D&C Holiday Farm at dark.
With the holidays right around the corner, most people already have their Christmas trees up. But where do they come from?
During an interview with the owner of D&C Holiday Farm, a local Christmas tree farm in Muldrow, Okla., Dean Armstrong answered all of the common questions about his farm. The first question was, “Where do Christmas trees come from?” His response was that live trees come from places called Christmas tree farms, just like the D&C Holiday Farm!
This year, D&C Holiday Farm will have about 3,000 Christmas trees ready for purchase, and even more are growing and will be harvested in upcoming years. Christmas trees are planted as one-year-old saplings, and can take up to five years to grow into full, ready-to-harvest trees! While Christmas trees are growing, they are sheared and shaped at least twice a year until they are ready for harvest.
According to Armstrong, “People always want to know what caring for my trees is like, and I can say it is extremely taxing work.” However, this work is incredibly important, both to the farm and to promoting agriculture.
Trees are ready for customers to harvest when they reach six feet in height. When they are ready or selected by a customer of the farm, they have a special process to prepare the trees. To start, they take each fresh tree and shake it. Shaking allows each tree to drop the loose needles, helping alleviate the mess they might make. Next, they bale each tree to keep the limbs safe for the ride home from the farm. Finally, they drill a hole in the bottom of each tree for the base. After the packaging process, each tree is purchased by an excited family.
According to Oklahoma’s Ag in the Classroom program, there are numerous benefits to having live Christmas trees, outside of the long-lasting Christmas tradition. These include the reduced amount of carbon dioxide in the air, which helps combat global warming, and the ease of recycling fresh trees after the holidays.
The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry also encourages buying locally grown Christmas trees for the environment and the economy. So, to participate in agriculture-related Christmas fun, visit a Christmas tree farm in your area! Visit https://realchristmastrees.org/all-about-trees/tree-locator/ to find a farm in your area.
