O, Christmas Tree

Tis the season for the Harmony Christmas Tree Farm, 1523 Trenton Avenue, Stuart, to be incredibly busy as individuals and families come and browse the approximately 2,000 choices of Christmas trees Marvin and Janet Bassett have available for purchase, thus satisfying a little of their need for Christmas magic.

The Bassetts began growing Christmas trees 30 years ago and reported to a group of Nodaway Valley first-graders, who visited the farm on a field trip last Friday, that there were nearly 4,000 trees at Harmony at one time on their four-acre parcel.

The Bassetts, with the help of their daughters, Jodi and Amy, explained to the first-graders the differences between all the kinds of trees they grow. They demonstrated how they cut down a tree, load it on an ATV trailer and pull it back to their garage where it’s shaken out and baled for the customer to pick up.

According to the Iowa Christmas Tree Growers Association’s website, real Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states while most artificial trees are manufactured somewhere overseas. It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of average retail sale height, but the average growing time is about 7 years. The top selling trees in Iowa are the Scotch Pine and White Pine.

“We had a wasteland here that wasn’t any good for anything else but it was good enough for trees, so we started growing trees,” Marvin said. “I can get about 1,000 trees per acre but I’m down to about 2,000 trees.”

Once the students had been given the tour of the farm, Marvin showed the students how a wreath is made. Students voted on what bows they wanted for wreaths Marvin made for each of their classrooms. Students were also able to see an electronic sign the Bassetts have that counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until Christmas.

The Bassetts say that the excitement that was in each students’ eyes on their visit is similar to the look many people have when visiting Harmony Christmas Tree Farm. Some travel from faraway to hand pick their Christmas tree each year. For some, a visit to the farm is a family tradition.

“People come out for a treat. It’s a family event. Usually there aren’t the crowds like there are at the store. They’re not overheated like they would be at a store, though they might get a little chilly,” Jodi said. “There’s no kids saying ‘I want this, I want that.’ They’re generally in a pretty good mood when they come here, and that’s nice that we can provide a product and service, and people are happy. It’s a nice event for them and us too.”