1) Kjeld Kristensen is a Danish Christmas tree grower who moved to Scotland and started Europe's biggest Christmas tree farm in Inverness. 2) He meticulously grows and cares for over 600,000 trees by hand over a five week harvest each year, ensuring high quality. 3) Kjeld keeps his tree growing methods secret but ensures each tree is trimmed and shaped by hand, only harvesting those that meet his standards.

1. Keeping
it real
Our Scandinavian supplier reveals
his secret to growing the perfect
Christmas tree… move to Scotland
“There must be something in the air up here,” smiles
Christmas tree grower Kjeld Kristensen, as he weaves
his 4x4 along a dirt track flanked by fir trees.
“Once the harvest is over each year, I vow never to
put myself through it again because it’s so intense. But
this is my 16th time now, so I keep coming back for more.”
Speaking without even the slightest Highland twinge
to his Scandinavian lilt, Danish-born Kjeld is making his
way through Drynie Woodlands, the home he and his family
have made for themselves just north of Inverness. A home
enveloped by Europe’s biggest Christmas tree farm.
Around 600,000 of the 7.5 million trees that surround
Kjeld’s vehicle are cut carefully by hand in a painstaking
annual harvest that spans five weeks of chopping from
5am each day until well into the night.
PERFECT FOR PREENING
Despite being in the Scottish Highlands, surprisingly there
are no heavy winters or frosts to contend with. Thanks to
the warm Gulf Stream coming into the Moray Firth estuary,
a mild breeze keeps the farm unseasonably warm all year
round, while the mercury plunges across the rest of Scotland.
The real mystery is in the art of growing Christmas trees
Kjeld’s way. Born into a proud farming family in Jutland in
southern Denmark, the traditional farmer likes to keep his
methods and ideas a closely guarded secret.
As Kjeld pulls up in a low-lying field, this year’s intake
of trees is already being graded and measured.
“The secret to growing a great tree is all up here,” Kjeld
says coyly, tapping the side of his head. “But handling every
tree is very important to me. We trim and shape them by
hand, and if the quality is not good enough, we leave it in
the ground. We try to grow the trees as evenly as possible
and most look exactly the same.”
A young farmer in Scandinavia during the 1980s, Kjeld
decided to up sticks and start his own tree farm – and family
– in Inverness. Since then, the farm has swelled from 40 to
1,000 hectares, while his family has grown to include four
children. But the expansion has been meticulously planned.
“We plant roughly six trees for every five we cut,” says
Kjeld. “This is not forestry. Our trees are grown for purpose
in exactly the same way as the cut-flower industry.”
What’s more, the farm’s pot-grown variety of trees
can be transferred to the garden after Christmas, so they
don’t leave any waste either.
7
Kjeld’s group of farmhands enjoy
the unseasonable warmth
17
Festive celebrations
The pot-grown trees
and our Nordmann fir cut
trees were a hit last year,
but Kjeld is working on
a host of new varieties.
“If we want to make a
tree narrower or heavier,
we simply take in seeds
from Siberia and try
a new species,” Kjeld
adds. “We’re working
on 10 different varieties,
including the Pot-Grown
Blue Spruce. It’s hard and
prickly, but people love
the colour.”
A DANISH CHRISTMAS
After nursing his saplings for between 8 and 10 years
until they’re fully grown, ready to be cut and sold, Kjeld
has no desire to see any of his beloved trees go to waste.
To show the trees off in all their glory, Kjeld has
designed custom-made display pallets to keep them standing
tall and looking lush throughout the festive period.
After spending most of the year tending to trees that will
be the focal point of people’s Christmases, how does the
Danish expat decorate his home to toast the festivities?
“We go for a Nordmann fir, only twice as big as the ones
we sell. We don’t put much on it – no tinsel, real candles
and not too much bling. I want to see the tree,” he adds.
“When the children were small we had a pot-grown tree
for each of them – one in every room, with useful gifts such
as socks and pencils for every day running up to Christmas.”
The useful, advent calendar-like presents are a Danish
innovation and as he descends through the last green field
Kjeld reveals another Scandinavian ritual: “It’s tradition
in Scandinavia to gather around the tree in the evening
for drinks and to sing songs together, so we do that too.”
It must be Christmas spirit that’s in the air.
O Our range of Christmas trees are available to buy with
Clubcard Boost for the first time this year.
Words:DeborahHatch