Sugar Pines Farm is People Choice Winner 2008

Sugar Pines Farm has the best Fraser Fir in Ohio

At the Ohio State Fair in Columbus a Fraser Fir entered in the Ohio Christmas Tree Growers contest by Glenn Battles of Sugar Pines Farm won First Place. The contest was judged by Agricultural Faculty from Ohio State and other Ohio Christmas Tree Growers. Fair goers also selected that same Fraser Fir as the winner of the People's Choice Award  from all the trees entered in all categories.

Sugar Pines Farm also won third place in the Blue Spruce Category.

As a result of this contest Sugar Pines Farm is the Reserve Champoin for the State of Ohio and has earned the right to enter the National Christmas Tree contest in 2009.

          Chesterland Christmas Tree Growers Answer a Call to Duty

Glenn Battles owner of Sugar Pines Farm was among the Ohio Christmas Tree Growers who Sent Holiday Spirit to Troops abroad with the donation Christmas Trees to Troops in Qatar, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Ohio Christmas tree growers are donating Real Christmas Trees as part of the annual Veterans Day event called “Operation Evergreen”. It is sponsored by the Ohio Christmas Tree Association (OCTA) and FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX). Ohio Christmas Tree Growers began “Operation Evergreen” in 1995-96 with 30 trees. The annual event has grown to over 300 trees this year.

Tree collection and inspection for international transport took place at the Ohio Department of Agriculture in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. Operation Evergreen collected, packed and shipped the Ohio Christmas trees for soldiers serving in the Middle East.  FedEx provided the international transport to Qatar. The trees arrived around Thanksgiving. From Qatar some are transported to Kuwait and Afghanistan. Glenn Battles is hoping that the Real Christmas trees will bring little bit of home to lift the spirits of our troops who will be spending the holidays away from their families and communities at Christmas.

“Operation Evergreen” has become part of a new National Trees for Troops program. It is sponsored by the Christmas Spirit Foundation, the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA), FedEx Corp.  .

          Cleveland Plain Dealer features Glenn battles on front Page of Business Section on 11-28-05

Christmas-tree farmer gets help from other growers

 

Monday, November 28, 2005

By Glenn Battles, as told to Plain Dealer reporter Marcia Pledger

If you want to be suc cessful, go into a business that you love.

If you don't like your profession, you're not going to be successful and you're certainly not going to be happy.

I've worked in machine repair, insurance, construction and carpentry. But I realized a long time ago that I'm an outdoors kind of guy. For a long time I was doing construction full time and farming part time - since 1968. When I turned 50, I left construction and decided to raise trees full time.

I love planting trees, watching them grow and seeing the smiles on people's faces when they harvest a tree that they love. Every time it happens, I feel blessed.

We have about 30,000 trees on 100 acres. Sugar Pines Farm is open to the public only for about a month a year. Most families enjoy the whole experience. They use bow saws to cut down their own Christmas trees. They take hayrides, drink hot chocolate and cider and pick out Christmas accessories. But we also have precut trees displayed on an overhead track that rotates through my barn. It's like a monorail for trees.

I have help during the Christmas season. But generally, I'm the only one operating this farm, and it's not easy. I was winging it for a long time. My biggest mistake was not joining professional associations a lot sooner.

Now I'm a member of three tree-growing associations on the regional, state and national levels. But I was in this business for several years before I joined any organization. Spending time with farmers and members of these associations gave me the confidence to go into the business full time.

The association showed me how to make a better product and do a better job at presenting it. I learned to do better soil tests, which led to more soil fertility and eventually a better-looking and healthier tree.

When I first got into the field, I ordered seedlings from catalogs. I was running a construction company at the time, so I didn't have time to research to get the best species and seed source.

I learned from my involvement in tree-growing associations that the bluest blue spruce doesn't even come from Colorado, where I had been ordering. It actually comes from New Mexico. When you make a better product, you can charge more.

The more you talk to people and the more meetings you attend, the more you gain information about what trees to buy, where to plant them and how to take care of them. We also learned more about the legal aspects of agriculture. For instance, Christmas trees are considered timber, and timber is considered a long-term gain on your income taxes.

I go to meetings, decide if I want to adopt an idea, modify it or trash it. Sometimes I might say, I was thinking about this, and somebody else might say, Don't even go there. Or watch out for this if you do.

