Dutchman Christmas Tree Farm Family

When we say, “We ship the Christmas Tree directly from the farm to you” we really should say “We ship the Christmas Tree from our family to yours”. Working at Dutchman Tree Farm really does feel like a family. And we aren’t the dysfunctional type of family with the crazy uncle and the brother no one talks about. No, it’s more like the kind of family that if you need anything they will be there for you. Amazing, inspiring and funny people work here and I will be spotlighting some of these characters here on the blog. Today I want to spotlight …Pam McLeod, the resident mother/grandmother of Dutchman Tree Farms.

Pam has been working with Dutchman Tree Farms for the last 33 years and she has done a little bit of everything; planting, loading trucks, leading pruning crews, anything and everything Christmas Trees. Right now she works in the office and helps organize loads and book out trucks to stores across the US. Hard worker and mother of the office, it is certain that you cannot work with Pam McLeod without feeling encouraged, challenged and taken care of.

Not only is Pam a harder worker, caring and compassionate, she is dedicated. Just the other day Pam took a nasty spill off her bicycle. Yes, this grandmother of 15 rides her bike, cross country skis and does triathlons to stay in shape. After taking this spill, destroying her helmet, being knocked slightly unconscious and separating her shoulder (this should give some indication of how fast she was going) she came into work. Yes, bruised and sore she came in the very next day saying that working at her desk would be the best for her recovery.

So there she sits, with ice pack on her shoulder and a cherry red road rash under her right eye, inspiring us all to quit our whining and get back to work. Now doesn’t that just sound like family?

Would you like your Christmas Tree shipped from our Family to yours? Go to ATreeForChristmas.com and order yours today and you can have your Fresh Christmas Tree or Live Christmas Tree at your door just in time for Thanksgiving.

How Green are We?

I learned so much today about Dutchman Tree Farms after having to ask myself… How green are we? Well actually The National Parks Association asked me that question. They want to know how green we are before they endorse us for our green 2 green fundraiser. They asked me about the boxes we use to ship our products in, our fertilizers and our pesticides. When I get asked questions, I usually ask questions and I usually just ask Google, but today I asked the Dutchman Tree Farm growers. With these guys coming in and out of the office all day I was in the perfect spot to stop and ask each of them, Exactly how green are we?

While none these guys knew whether our boxes were recycled or not, I did learn quite a few things about how we do things here at Dutchman Tree Farms:
We prefer to use natural fertilizers, ashes, lime, peat moss and I was told that this year we have used more manure than ever before. We also use cover crops that are then cultivated into the ground. Any other fertilizers we use are used minimally.

As far as pesticides, I learned that because of the gypsy moth we have to spray all of our trees before we can ship them. Check out this link for the gypsy moth and you will see why using some pesticides is very important.

Other than that we use no pesticides that are considered dangerous and the pesticides that we do use, we use conservatively. We have good credibility with the Department of Agriculture and we also allow natural pest to be natural pest when they are protecting our Christmas Trees.

Other tid bits of info I picked up: We have a very extensive water conservation system. After we harvest, the stumps are ground and reticulated into the soil. Because of this, some of the sandy soil that we have is richer in nutrients after one harvest than in the 40 years prior. We replant several times more seedling than what we harvest.

So after my multiple horticultural lessons, I feel really good about working at Dutchman Tree Farms and can say that we are an environmentally friendly farm. Oh, and for our boxes… they are made of 100% recycled paper. So when you order your Christmas Tree or a Live Christmas Tree, from ATreeForChristmas.com, you can feel good too.

Would you like to ask a Christmas Tree Grower a question? Go to ATreeForChristmas.com and click the Ask Your Grower Tab.

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