Cheshire Christmas Tree Farm Opens For First Season
 Lawson shakes loose needles from a Christmas tree at his West Mountain Road farm. |
It's eight years later and those trees have matured and Westwind Tree Farm is open.
"This will be our first year here," Lawson said on Friday. "It's a cut-your-own so this is where you'll get the freshest Christmas tree. They're not imported from Canada or someplace else."
No stranger to the trade, Lawson and his family has maintained and sold trees on Barker Road in Pittsfield for 20 years. Now, with his own land and family to help, Lawson has brought that knowledge with him to North County. Selling Christmas trees is a yearlong process, he said. Starting with planting new trees, each year Lawson spreads fertilizer, mows and shears his seven acres. Tricks on shearing to shape the tree and improve thickness he's learned through seminars and experience.
"I like outside work. You start shearing in July; you start with the spruces because they harden first and when you're cutting you want it to be malleable and then you do the firs and balsams later. Then you just keep rotating," Lawson said. "It takes seven or eight years for them to mature."
Now that the first planting of Fraser and balsam firs and blue and Norway spruces are ready, Lawson is open on the weekends for people to cut down their own tree. He provides hand saws to chop the tree down and a cart to bring it back. Lawson then uses a shaker to get loose needles out and a netter to tie it up.
"The kids really like to see the tree get shaken," Lawson said.
A tree costs $35 if it is 6 feet or shorter and $40 if it is taller. Westwind Tree Farm will be open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday leading up until Christmas from 10 until 5.
.jpg) A cart and a handsaw is provided for customers to cut their own Christmas tree at Westwind Farms. |
Also operating a painting business, Lawson said he will use the extra income to restore his barns. The property is a 1790s colonial farm that was in disrepair when he purchased it in 1999.
"It took me six years of nights and weekends to get this farm up and running," he said. "Sometimes we'd dig and find old stones. I think I was sent to save it."
Working all year on the trees is a real boon for seasonal income, he said. In Pittsfield, he'd see a lot of the same customers every year and even some of his Friday business at the new farm he recognized.
"It's been good. It's been solid. We have a good following. It seems that if it's foul weather it doesn't matter, they still come out," Lawson said. "We see people from all over the Berkshires."
With a view overlooking the mountain, Lawson said just a little snow will make the farm a true New England beauty.
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