Holiday Wreaths

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Wreaths .... Wreath Order Form .... Wreath Schedual .... Community Supported Agriculture

Fresh Handmade Balsam Wreaths
are hand-weave our wreaths from fresh balsam, pine and cedar, and decorate with pine cones, princess pine, berries and a weatherproof red velvet bow. We think of them as a circular forest because they incorporate so many pieces of our beautiful surrounding woods. They measure approximately 24" in diameter and will be shipped out starting the last week of November unless you specify otherwise. $39.00 each

WHAT GOES INTO A ROUND RIVER FARM WREATH? STEP ONE: Purchase rings, wire, velvet, berries, packing tape, boxes and start UPS account.

STEP TWO: Gather 750 pine cones and 500 princess pine before the permanent snow cover arrives. The availability of pine cones fluctuates from year to year and we look for them beneath the towering trees in the forest or scattered around the trees in our fields, spreading them indoors to dry and fully open. Princess pine is a ground cover that grows best on north slope forest floors. We cut every tenth sprout with scissors, leaving the rest to spread and multiply for future years.

STEP THREE: Gather 2500 sprigs white pine and 1250 sprigs cedar. The white pine comes from the lower branches that we trim off the trees in a nearby plantation and our fields to help reduce their susceptibility to blister rust. Our cedars grow in the surrounding swamps and on ridge tops so we have to either get wet or climb for the greens. The deer also love cedar so we have to search hard for lower branches that are within our reach.

STEP FOUR: Gather 30,000 balsam fir sprigs approximately 12_ long. We wander through different sections of the forest, dragging a plastic garbage can and clipping off the tips of the branches within our reach. Each site is visited in alternating years, giving the trees time to regrow enough sprigs to cut again. By this time in the season, we are usually wearing blaze orange to avoid being mistaken by a hunter as deer browsing in the trees. A full barrel makes about six wreaths and can take one to four hours to cut, depending on the snow conditions and distance from the house. Decades of cutting has resulted in an intimate knowledge of our surrounding forest.

STEP FIVE: We gather the greens in our basement and start weaving together all these gathered greens as we talk or listen to the radio. This wreath-making squeezes into days already filled with jobs, homeschool and projects, making November a very full month. As each wreath is finished it goes onto the porch until the next day.

STEP SIX: Lise makes the bows, David wires the cones and decorates the wreaths. Colby and Tremayne tape, number, and stack the boxes on the porch. (The boys also help with cutting the greens.)

STEP SEVEN: Lise types in the UPS labels, writes the cards and seals up the boxes. David loads up to 18 wreaths on a sled and, with the boys_ help, hauls them the half mile to the shed where UPS picks them up.

Wreaths .... Wreath Order Form .... Community Supported Agriculture