay rides, but the farm's focus in October is buying and processing walnuts. The farm buys walnuts from the public, collecting them through October. People also may bring them and pay to process them.

Nuts sold to the farm are dumped into a gravity wagon to be processed later. Processing begins with a machine that rips off the hulls -- the green outer layer -- and deposits the nuts onto a conveyor to be washed. The walnuts, still in their shells, then are moved to tables to air dry. The next step is to put the nuts through the cracker.

"It takes a lot to crack a walnut," Edmunds said. "It's a hard nut to crack."

Finally, they move to a color sorter, a machine that removes the nut meat from the shells. It identifies the color of the shells, which is typically darker than the nut meat. Once the machine recognizes the shell color, it separates anything different in color by shooting out bursts of air.

The nut meat is either returned to the customer if they brought nuts in to be processed, or it's bagged and prepared to be sold at local stores and farmers markets. Edmunds said the goal is to eventually sell the products on a larger scale.

"Our market is just very small, but we're trying to build it," he said.

The farm sells ground black walnut shells. They bag the small grounds to send to quilting shops that use them as pin cushion filling. The grounds also can be used as filling for homemade heating pads. The hulls retain the heat after being placed in a microwave for a few minutes, similar to a rice bag.

Some of the shells are ground to a finer consistency, similar to sand. Edmunds said they have not yet found a market for those shells but are searching for one. He said finely ground black walnut shells can be used as an exfoliant, so maybe they can be used for beauty products.

Edmunds expects the farm's market will grow when its production grows, and that's where the new walnut grove comes in. He said the best seeds were taken from the best trees in the initial grove and planted in a new 35-acre grove. Those trees that produced the prized seeds are called "tracked trees" and are marked to separate them from others in the grove. Seeds from those trees also are sold to people wishing to plant their own black walnut trees.

Edmunds said the nut meat content for a typical black walnut is about 8 percent. One of the tracked trees is producing walnuts with about 38 percent nut meat content.

"That's a huge difference," he said.

There are about 5,800 trees in the new grove, and they're about eight years old. It still will be a few years before they start producing walnuts, but Edmunds said once they do, the trees could produce around 75,000 pounds a year.

With that kind of yield, he said the farm would no longer need to buy walnuts from the public. The new trees would not only bring added production because they're adding to the farm's numbers, they should produce more nut meat with each walnut.

For now, the farm still relies on the public to bring walnuts, although they haven't needed as much this year. They will collect at the farm from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each Saturday and pay 13 cents a pound.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

330 Deere Country Lane, Cape Girardeau, Mo.