Courtesy, Bittersweet FarmsIn rural Indiana, a couple are selling around 1,000 stately fir and pine trees for Christmas to help fund the education of their 8 grandchildren.
Shawn and Bruce Carpenter planted around 5,000 tiny trees a decade ago, reasoning that by the time they reach between 6 and 10 feet tall, their grandchildren will begin shipping off to colleges and universities across the country and will need a helping hand.
Time passed, and the Carpenters let nature take its course on the plantation; keeping a lookout for bagworms and mowing the grass between the trees, but doing little else besides.
Many died, but around a thousand, beautiful trees remain ready for the holiday season, meaning that Bittersweet Farms is finally ready for business.
“It was an investment to help our grandkids for college,” Shawn Carpenter told the Herald Times. “One that’s taken awhile.”
“Bittersweet Farms Cut & Carry Christmas Trees for Sale,” reads a sign the Carpenters put out by their rural mailbox on Bittersweet Road in Bean Blossom, Indiana, located in the state’s south-central Brown County.
Pick Your Own Christmas Tree estimates that this year, after inflation, trees will likely cost around $13 per foot, with rural prices trending down towards about $75 for an average tree, but going for as much as $100 in the cities. Bittersweet Farms charges $10 per foot.
If the Carpenters were to ship 60% of their total stock at a median price of $83, they’d pocket just shy of $50,000. Presuming expenses and taxes of 20% of the take-home, they’d close the season at around $39,000.
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If all 8 of the grandchildren attended university, they would receive $4,875 from their grandparents; a pretty helpful way to start the next chapter of their lives.
On November 30th—their first day of business—they sold 6 trees, including two of their largest to a Columbus Regional Hospital executive who bought the hospital building a tree for 2024 and 2025.
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Up until now, the family has been harvesting trees from the land for years, but this is the first time the public has been able to buy from there. Buyers can saw one down themselves, or they can get help from Bruce and Shawn.
Bittersweet Farms is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and is closed on Sundays.
TELL Your Friends To Get Down To Bean Blossom And Buy Themselves A Tree…
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