When the family business is measured in centuries ”“ 1.8 to be precise ”“ tweaking the equation is no small event. But that is the story at Stuart”™s Farm in Granite Springs, where seven generations of the same family ”“ dating to when James W. Conklin first tilled the site in 1828 ”“ have worked the earth without a Christmas tree crop.
That was slated to change Thanksgiving weekend.
Seven years ago, the Stuart family dug themselves a hole and into it placed a Douglas fir seedling.
That first seedling is now ready for sale. Stuart”™s Farm”™s Christmas tree venture ”“ in the making since 2001 ”“ was scheduled to bear financial fruit the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend when the first of that crop was expected to fall to the saw. They may be an agricultural crop, just like corn, but a tree is a tree and, as owner Betsy Stuart said, “That”™s what it takes ”“ seven years.”
Stuart”™s has upped its fir count by 500 per year leaving 3,000 now in the ground in stages from sapling to tinsel-ready. The freshness will not be in dispute since the field has a you-cut-it policy.
“We planted Douglas firs because the deer don”™t like them,” said Stuart, whose husband Bob Stuart is co-owner.
As of 2002, the latest year for which figures were available through the Department of Agriculture and Markets, New York had 32,599 acres of Christmas trees and roughly 1,700 Christmas tree farmers. That year, 618,917 trees fell. The state at the time ranked fifth nationally in Christmas tree production. (The next batch of state Christmas tree data will not be released until February, according to department spokesman Brent Farley in Albany.)
Manager Ricky Barragan at United Gardens on Jackson Avenue in Scarsdale was expecting 400 trees to be delivered Thanksgiving week. After that, the store will be open seven days per week 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. until the last of the trees are gone, or deemed unsaleable, as always happens with a handful, according to Barragan. “We had maybe 30 that did not sell last year,” he said, citing “too much space” between boughs as the near-universal reason a few trees remain homeless.
United Gardens”™ prices for this year”™s crop had not been fixed when Barragan spoke. He said last year”™s range was $55 to $150.
United Gardens also sells wreaths and garlands. The biggest wreath ”“ a whopping 6-feet in diameter and already decorated ”“ costs about $350.
The Christmas Tree Farmers of New York Inc.”™s Web site breaks down the state into three regions with directions to various Christmas tree farms for those who want to tromp through the fields for the perfect tree. The site pointedly asks, Why buy a fresh tree? The answer: Because it smells better.
Unless they are operating under the radar, most municipalities require Christmas tree sellers to obtain a permit for the sort of stands many frequent: with a plywood cutout of a tree and a few bare bulbs constituting the overhead.
In Rye, a Christmas tree sale permit is required for any person selling Christmas trees.
The fee is $100 and the seller must provide proof of general liability insurance, worker”™s comp and compliance with disability benefits laws. A refundable cash bond (unspecified in the code) is also required.
In New Rochelle, the Department of Public Works this year devoted 28 man days to collecting trees, according to Commissioner Jeffrey Coleman. The process begins in mid-January, Coleman said. “This year, we picked up our last tree in May.”
