‘Tis the season to get your Christmas tree

In Springfield, Vanessa Bishop and her husband, Chris, have been growing Christmas trees for about 15 years, and they provide the quintessential cut-your-own experience.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20111128/NEWS02/711289918

Published November 28, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

‘Tis the season to get your Christmas tree

By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — In Vermont, getting your Christmas tree can range from effortless to major effort.

You can hike in the Green Mountain National Forest and find your own Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Or you can hire someone to take any stress out of setting up the unwieldy tree: P.J. Bushey’s in East Wallingford will bring a 10-foot manicured balsam fir to your home, set it up and put on lights.

In Springfield, Vanessa Bishop and her husband, Chris Bishop, have been growing Christmas trees for about 15 years at his family’s former dairy farm, and they provide the quintessential cut-your-own experience.

Christmas Trees at Bishop Farm has about 30 acres of growing trees, balsam and Fraser fir, striking the balance between a retail and cut-your-own business, and wholesaling trees to others.

The family plants about 5,000 trees a year, and sell between 2,000 to 3,000 a year, losing some to pests and problems.

The Bishop Farm, known to generations of Springfield residents for its iconic farm on Skitchewaug Trail, provides the full Christmas tree experience, which is more and more a key ingredient to getting a Christmas tree.

They also make Christmas wreaths, and on Friday, had completed two giant, 82-inch wreaths for Okemo Mountain Resort, to be placed on its landmark clocktower.

“It’s actually bigger than 82 inches,” Vanessa Bishop said, noting that the balsam “brush” sticks out another 10 inches on each side. The wreath, she quickly added, was double sided.

And the first customers of the Christmas tree season came to the Springfield farm, which officially didn’t open for the season until Saturday.

“We try and accommodate everyone,” said Bishop, who said that she and her family raise the trees to try and cover their property taxes.

Finally, this year, the Christmas tree operation was not subsidized by their regular jobs as teacher and employee of an energy plant.

Melissa Rosenberg at P.J. Bushey’s was taking delivery of her first load of freshly cut Christmas trees – from a Vermont Christmas tree grower.

Rosenberg said that people start looking for Christmas trees right after Thanksgiving, but she said most purchasers are second homeowners up in Vermont for the holiday weekend.

Rosenberg sells not just wreaths and trees, but Christmas tree services, such as setting up the trees and adding lights.

P.J. Bushey’s will have premium and Grade 1 trees, which Rosenberg described premium as perfectly grown trees, and Grade 1 trees with a slight imperfection.

“Balsam tends to be the most popular,” she said, noting that Fraser fir tend to hold their needles longer than balsam.

Rosenberg, who has owned Bushey’s for eight years, said that the previous owners started selling trees on their Route 103 location back in 1969.

Bushey’s makes its own wreaths, she said. Everything from a 12-inch modest wreath to a five-footer.

“All are hand-wrapped and double-faced,” she said. The first wreath orders go out in November, she said, as cemeteries close and families want to decorate their loved ones graves for Christmas.

Offering a different alternative is the Green Mountain National Forest, said forest spokesman Ethan Ready.

For $5, people can purchase a special orange tag, which gives them the right to cut any evergreen tree in the forest – under 20 feet tall. There are some restrictions on areas where the trees can be cut, as campgrounds, picnic areas, wilderness areas and an active timber sale is off-limits.

No tree can be cut within 25 feet of a road, he said, either a state, town or Forest Service Road.

“The cost of the Christmas tree permit is $5, but the experience of getting out on the National Forest with friends and family in search of the perfect tree is priceless,” said Ready, comparing the search for a tree as an adventure.

Last year, the national forest sold 237 permits, and the year before 155 permits, and Ready said he expected “strong sales” this year. “In tough economic times, a lot of people are interested in a $5 Christmas tree,” he said.

Permits may be purchased in Rutland at the forest supervisor’s office on North Main Street, as well as the Manchester, Middlebury and Rochester ranger stations.

Ready said that the forest service prohibits the practice of cutting a 40-foot tree and taking the top 10 feet, leaving the rest of the tree behind.

Up in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the Salo family’s Christmas tree season is wrapping up.

The Salomaa Tree Plantation in Stannard, run by Fred and Yolande Salo, sells practically all of its thousands of trees wholesale. The family runs a Christmas tree yard in Pearl River, N.Y., starting Saturday, and will cut an occasional tree for a neighbor, but otherwise it’s all wholesale.

“We’ve not been afflicted with any problems this year,” said Yolande Salo, whose husband is president of the Vermont Christmas Tree Association.

“Our season is almost over,” she said. “We’ve had a good season.”

Rosenberg said that Bushey’s offers delivery, set-up and decoration tree services, mostly for second homeowners.

Bushey’s used to decorate a home at Okemo Mountain for Christmas, inside and out, and every room.

“We haven’t done that in a while,” she said.

Rosenberg said that past couple of years of a poor economy has seen some people cut back, she said.

“But there’s nothing like a fresh tree,” she said. “I have two.”