InFocus Magazine

Dirt roads aren’t that surprising in the Comox Valley. The surprise is what’s at the end of them.

Doveside Christmas Tree Farm is one of those surprises—a family-owned and locally operated cut-your-own-Christmas tree business on Todd Road in Dove Creek. You know you’ve arrived when the pasture, woods, and horse trails that make up Dove Creek give way to rows and rows of Christmas trees.

I arrived at the farm just before sunset a couple of days after the first snow of 2011. The ground was white, the trees green, and two golden retrievers barked my car up the driveway past a large, modern barn to a parking area. The whole scene looked like a station stop for the Polar Express en route to the North Pole. And when I opened my car door, I couldn’t help but think there was a little bit of Christmas wonder in the cold air.

Owner Michael Day would smile to hear anyone say that. He, along with his wife Libby, have spent the last 10 years transforming their 13.5 acre tree farm into a place for families to make Christmas memories. Not only does the farm sell Christmas trees, they also offer wagon rides, carol singing, hot chocolate and bonfires, along with the opportunity to hike around their rural property. These are all the sorts of things Day remembers from growing up, first in the Lower Mainland and later the Alberta Rockies.

“I have a sister whose birthday is in December,” says Day, noting that every year, his family would head out on the weekend closest to that sister’s birthday and cut their own tree. It’s a tradition Day continued with his own family and hopes to share with everyone that comes to Doveside Christmas Tree Farm. “My goal was trying to recreate the experience of going into the Rockies and making it an event, making it a day.”

This isn’t to say, however, that Day grew up wanting to be a Christmas tree farmer. He and his family (which includes two sons, now grown) moved to the Comox Valley in 1993 for other work opportunities. Day is a teacher by training, working at Vanier. His wife Libby is a surgeon.

It was one of Day’s teaching colleagues, Bob Tsable, who started the farm 25 years ago to gain farm status and generate income on the property. The rural location, though, made it a popular spot for Vanier staff parties, providing a spectacular backdrop for teachers like Day and their families to kick back and enjoy themselves. However, by 2001, Tsable was ready to sell the property, and the Days took the opportunity to buy.

“My wife had fallen in love,” says Day with a laugh. “I was just scared, which was probably justified on my part. I knew nothing.” In fact, the incentive to buy was the property and the location—not the tree farm. However, the Days were determined to keep farm status on the property and that meant figuring out how to be tree farmers

“The trees at the time were well established,” says Day. “Bob worked them very hard, but after he retired he found it a bit of a hassle. He let the trees go so they weren’t marketable.”

Luckily for Day, he had another Vanier colleague whose husband happened to be a tree farmer. That farmer was Brian Black, and the two formed a partnership. “He advises and directs; I provide the grunt labor and the marketing,” says Day.

Part of that advice the first year was a massive haircut to bring the trees back to a manageable and marketable condition. “It looked like a bomb had gone off,” remembers Day with a laugh. “We didn’t sell any trees. But by the next year we had enough trees to legitimately make our farm status.

“It’s not strictly a commercial operation,” adds Day. “What we discovered the first year, we recognized that to compete with established operations we had to offer something a little more.” And that’s where Day’s own Christmas memories come in.

“From the first days we offered hayrides and bonfires,” he says. From there, inspiration just seemed to keep striking. Take for example a trip through Grand Forks several years back. On the drive home, they happened to pass a shop with an antique Doukhobor wagon parked out front. Day bought the wagon and had it shipped to the Valley, where he fixed it up to tow behind the tractor. Customers now get to ride through the trees, singing Christmas carols on a piece of history.

Then Black suggested Day reach out to the local schools, offering the farm up for class tours on silviculture. Although not organic, Day and Black have experimented with low-impact and ecologically sensitive farming methods that offer a lot of learning opportunities for students.

First, there’s stump culturing. “Some people tend to stay away from cutting a Christmas tree because they think they’re increasing their carbon footprint,” says Day. “When we cut the tree, we don’t kill it. We grow new trees off the existing root system.” A branch is left on the stump, and that branch eventually becomes a new tree. That means the tree keeps doing things like absorbing CO2 and releasing oxygen into the air even as it re-grows.

“We can get four or five trees off a stump before it dies back,” explains Day.

Then there are the sheep. “The grass needs to be kept down to maximize tree growth, otherwise the grass competes for nutrients with the trees,” says Day. That means either extensive mowing with gas powered mowers, or some alternative. The Days recently tried sheep, and liked the results.

“There are a lot of advantages to sheep over say goats—like they don’t eat the branches,” says Day. Instead, they eat the grass and fertilize the trees, making for low-impact maintenance.

Finally, the farm offers a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between ecology and farming. Much of the Day’s property is made up of wooded areas left to grow wild. The property is also bordered by Dove Creek, a salmon-bearing stream that’s undergone significant rehabilitation over the past decade. And like many other salmon-bearing streams in the Valley, the benefits are starting to show in increased salmon returns. “Two years ago you couldn’t step in the creek without stepping on salmon,” says Day. That means visitors to Doveside farms get to learn about how farming practices and the sort of fertilizers you use can impact something like a salmon-bearing stream.

“We wanted to talk about the environmental aspects of Christmas tree farming,” says Day. “We talk about erosion and the effects. We don’t use herbicides, but we try to be thoughtful about what we use.”

The kids love the tours, and their families appreciate a local business giving back to the community. In fact, many of these kids and their families have become some of Doveside’s most loyal customers. There’s Amethyst, who first came to the farm as a six-year-old on a school tour with her mom chaperoning. They’ve come back every Christmas since, and even approached the Days about partnering with YANA to raise funds through donations for the hot chocolate and hot dogs. They raised $300.

Then there are the families that just seem to find the farm by chance. “We had a family that came six years ago,” says Day. “They were from Victoria on a ski trip to Mount Washington and decided to stop at the farm on their way home.” Every year since then, they’ve come back and brought other families with them. “They have multiple families that come for a ski weekend and then cut a tree on their way home.” One year, they even showed up on a bus to accommodate all the people and the trees.

When asked what keeps bringing such a determined group back, Day has a simple answer.

“What drew them back was the opportunity to be together, and that is what the farm is about,” he says. “Sharing the blessings that we’ve been given.”

“It’s labor intensive, and you’re not going to make money,” continues Day. “There’s got be something else you’re doing it for. What makes it worth it for us is the people. Where else can you go out and sing Christmas carols all day?”

Doveside Christmas Tree Farm is open weekends from 10am to dusk.

For more information call 250-703-2047.

Doveside Christmas Tree Farm is located at 6077 Todd Road in Dove Creek. Visitors are advised to dress for the weather, and be prepared for uneven ground —boots are a good choice for everyone. Wagon rides (fleece blankets provided), bonfires and hot chocolate are available during the selling season and there are washrooms on site in the barn. You are also welcome to hike through the property, but know that you’ll likely be accompanied by the Day family’s golden retrievers Amber and Honey. You can get there from Courtenay along Cliffe Avenue, through downtown. Make a right on 1st Street and a left on Anderton. Cross the Condensory Road bridge and through the flashing lights at Piercy. Continue straight through for 5.7 km before turning right onto Todd Rd. Go 250m to Doveside Christmas Tree Farm on the left.