Depending on the species, it takes seven to 10 years for a tree to grow, so you always have to have trees growing at different stages. But we've had some drought years. I know people who have lost all of their young trees during those years. From networking, I figured out that I could water the seedlings by pumping water from my creek. As a result, I had about 90 percent survival. I know other people who had 100 percent loss to 25 percent survival.

Most of our revenues are derived from cut-your-own sales. It's a hands-on operation and it's the customers' hands. But some people like pre-cut trees. I got ideas from other farms before I built a barn with a monorail. Kids love to see the trees rotating. When a kid goes to see them, dad comes along. And that's what we want. We sell 2,500 to 3,000 trees each season.

During the rest of the year, there's a lot of work that has to be done. Every spring I have to plant, mow between the rows and spray for bugs and insects when necessary. That's the time I especially need to communicate with other farmers.

I've been on the board of the Ohio Christmas Tree Association for the last five years. I'm also a member of the National Christmas Tree Association and the Northeast Ohio association. I've gained a lot from each of the associations, from the opportunity to order in bulk and share products with other farmers to taking classes.

Although Christmas tree growers compete among ourselves for sales, we share information to make a better product. We know our real competition is artificial trees.

          Sugar Pines Farm makes Front Page of The News Herald 11-28-05

A real tradition

By: Tracey Read

11/28/2005

Cut-your-own enthusiasts despise artificial trees

 

Ever since Jena Sadowsky was about 5 years old, her family has put up an artificial tree to celebrate the Christmas season.
But the 17-year-old Auburn Township resident is now a believer in real trees.
Jena and her father, Larry Sadowsky, were out Sunday afternoon in search of an 8-foot blue spruce.

The pair were planning on cutting it down themselves to replace their faux tree with the tired little white bulbs.

"We have an artificial tree, and we don't care for it anymore," her father explained. "It's her 18th birthday on Christmas morning, and she wanted a real tree."
Sadowsky confessed he stopped buying real trees when Jena was a child because he and his wife were tired of cleaning up the messy pine needles.

He plans to solve that problem this year by using a heavy-duty plastic bag designed to go underneath the tree for easy cleanup.

"When the season's over, you're done," he marveled. "You've got no pine needles."
The Sadowskys were among numerous people who took advantage of the warm winter weather over the weekend to cut their own tree at Sugar Pines Farm in Chester Township.
In an age when retailers are selling ever-improving varieties of fake trees that are pre-lit, look like the real thing and are guaranteed not to go crooked the minute you get them home, many people still stubbornly believe cutting your own tree is a can't-miss holiday activity.
"It's tradition," explained Carol Battles, who co-owns Sugar Pines Farm with her husband, Glenn. "I always tell people who buy fake trees, 'Do you buy a fake ham for Christmas too?' "
Battles stood behind the store cash register clad in a Santa hat as she rang up orders for blue spruce, white pine, canaan fir and Norway spruce trees. She handed out festive candy canes to the little ones as the smells of hot chocolate, coffee and cider filled the air.
Outside Battles' quaint little shelter, parents pulled young children in sleds as families excitedly picked out a tree together. Several people documented the occasion with video and still cameras.
At least one family temporarily forgot about picking out a Colorado blue spruce after getting involved in an impromptu snowball fight.

Frankie Mercuri, a 12-year-old Chester Township boy, threw the first icy missile.His father, Frank; mother, Patty; 8-year-old sister, Christina; and some old friends they just happened to run into at the farm were soon in on the act."We lost focus," said Patty as she dodged a large mound of white. "We gotta get a tree!" Patty said although the family had a great time, she was disappointed her sister did not join in the fun this year as she usually does.

You see, her sister had joined the dark side.
"My sister got a fake tree this year," Patty said in horror. "She said she got new carpet. I was speechless. To be honest with you, I didn't know what to say. A fake tree doesn't smell the same."

 

Rich Pillar of Euclid was at the farm with his daughter, Caroline, to pick out a blue spruce.
"We've been coming here for 15 or 20 years," Pillar said. "This is a really pretty area. And this is something we can do together."

Owner Glenn Battles, a former Chester Township trustee, said he couldn't have asked for a better opening weekend for selling Christmas trees.

"The weather's been perfect, the trees are good and the people are friendly," he said.
Battles estimates nine out of 10 people who buy a tree at his farm choose to do it themselves.
"We let people cut their own and pretend to be a farmer, and we're not going to charge them too much extra for that," he joked.