A2B-Lancasttr Farming, Saturday, December 25,1993
Fir Trees Foster
‘Decoratability’
Of Christmas Season
(Continued from Pago A 1)
lake. “They look more like the
trees of yesteryear, the kind you
harvested out of the woods with
Grandpa. They have less insect
and disease problems and they’re
just an all-around nicer tree.”
Also, Westlake said he believed
the Douglas and Fraser firs are
nearly “neck-and-neck” for
“keepability,” meaning they can
withstand the punishment a cut
tree goes through from when it is
harvested until is brought home
and decorated.
Westlake said that those who
harvest trees should remember you
are taking a tree that’s been in the
field under conditions at night
where the temperature ranges from
2S degrees to 35 degrees Fahren
heit and you bring it into your
70-degree Fahrenheit house “and
you ask this thing to stand there
and lode pretty and don’t drop its
needles for four, five, or six weeks
of the year. That’s a lot to ask from
a tree.”
But the Frasers have the keepa
bility growers desire, because even
when it “turns dead as a doornail
and brown as can be, 9S percent of
the needles will still stay on the
tree.” Homeowners have less wor
ry about needles lying about as a
result
Westlake Tree Farms also
grows a limited number of White
Pine and Blue and Norway Spruce
trees.
How trees are accepted by con
sumers and how well they hold up
inside the house are factors driving
decisions growers make when they
plant. Westlake said he has worked
with the firs long enough to pick
the soil and slope conditions
necessary to generate a good stand.
Westlake answers the questions
people ask about the season, parti
cularly when they wonder, if the
Christmas tree season is only one
month long, what does he do the
remaining 11 months of the year?
There is a lot of work to be done all
ty bam, built In the late 1700 s and reconstructed at the turn of the century,
was remodeled into a retail outlet In 1991. Gary Westlake stands In the outlet, which
has about 4,000 square feet of space for ornaments and other items for the holiday
season.
year long, he tells them. Mostly, it
involves post-season management
(cutting up returned trees after the
season), then planting, mowing
(all rows get mowed on a regular
basis), fertilizing, spraying, and,
throughout the summer, hand
shearing.
Westlake employs three full
time people year-round, including
two field workers and one mechan
ic. During Christmastime, the bus
iness employes 25 part-time peo
ple. mostly high school and col
lege students to help with
wreath-making, garland-making,
cutting, and other chores.
The summer months are filled
with hand-shearing all the trees,
until the season kicks in, which
starts in October, as the farm gears
up for another busy season.
The cut-your-own business is
particularly busy right after
Thanksgiving, when horse- and
tractor-drawn wagons begin to
take people near the fields to
harvest trees. But there is more to
this event than just cutting trees.
“This is really an event,” said
Westlake. “This is not just going
to (your local convenience store)
and buying a jug of milk. This is a
whole family-planned event,
whole neighborhoods get together,
or several homes on the same street
get together to come out. Christ
mas would not be complete with
out coming and cutting their own
Christmas tree.”
Westlake said the afternoon
long event is notable because the
farm provides more than just the
attraction of a visit to a farm and a
Christmas tree. They also feature
craft shows, quartets, and other
events.
About half the tree farm custom
ers are from the Philadelphia sub
urbs. and the rest from Chester and
surrounding counties. The busi
ness was built mostly by word-of
mouth, according to Westlake.
E. B. Westlake, Jr. purchased
the land to operate the tree farm in
(Turn to Pago A 29)
A combination of factors, according to Westlake, make fir trees more desirable as a
cut tree during the holiday season. Gary Westlake, a Delaware Valley College gradu
ate who put most of his life into growing trees, stands In a field of Douglas firs. The
farm maintains more than 45,000 Christmas trees on about 180 acres (Including 20
acres of rented ground) off of Rt. 23, near the quaint northern Chester County town of
St. Peters. Photo by Andy Andrews.
illdren from the Westmont Christian Academy In Pottstown took a ride to see the
Christmas Trees at Westlake Tree Farms a few weeks before the holiday began.
During Christmastime, the business employes 25 part
time people, mostly high school and college students to
help with wreath-making, garland-making, cutting, and
other chores. Here, Liz Lynch feeds greens Into a garland
making machine.