KEEZLETOWN, Va. (WHSV) – About 4 miles off of I-81, lies a Christmas tree farm in Keezletown called Every Soul Acres. The farm has been operational since 2017 and now boasts around 25,000 trees in the ground.
Laura Wolfe owns the farm with her husband and has learned some tough lessons over the years when it comes to growing Christmas trees. She says that she experiences losses during tough seasons like any other farmer, but with Christmas trees, the timeline is a bit different.
“It takes me 6 to 10 years to grow the tree. So if you see, you know a 90% loss in seedlings for two consecutive summers, and then a big loss this year at the end of the season, that’s going to affect most farmers come three to six years from now,” Wolfe said.
With that concept in mind, she understands that her investment at the beginning of a growing season is fully reliant on how Mother Nature decides to act.
“Way I see it is, if I plant 4000 seedlings in March, and I look at the projection over 6 to 10 years, I always want to make sure there’s plenty of trees to harvest. So even if we lose a lot of trees, I plant a lot of trees. We plant more in the anticipation of loss so that we still have an abundance for our customers every season”, she explained.
While the trees may not handle the drought well, she says they love the cold and winter weather. When it snows, the butts of the trees are on the ground, allowing them to absorb moisture. This really helps them with needle retention.
Wolfe says that, in addition to the trees loving the winter weather, customers can also have a unique Christmas tree-buying experience.
“People were able to come out, and the trees were covered in snow. We’ve took a lot of great videos of it. It’s like magical, really. It’s the winter wonderland. If I could just ask for the perfect Hallmark story, we’ve had it this year”, she recounted.
With a very successful growing season this year, Wolfe and her husband are extremely grateful. She says that with proper management and extra moisture this summer, they were able to provide the most abundant crop they’ve ever had since first planting in 2017.
In addition to a more robust crop, Wolfe added that they were able to keep their fields open longer than normal.
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