Written by Sara Lilkas and Tyler Blance
We’re proud to support farmers and producers of the Northeast throughout the whole year! Our Christmas trees are grown and harvested on farms in New York and Vermont: When it’s grown here, we get it here. We recently were able to talk with Richie Hourihan, our farmer at Cabot Christmas Tree Farm in Cabot, Vermont about everything from growing Christmas trees from seed to keeping them beautiful once they are decorated at home!
PC: How long does it take from seed for a tree to grow full-sized?
RH: It usually takes about 12-20 years from seed to grow a full-sized tree. When planting new trees we usually transplant trees that are already about 5 years old and 14 inches tall.
PC: When do you start cutting down trees for the Christmas season?
RH: I usually start cutting down trees the day after Halloween, however with the warmer weather this year we had to continually put off cutting down the trees. Every tree must go through 2-3 hard frosts or “killing frosts” before they’re ready for cutting and bring home. After 2-3 hard frosts the trees enter dormancy, when trees are cut in dormancy they last longer in household temperatures and hold onto their needles.
PC: How long did you have to wait to cut down trees this year as a result of the warmer temperatures?
RH: This year we started cutting trees down a few days before Thanksgiving, and I was able to start delivering them the day after Thanksgiving.
PC: How many new trees do you plant each year?
RH: About 3,000 new trees every year.
PC: What growing methods do you use for your Christmas trees?
RH: No chemicals, sprays or fertilizers are used. The farm is USDA GAP [Good Agricultural Procedures] Certified. GAP ensures safe, environmentally friendly growing practices, regardless of the crop. We voluntarily go through this audit to verify the produce and trees we grow are handled and stored in the safest way possible.
PC: What’s your favorite variety of tree to grow?
RH: Balsam fir. Balsam fir trees are indigenous to the area (since they are native to the area they grow fast than other varieties) and they hold up the longest once cut and put indoors. An added bonus to growing balsam fir trees is that the deer do not like to nibble on them unlike other varieties!
PC: What is your favorite part of growing Christmas Trees?
RH: My favorite part of growing Christmas trees takes place in the summer time. After a long day on the farm attending to the other crops [Richie also grows berries, corn, and other vegetables] is mowing in between the rows of trees. I go out after dinner when it’s still light out and everyone who works on the farm with me has gone home. Mowing in between the trees is very peaceful, quiet, and I have a beautiful view of the mountains.
PC: What are some tips you could offer for keeping a healthy tree during the holiday season?
RH: When you get your tree home, cut about an inch off the base. When the trees are first cut sap starts to bleed and forms a cement-like layer along the base of the tree preventing it from taking in any water.
PC: How often should you water your Christmas tree?
RH: You should check to make sure the base is full every one to two days. A tree can use up to a quart of water a day!
PC: How should trees be disposed of, once the holidays are over?
RH: I recommend checking to see if there are any local ordinances in place. Many towns recycle Christmas trees either into mulch to be used in gardens and parks or are used to make barriers to prevent soil erosion.
We would like to thank Richie Hourihan for being a partner with us and for taking the time to share his knowledge about harvesting trees. We love being able to provide locally grown products to our customers and that would not be possible without farmers like Richie.
From our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas.
Written by Tyler Blance, Marketing Program Coordinator – Local
It’s fall harvest season in the northeast, and we’re celebrating homegrown at our
Clifton Park Shoppers World Market 32! Saturday, October 24
th starting at 10am, we’ll be hosting Homegrown Harvest Day, a day-long sampling event featuring products and appearances from local producers in the area.
Harvest Day comes at a time when many of our Northeast farmers are preparing for a well-deserved rest from the hectic growing season, but it also comes at a time when folks are starting to prepare for the holiday season and spending time with family. Our local producers are part of our Pric
e Chopper – Market 32 family, so we’re holding Homegrown Harvest Day in part to celebrate their partnership with us as we help people feed and care for themselves and their families.
On the 24
th, we’ll be featuring a variety of local producers, beginning first with our friends at Death Wish Coffee. These guys are from Round Lake, NY and brew “the world’s strongest coffee”. They’re in the running to win a commercial during football’s big game this year; visit their website
here to vote for them!
We’ll also have other producers from the area in-house at Shoppers World Market 32, including David Pede from Pede Bros pasta, Dave Shaul from Shaul Farms and Phyllis Underwood from Shushan Valley Hydro Farm. Come meet your Northeast producers, chat with them and sample the products they make and grow for you!
Supporting local is something we’ve always held a lot of importance to as a brand, whether it be supporting local community events and charities, supporting a local cider mill, Christmas tree farm, maple syrup producer or bakery. We’ll be hosting homegrown-focused sampling events in other stores in the future—stay tuned as we round up the local crowd in other parts of the Northeast!
Written by: Ellie Wilson, MS RDN Senior Nutritionist
On a beautiful day last Monday, my son and I drove out to Shaul Farms to meet with Dave Shaul. Shaul Farms encompasses 1500 acres, employs about 40 locals and teens in the summer busy season, and grows a huge list of vegetables. When I got to their large, open air farm market building, I was delighted by what we saw – fresh herbs, straw bales, tomatoes, piles of garlic, cucumbers, a range of sweet and hot peppers, onions, broccoli, summer and winter squash, and the ubiquitous sweet corn – all fresh and on beautiful broad table/bins. Like the vegetables, the display fixtures are also ‘home grown”, and the tall, wide planting boxes full of a great and colorful display of plants and flowers (which they also grow themselves) act as decoration and half-wall, surrounding the entire building. It was a dietitian’s dream! You will find Dave’s corn, broccoli, plum tomatoes and peppers in your local Price Chopper.
