Monday, November 29, 2010

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

One family tradition most families celebrate is putting up the Christmas tree. When I was a child we went to the forest to select a Christmas tree, but today 98% of Christmas trees are grown on Christmas tree plantations. The trees grown on these farms take four to five years to mature. During that time the farmer fertilizes, treats for insects, and prunes the trees two to three times each year.
Christmas tree plantations open the day after Thanksgiving and continue to sell trees until Christmas eve. Louisiana has lots of Christmas tree plantations to find one, log onto either of these websites: http://www.southernchristmastrees.org/ and http://pickyourownchristmastree.org/. In addition to helping you locate a tree, these websites offer helpful information in how to select and care for your tree.
If you own a Christmas tree plantation also register your plantation on our new MarketMaker website; registration is FREE. This site is designed to link consumer with producer. Register your Christmas tree plantation in the "agritourism" section.

Contact Dora Ann Hatch at (318) 927-9654 Ext. 229 or e-mail her at dhatch@agcenter.lsu.edu

Monday, November 15, 2010

Natural Resource Enterprise Workshop on Agritourism a Success!

The November 9th workshop in Rayville at Curry Farms attracted 60 people from five states. Experienced agritourism operators shared information on how to start and grow an agritourism business, an attorney explained agritourism liability issues, Louisiana Department of Ag and Forestry explained the 2008 agritourism limited liability law, Representative "Andy" Anders gave the history of the law, USDA discussed value-added grants and the LSU AgCenter provided information on MarketMaker.