A Pungent Crop: Smells Just Like Money Idaho Farmer Shifts Land From Wheat And Grass To Peppermint

The potent, sweet smell drifted across the prairie from the Nichols’ farm last week, luring visitors and neighbors to their mint distillery - a Willy Wonka-like machine, with steam engines, heating coils and a sweet thick oil, pouring into barrels.

Tana Nichols stood guard, checking the clocks during the last minutes of cooking one batch of peppermint.

Meanwhile, her husband, Terry, pulled up to the still in a white truck hauling the next batch of leaves to be hooked up to the steam line which begins production of the clear, fresh liquid that sells for $9 to $14 a pound.

Two neighbors, pulled in by the aroma, stopped by during a one-hour visit Tuesday afternoon.

“One day we had 14 people come by,” Tana Nichols said as she collected a sample of the bubbling water and mint oil mixture in a glass cup. “I think it’s a really neat crop. It’s different than anything else.”

The past two years have been different for the Nichols, who have grown wheat, bluegrass and barley on land they’ve farmed for 16 years. Two years ago 275 acres of grass and grains were replanted with leafy green peppermint.

Their experiment is part of a growing trend of Idaho farmers trying to make inroads into the lucrative mint oil business.

Since 1987 Idaho mint production - mostly in southwestern Idaho counties and the Treasure Valley - has increased more than 150 percent. Production values have increased more than $18.6 million in the last 9 years.

And Idaho still trails the two leading mint-producing states, Washington and Oregon.

Terry Nichols saw that peppermint was a booming business in 1995 when he visited the Kalispell, Mont., area to observe farmers who have been growing about 5,000 acres of mint in the Flathead Valley.

That fall Nichols switched part of his grass acreage to peppermint, planting roots from certified growers. This year he and his family built a mint oil distillery where their trailer home once stood.

“You’ve got to make a living,” he said. “I wanted to (grow mint) and needed to look at an alternative.” Nichols’ experiment may seem a sweet and lucrative novelty to other farmers on the prairie, but more growers raising mint nationally have hurt profitability, say mint industry experts.

“Currently we’re in an oversupply situation, so the markets won’t be as favorable,” said Ross Warner, vice president of purchasing in Jefferson, Oregon for A M Todd Co., headquartered in Kalamazoo, Mich., one of the nation’s largest mint oil dealers.

The U.S. is the largest mint producer in the world, and though demand has grown, nationally and globally, supply still has exceeded demand. Ninety percent of mint oil is used in chewing gum and oral hygiene products.

According to A M Todd Co. studies, national mint demand increased from 8.1 million pounds in 1994 to 8.8 million pounds in 1996. Meanwhile, national supply increased from 8.8 million pounds in 1994 to 11 million pounds in 1996, Warner said.

“It has entered into an oversupply situation, so what the profitability will be, depends on the producers’ costs,” he said.

Those costs can include $200,000 for new equipment. That’s how much Rathdrum farmers Wade and Wanda McLean paid for 10 specialized trailers, or tubs, mint roots and a distillery. But it’s worth it, Wade said.

“There’s a heck of a lot more potential to make money on mint than cereal grain,” said McLean, who began growing 100 acres of mint this season. “Raising grain on this prairie is only trading dollars. You put dollars in for capital expenses and then after the harvest, you hope you made a few dollars.”

McLean may get $3.50 a bushel for grain. He signed a three-year contract with an oil buyer for $13 a pound. On average, one acre of mint produces 76 pounds of oil. “There’s quite a bit of difference in raising an $800 crop than a $350 crop,” he said.

The family continues to farm 1,800 acres, part of the land the Satchwell family homesteaded in 1897. The McLeans grow barley, bluegrass and oats.

Other commodity prices have remained generally flat and grass burning, essential to improving future yields, is slowly being phased out on the prairie. Perhaps crops such as mint are a viable option.

“We didn’t sign on to the Jacklin’s plan (to phaseout grass burning),” Wade said. He may increase the number of mint acres, but plans to continue growing grass seed.

As more growers plant mint, the less lucrative this specialized crop may be, warn mint industry executives.

The U.S. mint oil market, a small percentage of the overall commodities market with about $200 million in annual sales, is becoming flooded with mint oil, said Rich Garber of the Idaho Mint Council.

“Word gets around pretty fast that there’s profit in mint, and a lot of farmers have jumped in,” Garber said.

“In Idaho we’re certainly seeing the acreage go up every year.”

Some say too much.

“Sales appear to be dead. There’s too much (mint) around,” said Harold Clarke of the Montana Mint Growers Association. “They should have stayed with bluegrass,” he joked.

Washington, which led the nation with a total of 4.6 million pounds of mint produced in 1996, has seen less of an increase in production, because Washington has already developed most of its mint-producing lands.

Mint requires rich soil, lots of water, long sunlight hours and hot weather. For Rathdrum prairie growers this means a little more money in water and fertilizer.

Yakima Valley farmers have more diversified crops than southern Idaho growers, said Rod Christensen, manager of the Washington spearmint marketing board, which oversees the amount of spearmint oil placed on the market.

Washington doesn’t have lots of sugar beet farmers like southwestern Idaho, who turned to mint production when times got tough, Christensen said. It doesn’t have potato farmers looking for other crops when prices were low. And since Washington has been one of the top mint producers for years, many of the mint fields remain in the same area.

“I think that limits the expansion,” Christensen said.

Meanwhile, expansion is up in the air for the Nichols. They don’t know if they plan to turn this crop into a full-blown main one.

“We just really need to do what we do well before we get bigger,” Tana said.

So will this Kootenai County experiment be profitable?

“It remains to be seen,” said Garber. “One advantage that the growers have is that it’s a new crop and the land should be disease-free. So there should be an increase in production. Whether that area can compete with southwestern Idaho is a good question, but I think they have a good chance of (quality and quantity of )production up there.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (2 Color) Graphic: 1996 mint yield