Two arms full of blue sky. It was that kind of day. Where you walk slowly through the trees and tilt your head up to better feel the sun on your face while inhaling deeply—cool air tinged with evergreen. Who needs a peppermint patty? We’re in the right place. Not a tree peppered mountain slope, but a roadside in Zillah, Washington. Aileen, Shelley and I found ourselves at the Triangle Christmas Tree Farm on the Yakima Valley Highway.
As soon as we pull up, Greg Elsen comes out of his house to greet us and show us how the tree choosing is done. Grabbing a staff of PVC tipped with red ribbon, he says that you wander through the grove looking for the perfect tree, and when you find it, you mark it with this red-ribboned flag and they’ll come and cut it down for you.
Before we get on with the business of tree selection we have a chat with Greg. Standing amid his Douglas Firs leaning on a flag staff, a cat called Slippery fawning around his legs, he tells us that he planted his first trees in 1980, and doesn’t remember exactly why. A lifelong orchard man, he had about 4 acres around his home and decided to plant Christmas trees. Getting some babies from a nursery in Olympia, his first round all went brown on him. After that, he made sure the seed source he received was all from Eastern Washington where the sunshine agrees with them more. It takes a minimum of about 6-7 years (!) for a tree to become mature enough to grace a living room during the holidays, so in 1987, he finally opened his door for sales. Nearly thirty years later, there are trees in various stages of growth all over the farm, from giants to the newly planted yearlings.
Greg says that it’s lots of fun and that the trees are his buds. He gets to know them pretty well after spending nearly a decade watching them grow and taking care of them. He even talks to them as he works. And while he says they never protest, he does suspect some of them know their fate because every now and then he gets a good whack as he goes by with the mower. He retired from orchard work around 2000, and it’s been a perfect hobby farm. If he doesn’t have something he needs or wants, he figures out how to make it himself. To emphasize the point, he shows us pictures of a small motorized cart he fashioned to run along a line down a row for ease of weeding. A true farmer go-cart. No wonder he has so much fun. He goes out there when he feels like it and labors as long as he wants to, the work being primarily weeding and shaping. He says that after working with them you smell like them, and that’s not bad at all.
We wandered further through the trees to select “the one” for the holiday season. Ambling through the evergreens in the early winter sun, we each find our one. Greg’s son cuts them down for us and hauls them back up to the house. Just like that. All of the trees are $20, no matter the size.
This time of year, Christmas tree sales are ubiquitous. Tree lots sprout like grass shoots to carpet the land, and even the grocery and drug stores have a few trees dotting their entrances. With all this tree action around, it’s easy to become desensitized to the years of growth that goes into each one. Seeing the trees in the ground, smelling them and meandering through all of the age and size differences filled us with appreciation. A literal tree whisperer, Greg is a rare find, these days. If you don’t have your tree yet, take a slow drive down the Yakima Valley Highway to the Triangle. Plant your own red flag to claim the season.
Triangle Christmas Trees is on the corner of Roza Drive and the Yakima Valley Highway.
Andreana,
Please make yourself known to us when you visit this year. Dad was in the kitchen making soup for the chainsaw crew when you were here last year and I regret that I did not bring him out to see you. I know he would have enjoyed visiting with you. He’s pushing 90, so we may have to reintroduce you to him.