You Memphis suburbanites sure do grasp at ANYTHING to try and establish relevancy. Try again, stupid. Or, better yet........just go some place else where you're NOT the laughing stock. Not sure where that'd be, but.............
Family has been farming Christmas Trees over 100 years as part of our evergreen/florist greens business.
It's one of those jobs people don't realize exists until they really think about it. Business ups and downs - outside of the one retail lot on the property, uncle doesn't do retail lots anymore.
Heyday of Prohibition - if you bought a tree in Chicago, it was probably one of ours. We would smuggle booze down there for both Capone and O'Banion under them so eventually, they made sure we were the ones selling trees so we'd make more trips.
So now - we do wholesale trees, greens (wreaths, roping, bundles etc) and the retail lot where people can cut their own or not. If they cut their own - take the wagon out - pulled by either horses with good snow or a JD and cut. Gift store etc.
Christmas and Christmas trees are big deals in our fam.
Friends of ours did this on our ops as part of his youtube farming channel.
Our family has only been in it for 45 years. We're smaller scale than what yinz appear to be. We've only got around 25,000 in the ground right now. But there's just me and my older brother..........and we ain't gettin' any younger.
I'm sure Luther will be along soon to tell how your operation sucks and how ugly your trees are. He can't help but run his mouth about stuff he knows nothing of.
Our family has only been in it for 45 years. We're smaller scale than what yinz appear to be. We've only got around 25,000 in the ground right now. But there's just me and my older brother..........and we ain't gettin' any younger.
I'm sure Luther will be along soon to tell how your operation sucks and how ugly your trees are. He can't help but run his mouth about stuff he knows nothing of.
25k isn't minor.
IIRC - at current size, he's planting 8-10k a spring now. We used to be much larger and we have property all over the place, not just what's in the video.
We also raise (or have raised) Scotch pine, Austrian pine, Fraser fir, Grand fir, and Korean fir. The market caught us by surprise and we had a few years where we didn't plant enough. So, we're in a supply lull for a couple years here. For the last couple years, we've turned multiple new wholesale customers away each day for weeks. EVERYBODY wants trees. Nobody HAS trees. We could have sold every tree last years 10 times over and still would have been turning people away. THIS year..........we're not able to even supply all of our EXISTING customers.
Those are some great looking trees! Great pruning.
We do ok on keeping up with supply on trees - the hard par it roping, wreaths, grave blankets, etc. Heck - doing 55k wreaths a year and could likely double it IF we could get the brush cut and the homemakers to make them.
Actually - that truck used to do all the deliveries but so busy, impossible to do it. Gotten some of our larger florist customers to do CPU and pay that bill - which is nice. We'll never let the truck go tho because it's just part of who we are and my uncle's life his whole life. Has a rebuilt N14 in it and gets an honest 14mpg - loaded on trips from MI down to Chicago/Indy/St Louis etc.
Those are some great looking trees! Great pruning.
Thanks, fellers.
I'm pretty fussy about our shearing. I taught my dad (he's been gone for 8 years) and my older brother and it's been just us doing the shearing the whole 45 years. I've seen too many tree farms totally ruined by hiring the shearing out to crews of buffoons. Not happening, here.
We do wholesale bough orders by the trailer load. But never got much into the wreath making. Just too much to do already and not enough hours in the day, week, month, year...........
Nice video Teal....I have a buddy I shoot shotguns with all the time that his dad had a Christmas tree farm in Lousiana. I figured they all were grown up North.
So you raise Christmas trees Yoder ? We've got a Christmas tree farm just up the road here. I used to help them plant and trim in the spring/summer.
Yessir. I do, indeed.
That's cool. I love Christmas and all that goes with it. We still cut a concolor fir that goes clear to the ceiling from the tree farm up the road every year and decorate the ol' homestead to the max inside and out.