PRINTOn the Job with a Tree Farm Owner
Christy Seibert
Mary Lou and Daryll Raitt sell Christmas trees on their farm in Hartsburg. The couple started Timber View Tree Farm in 1972 and made it a family business with their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.
December 11, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Pink and blue trees sparkled and shined on a tree lot in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlie knocks on one tree that lets out a disappointing hollow thunk. On Mary Lou and Daryl Raitt’s Timber
View Tree Farm, however, there is not a pink aluminum tree in sight. Rather, the Raitts sell Scotch and white
pine trees and have been doing so since 1972. Every spring they plant 5,000 trees on the 30- to 40-acre farm, carefully trim them and keep them disease-free until they are ready to be sold for the holidays. Then, families visit the farm to grab a hayride, drink some cocoa and find that right tree to take home and decorate.
Vox: How did you get started selling trees?
Daryll Raitt: We wanted to live in the country, so we bought some land out here. We thought about subdividing and leasing part of it, but we wanted to plant something that could generate some income. Once we got started, it just kept growing. We were going to get out of it about three years ago, but then my daughter and her husband decided that they would like to take it over. They’re working here, and in a couple years, it will be their operation.
How hard is it to take care of the trees before you start selling them?
DR:
When you first start your operation, it’s going to be six years before you can sell that first tree and 10 to 11 before the whole field is ready. People have asked me about the business and mentioned getting into it, and I say: “Well, you ought to enjoy doing it because that’s a big part of it. And you can make a little money.” But you’re never going to get rich on it.
What is your favorite part about your job?
DR:
Selling trees at Christmastime. That’s the most fun. When it’s selling time, we have families that come out here,
some of them for 30 years now. So it’s a happy time. It’s fun watching them come out and find their tree and cut it and make a big production. We also have hot chocolate and cider that we provide in the barn. We have a barn out here that we sell out of, which I built from lumber that I cut from our trees off of the farm.
What is it like when it’s a busy time?
DR: The kids are excited. It’s fun. We take a picture. My daughter and her husband started doing that a few years ago, taking pictures of everybody on the weekends when they come out. They’ll put the pictures up on the wall out there, and next year they can come and get it. The first thing that they want to do is find their picture and take it home with them.
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