Looking to cut down your own Christmas tree? Tannebaum Tree Farm, owned by Tim and Claudia Wassom, east of Lennox opens Nov. 29.
Located at 27628 468th Avenue, the choose and cut tree farm will be open Fridays from noon to 5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays noon to 5 p.m. from Thanksgiving weekend through the weekend before Christmas.
Besides choosing from scotch pine, white pine, Colorado spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Black Hills spruce, Siberian spruce and Frasier fir trees, shoppers can also pick from handmade wreaths and winter containers made by Claudia.
While the Wassoms have only been at their current location since 2008 and selling cut trees since last year, they have been in the Christmas tree business since 1987. Their first farm Christmas tree farm was located in the area of 57th Street and Tea-Ellis Road until they sold it to the Sioux Falls School District so they could build R.F. Pettigrew Elementary.
The Wassoms vacated that property in 2011, but built their new house in 2008. They started planting new trees around that time so they could start growing to be cut for Christmas trees.
A graduate of South Dakota State University with a degree in horticulture, Tim got interested in growing Christmas trees when he was working at Hiebert Greenhouse in Sioux Falls. A friend was talking about an SDSU Extension specialist promoting Christmas trees.
“I thought it was something I could do. I was already fairly busy at the greenhouse, but I wanted something of my own. It was a lot of hope and faith that it was going to work,” Tim said.
When he wanted to get started, he did not have any land, but he talked to his parents and his dad was optimistic and thought it was a great idea. He encouraged Tim to order trees and he went to look for land. His dad found the land on Tea-Ellis Road and Tim planted 3,000 trees in 1987.
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