Christmas trees

While I was enjoying Sabina's Barefoot in the Orchard blog I was inspired to write the story and put up some photos of the work Mr Margie (Marc) has been doing for the last week, he has not worked in this area for eight years.




Mr. Margie has agreed to be part of a team at a farm owned by one of his friends. There are four men on the team and they are all cutting Christmas trees. The trees were planted eight or nine years ago on the farm about half an hour from where we live. All the trees (Nordman and Noble Fir)are colour graded and have been specially pruned each year to have the perfect shape for the Christmas market in Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Ireland. The soil in the river valley where they grow is the best soil in Europe for the trees and the root stock is of a certain provenance that grows fast and full. The farm has a replanting programme and treat the Christmas trees as a crop. The farm is full of wildlife and each morning before the cutting starts there are at least two dozen wild deer from the Wicklow mountains grazing in the fields. The farm is home to many decidious trees and an abundance of wildlife, pheasants, rabbits, hares, even quail. The owner has also dug a lake on his land, and stocked it with fish. The lake is now home to ducks, water hens, herons and swans.





Mr. Margie is obsessed with chainsaws. He is also obsessed with a challenge, and this work allows him enjoy both obsessions. Each day this week (he worked six) he has felled up to one thousand nine hundred, yes 1900 trees each day. That adds up to some serious bending each day. The target is 33,000 trees this year.






When all the trees are cut in the field, some fields have 5000 trees they are then netted by another team and brought to the yard where the different grades are packed into trucks and transported to the ferry. All the fields will be harvested and the trees out of the yard by the end of November. Mr. Margie is usually still sick at the sight of Christmas trees by December 25th. It will take coaxing and a few glasses of mulled wine to get him to go back to the farm with the family to choose our indoor tree this year. We have four rooted outdoor Christmas trees in the garden. But the indoor tree is always a cut tree due to the heat coming off the stoves during the holidays. I love the smell of the tree in the house.




It is offically ok to drink mulled wine now according to Lotta at My Lovely Christmas Home.