Hello from the farm,
I've been keeping a little project under wraps. Well, not entirely under wraps, because I've already told you that we are planting thousands of trees, building (and planting) windbreaks, fencing and moving approximately half the rocks in the Snowy Mountains and cold stratifying fir seeds in the fridge (that people keep mistaking for muesli).
So perhaps I'm not very good at secrets. But behind the scenes, while we've been building the actual Christmas tree farm, I've also been building its website. And this week I thought I'd give you a little sneak peek.
Snowy Mountains Christmas Tree Farm is our newest adventure at Eagles Range. The idea started quite simply: I wanted to grow really beautiful Christmas trees (because I am a massive Christmas nerd). Then, as these things tend to do around here, it escalated...
We're growing shaped Monterey Pines, that most Australians are familiar with, but because of our cold climate and elevation, we're also specialising in some rather extraordinary North American Christmas trees - Fraser Fir, Noble Fir, Balsam Fir, Douglas Fir and Colorado Blue Spruce; The sort of trees you see covered in snow in Hallmark movies and think, why don't we have those here?
Well... we're trying. They are extremely difficult to grow in Australia, due to our high UV light, but with careful management, we will become one of only two farms currently growing them commercially. Some will take years before they're ready to come home for Christmas, which makes this possibly one of my less sensible business ideas. Plant something now, look after it for the best part of a decade, then eventually sell it. What could possibly go wrong?
Thankfully, I apparently have no problem finding other things to do while we wait; so we are focusing lots of attention on building our cool climate flower farm and in the meantime, the website is starting to bring the idea to life but it's a work in progress..
Eventually you'll be able to come to the farm, choose your tree, cut it fresh and make a day of it. There'll be decorations, wreaths, farmhouse treats and all the other things I've somehow convinced myself are absolutely essential to operating a Christmas tree farm.
And because our own trees need time to grow, we're not waiting years to start. This Christmas we'll have a small collection of beautiful fresh trees available while our babies continue doing the very important job of getting taller.
So, before I officially show everyone else, I thought you should get the first look. Take a peek!
Fair warning: looking at Christmas trees in August may result in an unreasonable desire to start decorating.
