< It's a day of dark lowering clouds on the mountains, lots of snow predicted for the higher elevations, even a dusting for us here in the valley. The kind of December Saturday morning that wakes up the urge to explore the unpacked tubs of holiday decorations, get a couple of wreaths on the front doors, decide whether to have a tree this year or not. Although I love the whole ritual of the tree, its magical feeling, the way it ties our modern invocation of light in the darkness in with that of our earliest ancestors, I'm afraid that "or not" usually wins that particular decision. The last time we had a tree, I did some research on the "actual green-ness of the Christmas tree industry and discovered how saturated in toxic pesticides and terrible labor practices much of it was. I wrote an entry in this blog which I titled How Toxic Are Thy Branches. I just looked it up, and find it worthy of a rerun for this holiday season. The above link will take you there.
I've done a little more research on the subject of organic trees, including the ongoing argument involving the choice between "real" or "fake" trees. for the current holiday season. At the time (two years ago) I wrote that first entry on organic trees, I could find precious few resources for obtaining one. Things are constantly changing of course, and organic awareness in this country advances daily, so from Green Promise, I offer this far more comprehensive list of organic Christmas tree farms. If I'd started earlier, I'd have myself one by now. Still no farms in New Mexico on the list, but there's one in Oklahoma, and three in Texas. It would have been a fun weekend excursion.
Umbra Fisk, green advice expert for the online magazine Grist, has also just written a column (Bough Wow: On Organic Christmas Trees) making a stab at answering the questions: "Is there such a thing as an organic Christmas tree? How chemical-intensive is conventional Christmas-tree farming? If I want a Christmas tree, what's the most eco-friendly way to go?" She comes down on the side of local trees, which only makes sense. Even a conventional tree from local sources is more environmentally-friendly than one trucked in from North Carolina or Oregon. In this column she refers back to a column she wrote several years back on the real/fake controversy: O, Say, Can You Tree? (Umbra likes those cutsy titles too, you'll notice), from which I learned this:
I've looked on site after site and called various places, and I can tell you that polyvinyl chloride is the monoculture of the artificial forest. Even worse, lead is apparently used to stabilize certain PVC products, which is why you'll see a label on faux Christmas trees cautioning you to avoid inhaling or eating any bits of lead dust that may fall from the "branches" of the family heirloom. Now, I'm not saying you need to run screaming from the house, but between the lead and the vinylness, I just can't support artificial trees.
Furthermore, she tells us "that Christmas decor is apparently one of the largest categories of Chinese imports. Yikes! Talk about thy toxic branches. Green Promise also explores the issue of real vs. fake trees here, and offers some more choices for those of us who remain confused, including potted trees, rented trees (apparently available in Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA) and grow-your-own trees. But, all this has finally led me to a decision. I saw some lovely li potted rosemary trees at Wild Oats when I went in for lunch yesterday. I think a largish one of these would make a perfect table tree with some mini lights and tiny decorations. When the cat knocks it over, it won't be a major disaster, it will be organic, will last as long as my thumb remains green, and we can cook with it.
