Essington Fruit Farm may be most famous for strawberries but Christmas sees more excitement as customers select their own trees.
While there may be hundreds to choose from by the farm shop many customers bring their own spades or saws to dig or cut their own, so a tractor and trailer takes rides down to the field on the main weekends for tree sales.
This year the rides will run on the weekends of 3/4 Dec and 10/11 Dec 17/18 Dec
Tree Types
There are lots of different tree but they break down into 3 main types:
1. Spruce.
 Norway spruce is the traditional tree, usually the cheapest and has the characteristic real tree aroma. Still the most popular tree accounting for about 60% of sales.
Blue spruce is a denser tree with silver-blue prickly needles.
Serbian spruce is a slimmer tree with softer, floppier branches.
All spruce may shed needles if not kept in water.
 2. Pine.
Pines have long needles which do not shed. A dense tree, less traditional in shape. Going out of fashion a bit.
3. Firs
 Non-shed with good shape but no noticeable aroma. More difficult to grow so more expensive. Flat, bright green needles with silver undersides.
Nordmann fir is the most popular. Branches are horizontal and well spaced out allowing room for decorations.
Frazer fir is a smaller tree with upward-pointing branches which makes it a bit slimmer.
White fir is a pale silver with long needles. Not
commonly grown but a bit different.
General advice
Always buy the freshest tree you can get and keep it watered. It is like a cut flower and will keep fresh best in water. To maximise water uptake cut an inch off the base of the trunk and place in a water-holding stand. You can improvise with a bucket and some gravel or buy a purpose made stand which will hold water.
Try to keep the tree away from direct heat (eg, not against a radiator).
Ode to a Plastic Tree
I think that I shall never see
So vile a thing as a plastic tree.
It has no charm, it has no grace,
A total utter waste of space.
It has no character, I fear,
It is the same year after year.
So boring that you have to dust it
Until the day you gladly bust it.
No environmental needs it serves
But depletes the earth of oil reserves.
It's never been outside on farms,
No birds have nested in its arms.
From its factories pollution passes
While real trees use up greenhouse gasses.
And when at last it's had its day
It's still a pain to throw away.
You can't recycle it or chip it,
But can only bin or tip it.
And yet on top of all this racket
It even costs a tidy packet.
So this advice I give for free:
Get yourself a real tree.
Richard Simkin
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