It is that time of year we have come to know and love here at Victorian Farmstead, The Holiday Season. We survived turkey week, and managed at the same time to get ready to open  Victorian Christmas Tree Farm  the day after Thanksgiving. Now we are in the sweet spot…This is the time when we get our annual visits from our favorite families. You see, back in 1972 when my grandparents bought our little farm, Grandma started a tradition of taking each family’s picture and putting it in an annual album. Each year, families would come back to the farm to get their tree and could look back over the years and see their family grow and change.

The Bryant Family came that first year, but back then they were just Clarence and Ann Bryant from San Francisco. 42 years later this is what four generations of Bryant’s look like. They now arrive every year in a specially rented van that seats twenty and I have to get up on a ladder to get everyone in the picture. Their favorite part of coming here is the cider and pumpkin bread, followed closely by looking back through the albums to see what they looked like “back then”. I have hundreds of families just like the Bryants that we look forward to seeing every year. The John Ferrando, Sr. Family should be here this weekend, right John??? With technology such as it is, Laura and I have not done a very good job keeping up with the albums. With the finalization of our new website in the first quarter, we will be putting all the digital pics we have taken on our website, so that Gigi’s tradition will continue for years to come.
This is a great weekend to come out to the farm. We have a very special guest arriving from the North Pole on Saturday around noon. Santa and Friends are not to be missed, as this is not your typical mall Santa. Santa has deputized our good friends Ken, Rachel, Karen and Dave to come out to the farm and help your family celebrate the holidays. They are a joy to be around, and can get even the fussiest toddler to take a great picture without even standing in line in front of Sears! If you can’t make it this Saturday, they will be back on Sunday the 15th from noon until the last child gets a visit.
One of the standards we set many years ago at our Christmas Tree Farm was we didn’t want this to be like any other farm. As competition grew stiff in the 80’s and there were many farms and lots in our area, the farms started to look like the carnival at the county fair. $2 got your face painted, $1.50 for hot coco, and $3 a kid for the pony ride. Sorry, you won’t find any of that here! You buy a tree and maybe a couple special ornaments, we take care of the rest. Farm animals to see, a nice fire in the Warming Hut with complimentary pumpkin bread and cider to snack on, friendly help loading and tying your tree on to your sled. Just the way Gigi and Great Pop wanted it!
Finally, it is time to think about what delicacy your are putting on your holiday table. We will have BN Ranch Heritage Turkeys, along with all of our own offerings. Prime Ribs will go fast, so get those orders in soon. We will have other Prime Ribs available, but if you want the best we offer, Stemple Creek Prime Rib, get on it! We will have a limited supply of Leg of Lamb, plenty of Porchetta, Bone-In Hams and more. If you are not sure what you want, you’re on a budget but want something special, or just want to chat about the weather, give me a call at 707-332-4605 and we will figure it all out.