In Viljandi, Kalvik firs are already being offered for the second year. “The Rohekalda garden, which also sells fir trees, invited me – they are my good friends,” Kalvik said and noted that there can be rare incidents between fir sellers, but generally they are friends and the market is well divided between them.
In Kalvik’s eyes, selling fir trees is still about bringing and creating joy for people, not for business. “Where does this city dweller get fir trees from somewhere else? Yes, you can bring them from the RMK forest, but can you get such beautiful fir trees from there, that’s a separate question.”
Kalvik has grown only a portion of the spruces he sells. “If I wanted to grow all this money myself, I would have to take care of it all year round,” she said. “If you sell seven to eight hundred spruces a year, it means you need to have a ten-year reserve planted in advance. Every year, this amount needs to be planted in advance for the future, which would mean about 10,000 spruces growing.” Maintain such a spruce farm would mean a lot of work, which would be very difficult to do in addition to other activities.
A particularly beautiful spruce was on display to whet buyers’ appetites. Photo: Marko Saarm
But how did sales go in Kalvik?
“Pretty good: Most Estonians still believe in Christmas trees. Even though artificial fir trees are being used more and more, and the reason given is that thorns grow on the fir tree. In fact, some thorns also grow on artificial fir trees, and in about ten years this artificial fir will disappear completely,” he said laughing and pointing out that Christmas tree sales have remained fairly stable from year to year, especially if you add Christmas trees. “It’s these thorns… You bring Nulu into the room during the first or second Advent, and the thorns stick.”
2023-12-23 15:28:00
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