Christmas Tree Farms Bring Smiles To Many Families

Santa seems to get all the credit at Christmas time, even though he has many helpers who pitch in to make the season bright. Among them are Saskatchewan's two dozen or so commercial Christmas tree growers, who can spend a decade or more nurturing tiny seedlings into the perfectly shaped conifers that eventually find their way into family rooms around the province.

One such operation is the Come See-Come Saw U-Choose Christmas Tree Farm, located just a few kilometres off the Trans-Canada Highway east of Moose Jaw. Like all commercial growers, the farm's owners, Henri and Aline O'Reilly, work hard all year long preparing for the magical month leading up to the most joyous of family holidays.

"My wife and I both worked in Moose Jaw, and we bought this piece of land in the 1970s hoping to move here after retirement," said Henri O'Reilly. "A number of years ago, we felt we should do something with the land. We used to go down east a lot, because we had some children going to university there. They have a lot of Christmas tree farms there. It sprung into an idea for us, and we thought, ‘Yeah, let's try it!'"

The O'Reillys planted their first trees around 20 years ago, and began selling about 10 years ago. Today, Henri estimates they have between 10,000 and 12,000 trees at various stages of growth on 20 acres of land, planted to allow roughly a 10-year rotation.

"When we first started, we planted Scots pine. They probably take about nine or 10 years to grow from a young tree into one that's ready for market," he said. "They make beautiful trees, but the trouble with Scots pine is that they tend to grow a little bit crooked, especially if it's windy - and we all know what Saskatchewan weather is like."

As a result, the O'Reillys are in the process of switching their farm over exclusively to balsam firs, which come from northern Saskatchewan. "Some members of the Saskatchewan Christmas Tree Association are from the north, and they go out and collect balsam fir seedlings, which we purchase from them," he stated. "In about four years, it's all we'll have."

The Come See-Come Saw farm uses a drip irrigation system to make sure the trees get the moisture they need to grow strong and healthy. As a result, dry weather is not a problem. Instead, it's an abundance of precipitation, particularly in the springtime, which can pose a challenge.

"Wet springs cause the soil to become very soggy, so the roots don't hold well. When the wind blows, it can tilt the trees over, so we have to straighten them out again," said O'Reilly.

"The other big challenge is the deer. We ended up erecting an eight-foot high page wire fence around the property to keep them out," he added.

"The only other problem we sometimes run into is bad, blustery winter weather at selling time that prevents people from coming out to get their trees."

O'Reilly estimates that the most amount of work required on the farm is the tree shearing. Shearing is the process of cutting off the tips of the branches at a certain time of year so that more buds grow along the branch, resulting in a fuller, more shapely tree. For Scots pine, he says growers have about a one-month window from late June to late July to trim. For balsam fir, there is more leeway, and growers can shear right into the fall.

O'Reilly says the best part of the job for him and all other members of the Saskatchewan Christmas Tree Growers Association is the thousands of smiling faces they get to see each and every year.

"It's really more than the tree, it's the whole experience," he stated. "We've had some people who have been coming back now for 10 years. They make an annual family tradition out of it."

Patrons of Come See-Come Saw are given a saw and a hauling sled, and sent out into the plantation to look around at their own pace and find the tree they want. When they return with their tree, Henri uses a shaker to hoist it up and shake any dead needles out to avoid a mess at home, then employs a wrapper to wrap it in netting so it is easier to transport and haul into the house.

"We also have some real live reindeer here, which the kids absolutely love. We have a store where we give the people a complementary cookie and hot chocolate, and they are welcome to purchase any other assorted treats and crafts and jams they might want," O'Reilly said.

The Come See-Come Saw U-Choose Christmas Tree Farm is open seven days a week from November 24 to December 23, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day. For more information on the operation, visit their website at http://www.comesaw.com/ or call their info line at (306) 693-9845.For more information, contact:

Henri O'Reilly, owner and operator
Come See-Come Saw U-Choose Christmas Tree Farm
Phone: (306) 693-2062
E-mail: comesee@comesaw.com
Website: http://www.comesaw.com/