Since 1989 Evergreen Farm has been growing a unique collection of Christmas trees.
     The Owners, Richard and Wendy Philipps, started selling their home-grown evergreens in 1995 off their property on North Tower Hill Road, but only recently won their first blue ribbons.
      According to Richard, his farm won the two blue ribbons for their Douglas Fir and Blue Spruce at the Dutchess County Fair.  They also won second place for their Balsam Fir entry.
     "We're very proud of the accomplishment, " said Richard.
     He first started growing trees becuase he had a large tract of land that he wanted to do something with, "other than watching hay grow."
     His sister told him to start growing Christmas Trees, and unaware of how difficult it was to grow the trees, he started to slowly learn how to farm them.
     "It's a lot of hard work," said Philipps.
     He went to other tree farm owners and they gave him needed advice, noting that he continued because the buisness was the perfect way to get some extra money to send his son to college.  He expected his son to learn about the business and how to operate it, but his son was not ineterested after graduation from college.  It didn't bother Philipps becuase "it turned out to be a pretty good business."
     Wendy and Richard started off with numerous varieties of evergreen trees, but said after a little while they discovered Balsam and Douglas Fir offered the best opportunity to grown strong based on the land.  Richard said it took him 10 years to realize that you just have to watch the trees grown and see what happens.
     He said when you see a species do well, you simply repeat what you did, but he is still experimenting.  The tree farmer said this year he will try to grow Concolor Firs, what he calls one of the most beautiful evergreen species.  Once planted the trees will take 7-10 years to reach full maturity before being cut for someone's home.
     "It's a lot of work getting a top quality Christmas tree ready for sale," said Philipps.
     He is proud of winning over all the competing Dutcchess County Growers, but said he put no extra care into his award-winning trees, he only looked in his fields for trees that best fit the county fair's judging criteria: shape, width, and look of the tree.
     "It was a really nice achievement.  I knew the trees we were going to enter were going to do well," said Philipps.
     He urges people to come out and see his farm this holiday season, noting that like apple or raspberry picking in the fall and summer, picking out a Christmas tree is an activity a family can go out and have fun doing.
For more information go to www.evergreentree.com.