Boone tree farms closed this season
Source: Cincinnati.com, by Paul McKibben
November 14, 2007
Two Boone County Christmas tree farms won't be open this year for customers to cut down a live pine.
The Burlington Tree Farm on Kelly Drive and Ferguson Tree Farm on U.S. 42 in Union both lost trees.
The Burlington Tree Farm won't open this year because of various reasons which coincide with the weather, said Jennifer Meinhardt, who owns the farm with her husband, Michael Meinhardt.
Stuart Ferguson, owner of Ferguson Tree Farm, blames the drought and the heat.
"Skipping a year is difficult because people are going to go somewhere else," Jennifer Meinhardt said. "So there's a chance we'll lose some of our customers. I did send them all postcards like I always do only just to let them know that we would just be selling wreaths and roping this year and only for two weekends (Thanksgiving weekend and the first weekend in December)."
Ferguson said he does want to keep his customers happy.
"I feel like if they bought a tree and it lost its needles, that's a customer I'm going to lose forever. I don't think I'd ever get them back," he said. "So, it's mostly for the customer's benefit that we're doing this."
The Boone County Farmers Market will have Christmas trees for sale this year starting Nov. 23.
Coy Wilson, farmers market manager/agriculture technician with the Boone County Cooperative Extension Service, said Kinman Farms in Burlington will be selling fresh cut and some live trees from Bezold Pines in Campbell County at the farmer's market. Kinman Farms will be the only vendor selling Christmas trees at the market this year.
Wilson said it is difficult to find vendors to sell trees at the farmer's market.
"It's tough to get the manpower and that's why even this year Bezold Pines is working with Kinman Farms to bring the trees here because it's tough to run a farm and have it open and having families out there cutting trees and afford someone to be here also," he said.
The trees will be available starting Nov. 23. The farmers market will have extended hours.
For Christmas tree farms in Kentucky and a few in southern Indiana, visit the Kentucky Christmas Tree Association's Web site at www.kychristmastrees.com. The Ohio Christmas Tree Association's Web site is http://ohiochristmastree.com.
