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Cupola House Tree Farm Sells Healthy Trees
Looking for local Christmas trees in northeastern Illinois? Look no further than Cupola House, located about an hour south of Chicago in Bourbonnais.
Jim Keller and his wife, Chris, take pride in growing their more than 24,000 trees on 30 acres in the Kankakee River Valley.
And as the trees grow, they give back.
“Every acre of evergreens that we have produces enough oxygen for 18 people,” says Keller, a master gardener. “It is a net gain for the environment.”
They plant a new tree each spring for those cut down or deemed not holiday-worthy. Branches from those trees become fresh wreaths and garland.
In the farm’s 20 years, Keller has noticed a trend in taste toward more short-needled trees – and tall ones. Most people want trees in the 7-foot range, but more and more customers want a tree up to 25 feet tall.
Species available from Cupola include Fraser, Balsam, Canaan and Douglas firs; Norway and Colorado Blue spruce; and White and Scotch pines.
Story by Pamela Coyle
