Back in 1984, we ran a busy household, with two little boys, and two working parents. Brett was 2 years old and Brian 6 years old. John and I were both MSU graduates. John worked in soil and water conservation and I worked in dietetics. We enjoyed taking care of our homestead. We loved our land and cared about protecting it. We didn’t know it then, but we were “green” before green was even a thing.
We searched for a way to make enough income from our farm, in hopes of at least covering the taxes, and maybe even help save money for the boy’s college expenses. We decided to change from having our fields planted with grain crops to planting Christmas trees. The first year we planted 2,000 Scotch pine and Colorado blue spruce. We had a lot to learn.
Each year since, we have planted anywhere from 500 to 1,000 trees until we had no more room to plant. Our first mature trees were ready to sell in 1992 -- we finally had 7 foot trees available on Frost Work Evergreens Farm!
Each year we plant in April, then in May we take care of weeds and pick cones off the fir trees, next comes mowing weeds between the rows of trees in June. By June and July, it is time to hand shear each tree. (Mowing and clean up of bow waste and stumps never really ends and must be done all summer long!) Our farm is ready for you and your family each Thanksgiving through Christmas Day.
In all these years, we have never missed a planting or harvesting season. How blessed are we to have found something so wonderful to do, which helped our family but also allowed us to truly become part of our community, and help take care of mother earth.
There is nothing like a crisp winter day to search through rows and rows of trees, in search of finding the “perfect tree.” Please remember, you are coming to a working farm -- so please dress accordingly. The ground can be uneven, despite our best efforts -- outdoor or hiking shoes are a must!
We provide an ample supply of saws for you to use.
When you walk about our farm, you will notice the many different varieties of trees we grow. We grow Fraser Fir, White Fir (also called Concolor) and Canaan Fir. We grow Blue and White Spruce, along with Norway Spruce and White Pine. We prefer not using any pesticides. (And while it may go without saying, we would never paint our trees with green paint, as some wholesalers and retailers do!)
We sell our trees all for the same price -- all trees are $40 at the “you cut” rate. If you need some assistance in cutting, we will do what we can -- as we often run the farm with just the two of us here, we hope you’ll understand.
Our tree farm is called FrostWork Evergreens because we live on the bottom of a hill where we watch the late frosts roll down the hill onto the trees. It can be beautiful when the frost lays on the branches like the white snow -- however, the later frosts can kill the early buds on each Christmas tree, leaving damage to the tips of some early branches and also affecting the growth of the tree for that season. We live with whatever nature brings, but every year, hope for no late frost!
Our Christmas trees produce enough oxygen daily for about 200 people and filters carbon dioxide and other gases to help decrease the “greenhouse” effect. A tree farm is full of the wonders of the ecosystem. We have nature’s predator, the praying mantis, that helps kill aphids on the trees, rather than using pesticides.
Our farm is home to many animals such as raccoon, rabbits, coyotes, possum, red fox, groundhogs, squirrels, and of course, whitetail deer (and if you look carefully, you will see some evergreens which did not fare well, when paired up with a deer, but that is life on the farm). We have even encountered a badger at one time -- unfortunately so did our dog, but that’s a story for another day.
We feed the birds year around and have cedar waxwings, American goldfinch, purple finches, robins, hummingbirds, robins, nuthatch, bobwhite, woodpeckers, sparrows, doves, bluebirds, and turkeys (just to name a few!), in and around Frost Work Evergreens. We hope you will stay long enough to notice the beauty and life on our tree farm.
And now 35 years since those first saplings, we are honored to be part of your holiday tradition! We love the people and families that come see us each year. We may not be able to do all the work ourselves anymore, but we still love being outside with all of our customers -- who have become like family to us.
Thank you for being part of what makes Frost Work Evergreens Tree farm so special to us!
John & Shellie Barclay
