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During our rustic childhood, cutting down our own Christmas tree was a normal part of the holiday routine. Rather than going to a tree lot, we would troop out to a tree farm that looked a lot like a tree lot – rows and rows of identical, pre-tagged and measured trees. You marked the one you wanted, it was cut and brought to your car, and you drove it home. Fun, but not quite the slogging-through-the-snow Paul Bunyan adventure we wanted.
Tammen Treeberry Farm in Wilmington takes Christmas tree hunting to a whole new level. Open since 1956, they grow about 160 acres of trees and have five species to choose from. Rather than a neat and tidy lawn covered with trees, this farm is a large rambling collection of trees for you to browse through. In fact, it’s so large you have to drive around it! They also have a U-Pick blueberry operation – hence the name.
When you drive through the gate, you are handed a saw and a map. There are roads cut throughout the property, and you can try to navigate to the tree you want – we mostly drove around and looked out the window. Once we found a spot that looked promising, we got out of the car and wandered until we found exactly the tree we wanted. Then, we crawled around on the ground hacking away at the trunk until, feeling like miniature lumberjacks, we shouted “Timber!” and the tree came down.
Next was the long trek back to the entrance. We recommend that you get some twine from the parking lot before you cut down your tree – otherwise you will have walk it all the way back in a driving snowstorm. Or, if you’re lucky, you can flag a ride from a passing pickup truck, as we did. Once you get back, you can have your tree shaken and baled. Tree shaking is necessary to get all the dead bits, vines and possible rodents out of the tree before it goes into your living room.
If you’ve never done it, cutting your own Christmas tree is an experience not to be missed. The price is an added benefit – rather than paying by the foot or the type of tree, every tree on the lot is $45, no matter how big or tall. Baling and shaking brought the total price to $52 – cheaper than we usually pay for a small, not-very-fresh tree at a lot.
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ooh...thanks for this link. They have BLUEBERRIES!!! I will be there picking a ton of blueberries in July!!
We did a 'cut your own tree' in Maryland. Gosh...it was just beautiful. The drive out the the farm was bucolic, the farm itself was just so peaceful. It felt like we were going back in time, and the owner gave us a hayride from the big barn out to the trees. We went during the week and were the only ones there, so that was really nice...they had hot cider for free.
We did it here when we first moved here too, but the experience did definitely not live up to the memories of Maryland. First of all, the drive there was long, flat, ugly and boring, and the whole experience was more 'assembly line'. It was really, really crowded...lots of cars, hard to find a place to park....not a lot of fun. I can't remember where it was.
I just get my trees from a local lot now. But dang...theyr'e expensive. I paid $80 for a 6 ft. tree. That's just too much. At least it's fresh though...it's been taking a whole bucket of water every day. I got a bad tree one year...put it up, poured the water in and that was it...the water didn't move...within a couple of days there were pine needles all over the floor ala Charlie Brown.