SOUTHWICK – With the holidays right around the corner, Christmas trees are always a must-need for families.
Local farms in the area each have their own ways of handling Christmas tree season as well as experiencing it.
While this past summer featured a drought that highly affected farms throughout Western Massachusetts, Coward Farms in Southwick was able to avoid the drought having any effect on their Christmas trees.
According to Coward Farms co-owner John Coward, the fact that they irrigate everything, has led to no damage to the trees.
However, Coward did see the rise in temperatures that went to 90 degrees in September.
“You’ll see effects of it next year more than this year,” said Coward.
The Christmas tree season is an important part of the year for Coward Farms.
“It’s more than 30% of our business,” said Coward.
Coward Farms in Southwick will continue to sell Christmas trees up until Dec. 23. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Coward Farms starts their Christmas tree season the weekend right before Thanksgiving and goes until Dec. 23. They sell the basic trees like Frazier, Balsam, and Spruce.
“We’ve sold some of everything,” said Coward.
With 30% of sales being from Christmas trees, the weekends are critical for Coward and the rest of the farm.
“If you get a lousy weekend, it really hampers your sales,” said Coward.
Although Harvest Moon Farm is in Feeding Hills, it is selling its Christmas trees in Southwick, right next to D’Georgio’s Restaurant on Feeding Hills Rd.
“I figured it would be good cross-marketing,” said Harvest Moon Farm owner Todd Brown.
As Brown also starts Christmas tree season right before Thanksgiving and goes up until Christmas, he has a stand set up right on the edge of Feeding Hills Rd. Selling the trees on a main road in Southwick will hopefully allow there to be more exposure for the trees when people are driving by.
Harvest Moon Farms is selling their Christmas trees on Feeding Hills Rd. in Southwick. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Selling the standard Balsam and Frazier trees, Brown gets his trees from the Berkshires and goes for a new load of trees once a week.
Brown also mentioned that he delivers trees as well and will even help families put the tree up. An important tip that he has is that warm water should be used when putting the tree into the stand, and let it sit in warm water for two days.
Being less than a week away until Christmas day, both Coward Farms and Harvest Moon Farms will be open for families that have still yet to call a tree their own.
