Priscilla Richardson

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"In my opinion, his operation is a taste of an old-timey America that we're losing. There're only a few left." This is how Weldon Martin, retired educator and current director of the Botetourt Historical Society, describes his brother, Joseph William "Joe" Martin.

Fincastle's Joe Martin didn't set out to re-create anything. He simply took his inherited farm and way of life and added to it, turning it into a year-round business. He points out how different his business is from traditional farming, where the farmers sell their one crop and then have to live on the proceeds for the rest of the year. And maybe not make it. "You need a diverse income," he concluded.

Martin, in his mid-40s, the youngest of five brothers, never married and lived with his now deceased parents on the family property. "I'm a product of the horticultural program at BOTEC and my family tradition," he claims. The school showed him the way to grow vegetable plants to sell in the spring. But selling plants also was one of his grandmother's specialties.

The family speciality you probably have heard most about is the hog operation. He buys baby pigs that weigh about 30 pounds each, and then "I raise them up" until they're about 300 to 400 pounds each. "I have to take them to be slaughtered in North Carolina. Then I bring the whole hog home and work in our meat cooler," he explained. He cuts them into tenderloins, backbones and spare ribs. And makes sausage, liver pudding, scrapple and souse. "I've been doing it for so long it's almost like a way of life. Been working at it ever since I was kid, and my dad done it his whole life."

Martin has more than just a meat operation. He has 500 head of cattle and grows vegetables. This past summer, with irrigation of course, he grew and sold 400 dozen ears of corn. He has just bought apples and has arranged for more so he can make the family apple butter recipe. He's hoping the open fire ban will let up so he can use a wood fire, as he thinks that makes a better-tasting product. But he can always fall back on propane. Martin believes in long cooking, stirring his 70-gallon kettle constantly, from about 4 a.m. until 6 or 7 p.m. "We never have any trouble selling apple butter," he said.

Martin sells produce in Covington at a store still called Martin's Produce but now run by others. He sells pork at his home place starting in December on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Dec. 5 will be the first day this year. Then as long as cold weather lasts, he sells his meat Fridays and Saturdays on the Roanoke City Market.

With all those animals, he has tons of manure to give away. "People come and put it on their pickup trucks to put on their gardens." He hasn't gone totally organic, but he uses as few chemicals as he can. And grows his own animal feed, too.

At this point you're wondering how one man does all this. Answer: He doesn't. His secret weapons are his nephew Jason Martin and wife, Kim. "They do most of the work selling, I help them keep motivated. They do the picking and taking care of the customers. They lived right up the road in a house trailer till late last winter," he continued. "It caught fire and burned up, so they moved in here and are staying with me."

That trailer fire gave Martin one good result, he noted. "His wife is a pretty good cook already; she makes good biscuits, good beans with meat. She's the spoke in my wheel."

Now you want to know, where is this place located? Just drive north of Fincastle on U.S. 220, going past the Old Mill Store. About a mile farther, you'll see the sign for Martins Lane. Turn right and follow the gravel road.

Will Martin take on something else again? "There's not much else I can do. Got enough right here."