For Charlie Brown’s friend Linus Van Pelt, the goal was to have the most sincere pumpkin patch for as far as the eye could see. And while Donnie Bulliard’s tomato patch, walled off from view by its taller sugar cane neighbors, may not be easy to see, it is definitely sincere.

Tucked away on the fringe of St. Martin Parish, the 56-year-old Bulliard’s plot boasts 9,000 tomato plants, a combination of heirlooms including Delicious, Homestead and Lady Marmande varieties, all staked with hand-hewn bamboo stakes.

“We had to cut each one of those by hand,” Bulliard said. “That was probably harder than planting the seeds.”

Bulliard’s pride in the patch is evident as he walks along the rows, pointing out some plants producing multiple fruit and other with smaller numbers, but far larger tomatoes.

“They aren’t pretty, but they have a lot more flavor,” he said, holding one especially large example of the heirloom breed. Unlike its hybrid cousins, this one is about the size of a cabbage ball, its green skin just beginning to take on a reddish-orange hue.

Although the tomato venture is a new one for Bulliard and his business partner, it’s not Bulliard’s first time working in horticulture. He started planting seeds when he was a kid, he said, selling seeds to make money after reading an ad in Grit Magazine.

“I was supposed to sell 40 packs at 10 cents a pack,” he said. “I planted a pack of radish seeds and two days later they came up. I was hooked.”

Bulliard said he never made a profit on the seeds and just sold enough of the ones he purchased to break even and plant the rest. As he got older, he made a living designing and installing gardens, learning all of the tricks of the trade and educating himself along the way.

Then there were the substance abuse problems that got in the way.

“I struggled with substance abuse for a very long time,” he said. “I fought it with everything I had.”

As Bulliard fought to hold things together, he left a wake of arrests and run-ins with the law. In 2014, a decision to keep a $4,500 Mardi Gras gown landed him in jail, then a subsequent arrest on a fraudulent check charge forced the St. Martinville native to evaluate his lifestyle choices. He went into treatment for his addictions.

Bulliard started at a facility in South Louisiana, where he met his business partner, who was about a month ahead of him in the program. Later, in 2015, they met again at a secondary facility outside Monroe, where the therapy involved working on a small farm.

Unlike Bulliard, his partner, who preferred to remain anonymous, developed his addiction through sports injury.

“I was injured playing football, and started taking pain pills,” he said. “Then I was in an auto accident, and it got worse.”

Once treatment was finished, the pair decided they would start a business. They planted 10,000 tomato plants in pots, letting them germinate while they figured out what to do next.

“We had no idea where we were going to plant them at the time,” Bulliard said. “We had to start somewhere.”

A family friend told Bulliard about the location for rent  in St. Martin Parish, which had enough land and a house. The potted tomatoes were planted, staked and irrigated.

Now Bulliard is on the verge of making his first deals with farm-to-table restaurants in New Orleans, marketed under the name La Loom Farms.

“It’s short for Louisiana Heirloom” he said.

In the last few weeks, Bulliard has darkened the doorways of some of the world’s finest restaurants, meeting chefs and showing his wares.

As a result, the tomatoes may start showing up on menus soon.

“The first time I went down there (to New Orleans) it was just me,” he said, smiling. “This last trip, I brought a flat of the heirlooms with me, and everyone came up to see what I had.”

He said at least one very famous restaurant in the city’s Garden District is prepared to purchase La Loom’s crops and feature them, by name, on its menu.

That is just the first step.

“I ask them what they need,” Bulliard said. “We can grow whatever they want. Tomatoes, radishes, ginger. If we can be their local source, we’ll do it.”

Currently, though, the tomatoes have center stage. The first batch is ready to go, and can be bought at local farmer’s markets, proudly bearing the La Loom label.

“We couldn’t have found a better medicine,” Bulliard said. “I find myself closer to God in this patch of tomatoes than anywhere else I’ve ever been. He speaks to me and I speak back.”

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