Heather North and Clive Marsh

We are business partners in our walnut orchard located between Christchurch and Lincoln.

Lightfoot Walnuts, was established in 1998 when we purchased the land and began planting trees. Over a period of five years we have planted about 2700 trees over the 16 hectare property. We are now beginning to remove some trees to reduce the canopy density. 

Our goal was to achieve the best production we could, as early as possible. Its been a steep learning curve, as we were one of the first large-scale orchards to be established in Canterbury.

To achieve good tree growth and production we put a lot of effort into choosing a block of land that had good soil, and we also thought carefully about tree spacing – choosing to plant at 7x7m initially (for early canopy cover/production) knowing that we would need to thin out trees later on. We care for the trees by providing irrigation, nutrient management and blight control.

One of the most rewarding aspects of growing walnuts is living and working in a woodland-like environment. 

We take pride in farming a crop that is both environmentally friendly and highly nutritious. It's also fulfilling to have played a role in developing New Zealand’s walnut industry.

We have many fond memories working in the orchard, but a favourite is being able to have plenty of healthy nutritious snacks along the way!

Also seeing the increase in bird life over the years as we transformed a bare paddock into an orchard/woodland environment. 

Outside of farming, Clive enjoys the outdoors - tramping, mountaineering, kayaking, rogaining etc. 

Heather enjoys walking, gardening and listening to music.