Dave, one of 10 siblings and the only one left farming from his family, is a busy, generous man who works hard to balance the needs of the farm with that of his growing family. He and his wife Becky have adopted 3 children and hope to add a new baby, visiting the same day of my visit, to their family. Dave’s family has farmed this land since 1701, and their older children are starting to take on some small chores. Despite the long family farming history, Dave’s father did the lion’s share of building the business up. At one point, they were shipping 4,000 tons of carrots to Beechnut and Birdseye, but as transportation costs escalated, they started to look out for other partners, and started delivery directly to the Cobleskill Price Chopper in 1986.
Shaul Farms is, like all of the farms Price Chopper works with, GAP certified. Food safety is of paramount importance to Dave, and to Price Chopper. He offers that national food safety issues, like the incident in Colorado, where melons processed on unsanitary machinery caused illness and some deaths, has impacted retailer demand for those items – he had so few orders, he decided not to grown them this year. To clarify, the melons were fine, the machinery was the problem, but for now, buyers are shy.
Deciding what to grow and choosing different varieties of the same types of crops is part of the winter planning Dave does, after family vacations. He described working closely with the seed salesperson, and trying new varieties in part to ensure he has a strong crop – if one type of seed doesn’t produce well, he has several others to fall back on and protect his overall harvest.
Technology plays its role on the Shaul farm, and he cites the use of GPS and satellite tracking for planting and harvesting as a game changer.
The challenge for farmers is to balance the cost of technology with the return on investment – even used machines like combines (that harvest corn) can cost well over $200,000.
As Dave helped my son learn more about the varieties of peppers – Don was thinking he wanted to make something for a family event later in the week, we got to speak about his favorites. He gave full credit to his wife for being a wonderful cook , and really struggled for a minute or two when I asked him what his favorite item was that he grew. He finally settled on “winter squash, with brown sugar and butter”. He also likes being his own boss, and that the farm and the area is a good place to raise a family. As I have of the other farmers I have met with so far, I asked what he thought was driving the growing interest in local foods and farming. He contemplated that for a few moments, and returned the thought that carbon footprint was definitely part of the equation. That, and connecting with farmers who are growing their food, which he thought was a really good trend.
Dave Shaul clearly likes his work, and I hope he gets his wish that one of his children is interested in maintaining the family tradition. He left us to get back to urgent chores, and we walked around the main farm area – one trailer being repaired, equipment and vehicles loosely organized around the well kept buildings, trucks of different sizes coming and going and a pallet mover whizzing around, preparing for picking and shipping tomorrow, green fields stretching away behind the buildings. “It’s beautiful out here, Mom. Did you see there is an ice cream stand across the street? ” We loaded our purchases into our truck, and headed over to enjoy the full bounty of the day. Please enjoy the local bounty of Dave’s produce in your local Price Chopper!
Written by Tyler Blance, Marketing Program Coordinator – Local
It’s fall harvest season in the northeast, and we’re celebrating homegrown at our Clifton Park Shoppers World Market 32! Saturday, October 24th starting at 10am, we’ll be hosting Homegrown Harvest Day, a day-long sampling event featuring products and appearances from local producers in the area.
Harvest Day comes at a time when many of our Northeast farmers are preparing for a well-deserved rest from the hectic growing season, but it also comes at a time when folks are starting to prepare for the holiday season and spending time with family. Our local producers are part of our Pric
Dave, one of 10 siblings and the only one left farming from his family, is a busy, generous man who works hard to balance the needs of the farm with that of his growing family. He and his wife Becky have adopted 3 children and hope to add a new baby, visiting the same day of my visit, to their family. Dave’s family has farmed this land since 1701, and their older children are starting to take on some small chores. Despite the long family farming history, Dave’s father did the lion’s share of building the business up. At one point, they were shipping 4,000 tons of carrots to Beechnut and Birdseye, but as transportation costs escalated, they started to look out for other partners, and started delivery directly to the Cobleskill Price Chopper in 1986.
Shaul Farms is, like all of the farms Price Chopper works with, GAP certified. Food safety is of paramount importance to Dave, and to Price Chopper. He offers that national food safety issues, like the incident in Colorado, where melons processed on unsanitary machinery caused illness and some deaths, has impacted retailer demand for those items – he had so few orders, he decided not to grown them this year. To clarify, the melons were fine, the machinery was the problem, but for now, buyers are shy.
Deciding what to grow and choosing different varieties of the same types of crops is part of the winter planning Dave does, after family vacations. He described working closely with the seed salesperson, and trying new varieties in part to ensure he has a strong crop – if one type of seed doesn’t produce well, he has several others to fall back on and protect his overall harvest.
Technology plays its role on the Shaul farm, and he cites the use of GPS and satellite tracking for planting and harvesting as a game changer.