Al's Hidden Valley Christmas Tree Farm
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to a tree farm with my family to cut down our own tree. I love bundling up for the cold, driving out into Oregon's beautiful countryside, and then searching through several acres of trees to find the perfect one. There is also a certain amount of pride that comes from cutting your own tree down, and the fresh pine smell of a self cut tree is hard to match with one that has been sitting on a lot for a week or more.
Being from Southern California, Tessa has been deprived of this experience. With our first Christmas coming up as a couple, we had to change that!
Al's Hidden Valley Tree Farm
Availability of certain tree species varies from year to year at each farm, so you may have to visit several to find what you want. In the past my family has had good experiences at Kessler's in Pleasant Hill, but recently have come to love Al's Hidden Valley Tree Farm in Elmira.
Tessa and I showed up at Al's bright and early on a cold Saturday morning. Al himself greeted us and made some friendly small talk before pointing out where we could find certain types of trees, and what deals they had this year. It turns out that Al was also a Southern California transplant from long ago, and grew up in Costa Mesa, just one town over from Tessa's home in Huntington Beach. We thought that was pretty cool!
Be sure to ask Al, or one of his workers, where the best trees are. He pointed to a grove near the back of the farm, and said that any tree marked with pink flagging tape would be $25 regardless of their height (some over 10 feet). I asked if I could use my own chainsaw to cut our tree, unfortunately his insurance policy couldn't allow that, but they did have handsaws that we could borrow.
Any disappointment that I had from not being able to use my own saw was cleared away by the free coffee and hot chocolate that Al provides. The refreshments are available under a gazebo with a fire pit, which makes for a perfect place to wait for a tractor pulled cart to take you out to the tree groves. Tessa and I would have been content to enjoy our drinks around the fire for awhile, but the tractor showed up fairly quickly. We got onboard, joined by a couple with four little girls, all dressed in pink. It was very cute!
Picking the perfect tree
Al's offers a wide variety of tree species, with Douglas Firs, Grand Firs, and Nobel Firs being the most popular. I'm partial to Grand Firs because of their full appearance, strong branches and shiny needles. They also happen to be on the cheaper end, which is nice for young adult budgets.
Tessa went to work looking for the perfect tree, starting with the pink tagged ones, following Al's suggestion. Many of these marked trees were quite impressive... from one side at least. On several occasions we thought we found the right one, only to discover missing branches, or browning needles on their backsides. Tessa has high standards, so we continued on.
I wandered off a bit towards a 10 foot tree with a pink tag. Tessa's apartment has vaulted ceilings, and this tree was on sale for only $25, so naturally I started working out how we would get it home. Sadly my dreams of an over sized tree were dashed when she called me over to checkout a seven foot Grand Fir. She picked it well, its shape was just right, and the branches were quite thick. This was the one!
I went to work with the saw, Al keeps them very sharp so it cut through Tessa's tree like butter. Just as it fell one of the farm workers rolled up in an ATV with a trailer full of trees. Like the other workers at Al's, he was very nice and offered to drive Tessa's tree back to the parking lot to be bailed and priced. We walked back to the gazebo for more coffee and hot chocolate, before paying for the tree which was already ready for us. At seven feet this one cost Tessa $33, not bad considering that a similar tree in California would have cost two to three times that.
Hauling off our catch.
The finished Product!