Hi! The holiday season is here again and we are excited to be opening for our eleventh year selling Christmas trees here at Corner Crest Natural Farm. We are located in North Plains, Oregon and offer naturally grown noble firs, wild douglas firs, and make your own wreath supplies and instructions.
We will be open on Black Friday (11/23/2018), and all Saturdays and Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Our open hours are from 10am until dark. Please note that this year we will not have regular open hours on the other Fridays, but we are available by appointment. We have also pulled the signs back from the driveway entrances and put them up by the gate.
Our trees are untrimmed and unsprayed and as such, they are not the dense cone shape most commercial farms offer. They are also going to have some brown needles and irregular spacing between the branches. Many people do not find what they are looking for, especially in the 7-9 foot range where our supply is thinnest. However, when we walk around the farm we find so many trees, even in the popular sizes, that we think are beautiful to harvest this Christmas with all the character that comes with a naturally grown Noble Fir or wild Douglas Fir.
Our pricing is the same as last year:
Christmas Trees:
Nobles up to 6 feet - $37
Ask about wild Doug firs $10 and up
We take cash and checks. Thanks!
Keep reading for more details, and if you are planning to come we look forward to seeing you!
We are a very small, rustic farm on the hillside overlooking the valley and backing up to the forest. We are a U-Cut business but are always happy to give you a hand (or two). We usually have only one or two cars of people here at a time, except on our busiest days, so it rarely (if ever) feels crowded. Most folks that come to our farm like to take their time hiking around and enjoying the view while they choose their tree. Come prepared with boots, coats, and gloves. The ground is uneven and you will encounter blackberry brambles. We provide saws and twine as well as hot cocoa and candy canes. We don't have reindeer but we do have two alpacas who are pretty entertaining. (Thanks
@lizv42 for the photo!)
Our trees are unshaped which leads to more space and variety in the branches. They are also unsprayed so you can be confident that you will not be bringing any harmful chemicals into your home and that we are not adding them to the environment. Noble firs have good strong branches and we think these natural trees are a lovely way to showcase your ornaments for a beautiful, traditional look.
Here is Craig among some of the trees that are just reaching a good size for a smaller room with some larger trees uphill behind him:
We are a small farm and although we replant each year, nobles grow very slowly and have been struggling with the increasingly hot and dry summers. Some of the trees we planted our first year are reaching a good size to harvest, and some older ones have lovely top portions and can be harvested just above the lower browned branches. We don't have a huge selection but there are lovely trees to be found and more that are still growing to a harvestable size.
These are still mostly too young to harvest, but hopefully they can survive the summers and grow another couple years:
In another few years if we don't have too much dry weather, many of the little trees that are now just 2 or 3 feet tall will grow to Christmas tree size, each one absorbing more than 1 ton of CO2 in its lifetime. Each acre provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people. Live trees are renewable, keep plastic out of landfills, and conserve the resources used in manufacturing artificial trees. Growing them naturally and not removing all the ground cover also makes the environment friendly to many animals who make our farm their home. The last three summers have been very hard on our trees and they are showing signs of stress from the prolonged heat and dry spells. Many of our big trees put out cones this year which have also provided snacks for birds and critters such as these partially eaten cones up high on a big noble fir:
This year we have chosen to donate to Direct Relief, a nonprofit who is supplying relief following the devastating fires that recently burned in California, and who responds each year to wildfires throughout the Western U.S.
We also are donating to
EdenAcres Environmental Education, a non profit which provides a variety of exceptional outdoor learning opportunities to local schools, homeschoolers, and others:
They are currently working to expand their school garden program to reach more children:
https://donate.seedmoney.org/3035/school-gardens-for-all
Meanwhile, we are looking forward to tree season once again, and we hope to enjoy some of the lovely sunsets we get here at Corner Crest Natural Farm as the sun moves further south in the sky in this final month of fall.
