Iconic cut-and-carry tree farm closed in Sonoma

A favorite hometown option is not open this year.|

For generations, visiting Moon Mountain Christmas Tree Farm has been a tradition, an invigorating quest which kicks off the holiday season.

Visitors – complimentary cider in hand – huffed up and down the farm’s steep terrain in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Teenagers in Santa hats working for tips wielded sharp saws, eager to cull a chosen tree from the others. There were cookies, and carols, and crisp pine-scented air. For years, the ritual signaled the start of the season, but this year, the Grinch shut it down cold.

Or, more accurately, the Nuns Fire did.

The wildfire that roared over the western ridge of the Mayacamas in October tore at the very edge of Moon Mountain Farm.

“The wonderful firefighters saved our farm and homes,” reads their website. “To keep the fire from progressing any further south, they had to clear-cut with a bulldozer one side of the road to make a firebreak.” The firefighter’s efforts were necessarily extreme, making an already difficult road plainly treacherous.

“The bulldozers may have left the road prone to falling boulders, rocks in ditches, mud slides, etc. The fire has left our private driveway particularly vulnerable also,” continues the farm’s web post.

Settled in 1918 and planted more than 50 years ago, Moon Mountain is still run by its founding family. Passed through the generations from forebears Baptista and Maria Ferrando, siblings Bobbi Hall and John Ferrando operate the farm today, along with their spouses, Larry and Caroline.

But this year, just like the human inhabitants who weathered the fires, Moon Mountain’s conifers are a bit worse for wear. “Our trees need a rest and a good rainfall to clean them and perk them up.” That’s an idea that’s not difficult to fathom, with only a slim firebreak between the trees and destruction. Even miles downwind for that long week in October, the inferno up-valley was palpable.

Christmas trees take a long time to grow. Douglas firs, stout and bushy with a classic holiday profile, grow to maturity in five or six years. Nobles, with sparse, staggered branches ideal for showcasing ornaments, can take more than a decade to mature.

Moon Mountain grows both those varieties and others as well, and prices them somewhat subjectively. Whoever it was who said “looks aren’t everything” must not have meant trees, as aesthetic appeal is the whole game at Christmas. “The color, spacing of branches, symmetrical shape, etc., are all considered when pricing a tree,” reads Moon Mountain’s website. “So you may find a taller tree for a much lower price than a shorter tree that is priced higher.” Whatever your preference or budgetary restraints, Moon Mountain grew a tree especially for you. Except this year.

The vagaries of the season are what make Christmas memorable, after all. Inconsistency and unpredictability show up like clockwork.

So the family won’t cut a fresh tree at Moon Mountain this season, but they’ll engage in seasonal folly somewhere. Dad will predictably lobby for the cheapest tree, while mom will insist on high style. Little Timmy will want to bring all the trees home, and the tweens will pretend not to care. One way or another and despite everything, stockings will be hung from the chimney with care, and - because this year we really did earn it - St. Nick will be there.

Contact Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com.

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