By WARREN DILLAWAY - Staff Writer
Many cars driving west on Route 6 seemed to be outfitted with cute green hats after visits to many Christmas tree farms in the southern part of Ashtabula County.
“We’re set up and ready to go,” said Cliff Battles, owner of Grand River Valley Christmas Tree Farm on Laskey Road in Rome Township.
The traditional kick off to the Christmas tree buying season is the day after Thanksgiving and this year was no different.
“We had a good day yesterday (Friday),” Battles said.
One recent addition to the Christmas tree purchasing season is the Internet. Battles said he has about 50 percent repeat customer business and 50 percent new sales from Internet connections.
“They saw what they liked (on the farm’s Web site) and came out to check it out,” he said.
Battles said the year was a little wet but the trees are in excellent shape this year.
“I’ve invested a lot of money in drainage,” he said of the
importance of moving water off the land so trees aren’t soaked for long periods of time.
Kevin Lemons, co-owner of Manners Tree Farm in New Lyme Township, said Friday kicked off the season well, but Saturday was a bit slow.
The long time Christmas tree farm has a long tradition of brightening the lives of families during the holiday season.
“I’ve been coming here for 12 years. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and now I bring my kids,” said Jeremy Purola of Ashtabula.
Even in the midst of the 2008 holiday economic chaos area growers reported a good season.
“Last year was better than the year before,” Lemons said of statistics provided by Ohio Christmas tree growers after the 2008 season.
Lemons speculated that perhaps people now realize the importance of buying American made products. He said he likes to remind people that home grown Christmas trees are still 100 percent American.
He said the growing season was a good one with rainfall spread throughout the year so there weren’t any significant droughts or washouts.
Manners provides horse-drawn carriage rides around the property and that is not lost on Barb Bock of Ashtabula who has been coming to the farm for about 15 years.
Larry Stevens provides a shuttle service from the farm to the tree fields complete with a tractor driven wagon and crew to help cut the customer’s tree.
“So far so good. The weather has been wonderful,” said Larry Stevens owner of Log Barn Farm in Williamsfield Township who planted his first tree in 1981 after purchasing the farm in 1973.
“We were going to buy our tree at Publix in Tampa (on Saturday) but decided to wait until we got home,” joked Randy Wyand of Howland who has been making the trip to Williamsfield for years.
“We come to Larry’s every year. It’s become a tradition for our family,” he said.
Two trees did end up going the opposite direction this weekend.
An Alabama family in the area for the holidays decided the trees were too good to miss and strapped two blue spruce Christmas trees on their van and began the long journey home.
Henson’s Hideway, in Rome Township, reported excellent sales on Saturday as well.
“We’re having a wonderful season. We actually sold three trees (and a variety of other related items) the day before Thanksgiving,” said Deborah White, president of Henson’s Hideaway.
She said the farm is helping to meet a unique market this year.
“We have a lot of large trees and we have a lot of customers who want large trees,” she said.
White said they sold an 11 foot Norway tree to a man who planned to put it on his back deck and another inside tree that was 14 feet tall.
In addition to the farms that try to make the experience come alive many area stores sell Christmas trees as well as area residents that have trees trucked in to sell on their property.
Let the holiday season begin.
