Tree farm does healthy business

Author: Tamara Hilmes

For many, putting up the Christmas tree means digging the dusty box out of the attic, separating what seems like an endless amount of artificial evergreen boughs and placing them in color-coded slots embedded in a pole camouflaged with more fake greenery. While artificial Christmas trees have invaded many homes, a great deal of Vermonters still rely on good old-fashioned live trees to bring holiday cheer to their living rooms. David and Cheryl Werner, owners of Werners' Tree Farm just outside Middlebury at 429 Painter Road, strive to keep the tradition of real greenery alive by providing freshly-cut garland, wreaths, "kissing balls" and, of course, Christmas trees.

"We started it up," said Cheryl about the farm, which has been running for over 22 years. "We bought this piece of land and wanted to plant something on it, so we decided to try Christmas trees. It is a family-run business, and even our three kids in college are actively involved."

Although both the Werners maintain day jobs - Cheryl teaches at the career center and David works as a carpenter - when the Werners decided to plant Christmas trees on their land, they knew that they were making a big commitment.

"It's a year-round job," said Cheryl. "We plant in April and in June and July we are shearing trees and mowing. In November we put in a 80-hour work week in order to prepare for the holiday season."

"You can't just decide to grow Christmas trees," explained David. "It takes at least seven years to harvest a single tree, and at least 10 years to harvest a block."

The Werners grow around 10 to 12 different varieties of trees on their farm. Balsa trees, David explained, are the most popular in this area, as they are typically the most traditional. The demand for the different varieties, however, changes according to region, according to David.

"The Fraiser Fir is probably our second most popular," he said, "but if you went down to North Carolina, the Fraiser would probably be more in-demand. There are simply some trees that we just can't grow here, which decides what people get."

One reason that the Werners chose to plant such a large number of varieties is to decrease the amount of chemicals that they must spray on their trees. According to Cheryl, they do not use any insecticides on their trees.

"We planted a huge varieties of trees because they all bud at different times, which confuses the bugs," said David. "We also rotate plantations ... It's surprising how minimal our insect damage is because of that. We live right in our plantation, and we don't want to live in an area covered in chemicals."

Living in Vermont, the Werners are aware of their environmentally-concious community. According to Cheryl, most of their customers are their neighbors who seem to trust their tree-growing process.

"There was this one lady, though," explained David, "who would walk up and touch a tree. She claimed that she could tell just by touching them whether or not they had been sprayed with pesticides. Apparently she would get sick if they were. But she gave the trees a lot of touching, and she said they were alright."

Each member of the Werner family has their own specialty. For instance, David makes the garland and Cheryl and her daughter make and decorate the wreaths.

"I have about 300 feet of garland ahead of me in order to keep up," said David. "It is a real pain." David went on to demonstrate the garland-making process, which can be pretty tricky. "There is a center twine and a wire that everything is hooked together with. Basically," he continued to explain while turning a crank with a branch attached, "I am wrapping the wire and the string around the bough. You basically just keep going and going and try to get someone else to do it for you."

"We actually just had some garland go up to the College," said Cheryl. "The kid pulled out his credit card and said, 'Haha, my dad is going to pay for this.'"

Each year, the Werners provide trees and other greenery to the College and several other places around town.

"We are actually about to make a 24-tree delivery up to the College," said David. "Skip Brush, [manager of Office Moves and Furniture Distribution], has been buying them from us for about six or seven years now."

According to David, the biggest orders that the farm receives each season typically come from the various churches in town.

"They always want huge amount of greenery and trees," said David. "The Congregational Church always orders from us, the Catholic Church does, the Methodist does."

According to the Werners, their business grows larger with each season that passes, at least for the past 10 years, despite the fact that they have not really promoted it. They are excited about the growth, but they also realize that they have a limit.

"As long as we are out here," said David, "we might as well get as big as we can handle."

"Although," Cheryl added, "we don't want to lose being able to talk with people. Really we are striving to entertain people as well as sell them our products. Families, and especially those with little kids, come here to shop and will want to pet the horses. We strive to make it an experience or an outing."

Although artificial trees may be mainstays in shop windows and some households, the Werners are not worried about losing business. For the past couple of seasons, the farm has sold around 1,000 Christmas trees, 1,000 feet of garland and 600 wreaths from when they open for business on the day after Thanksgiving to New Years.

"We sold an amazing amount during Thanksgiving weekend," said David. "A lot of trees will get sold this upcoming weekend, and some will even leave on Christmas Eve, although I don't recommend waiting that long. Some people call ahead, usually when they need directions, but most people just show up. We have pre-cut trees, but you can also cut your own."

The Werners' Tree Farm is open Tuesday to Friday, noon to five, and weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from the day after Thanksgiving to New Years'. They can be reached through their Web site, or by phone at 802-388-7781.