Caring for the Christmas crop

Dave Reese of Kaleidoscope Farms, a Christmas tree farm
Began planting trees 25 years ago and started selling 17 years ago.
Location: 14841 County Road 54, Mt. Cory

1. How did you get into this?
We had four sons. My wife and I are both teachers. We both grew up on a farm and we wanted our sons to grow up that way, too. When our first son was born, my wife quit teaching to be home with the kids. At that time, we decided we were going to start a farm-oriented business so our kids could grow up and be raised in a farm-type situation. For 16 years, she quit teaching and started this. We started with two and a half acres of dried flowers and we had 500 logs we were producing Shiitake mushrooms on, building a flock of sheep and doing a lot of different things. Christmas trees was one of them. We did a lot of research and went to a lot of meetings and seminars and field days trying to decide what to do, but we arrived at those different enterprises. Since then, she is back to teaching and I have retired from teaching. The trees have done so well we dropped the dried flowers business, but we still are taking Shiitake mushrooms to farmer's market all summer long.

2. How many trees here?
22,000

3. When are you the busiest?
This is a very labor intensive kind of business to be in. We do all our planting in the spring. We plant 2,000 to 3,000 trees every year. All summer long, we sheer, mow and weed control. I start sheering the middle of June and I'm just finishing now. About half a year's worth, I'm sheering trees. Every tree has to be sheered every year. Putting a shape to it and making sure the top is good.

4. How many trees do you sell a year?
Nine hundred to 1,000. Primarily we're Christmas trees, and that starts the day after Thanksgiving.

5. What's the price range for a tree?
Depending on quality, size and variety, they range from $25 to $85.

6. Is there anything neat you guys do to make the Christmas tree experience extra special?
Every weekend, if weather allows, we have a horse-drawn wagon ride through the farm. If there's enough snow, we'll have a bobsled instead of a wagon. We have reindeer here and we'll have a baby animal Nativity scene in a little stable barn. My wife makes beautiful, fresh wreaths. We have hiking trails and scavenger hunts and a gift shop with hot cider and peanuts. We try to make it a fun experience to get a real tree.

7. How long does it take a Christmas tree to grow?
About seven years. We'll plant a block of 1,000 trees and seven years later we start harvesting the fastest growing of those. The way we're running here, that block of 1,000 will probably sell from 7 years old through 11.

8. Are there many people who come here to cut down their own trees or is this an old tradition that is falling by the wayside?
Cutting their own tree is rare. They certainly can if they want to and some do and they make a big picture-taking expedition out of it, but primarily we cut the tree for them, but we're flexible. Getting a tree fresh at the farm is getting more and more popular.

9. Do people need to bring their own saw or will you provide one?
We have saws here. If they want to bring their own, that's part of their tradition, we're just flexible and try to accommodate everybody.