BEVERLY — Henry Bertolon walks briskly through his rows of perfectly manicured Christmas trees, inspecting the needles for frost damage, taking in the fresh, piney aromas and gawking at the symmetrical cones.
He bought this 27-acre plot of land at 300 Dodge St. about 10 years ago and for a decade has been nurturing, pruning and planting this, his inaugural crop.
"When I cut those first trees down (to decorate the tree farm's retail space) it was kind of painful," he said. Still, he wouldn't complain if a good portion of the 13,000 he's planted here were gone by Christmas. After all, it would be for a good cause.
The Bertolon family has decided to donate all of the proceeds from its Christmas tree sales this year, and every year after, to charity. When visitors come to the farm, pick out and buy a tree, they'll be able to write the name of their favorite charity on a piece of paper. At the end of the season, the most popular charity will receive all the profit. The tree farm opens for the season tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Donating all of the proceeds to charity is no ordinary gesture, but then again, Bertolon is not an ordinary tree farmer. Before this first foray, his passion was business, not botany — Salem State University's Bertolon School of Business is named after him.
He decided to buy the tree farm property — which for at least 50 years was known as the Johnson farm, and later the Johnson Tree Farm — when he learned that developers were looking to buy it from the Johnson family. The family patriarch had died several years earlier and it had long since stopped operating as a tree farm.
"I used to walk the property with the kids and we loved it," said Bertolon, who with his wife, Donna, and their three children used to buy their Christmas trees there. "I knew developers were looking at it to build homes, and I didn't want to see that happen. We bought it with the intention of, I don't know what, at the time. I remember hanging out in the old barn and thinking, 'What are we gonna do with this thing now?'"
What he did was move the old barn about 40 feet back from the road, expand and renovate it; then, he started planting. He knew he wasn't going to grow corn — there was really only one option.
"We loved the tradition, loved cutting our own trees. We thought if we did want to do that, we better do it now, because it takes 10 to 15 years," he said. That was about 10 years ago.
Bertolon bought books on how to lay out a tree farm, how far apart to plant the trees, how to feed and prune them. He planted 1,500 trees the first year and just kept planting. He now has more than 13,000, and six varieties. The plan has achieved many goals: conservation, tradition and charity.
"We wanted to keep it an open space, keep it in the condition it was in and be able to have the property carry itself," Bertolon said. "Then we got to thinking: Do we really care about profit from Christmas trees? We're fortunate enough that we don't need the money. ... Why not take any profit there is and give it to charity?"
"It was a great idea right from the start," Donna Bertolon said.
The Bertolons say the project has been quite the family affair, not just Dad's obsession.
"He paid me and my friends in high school to do the planting," said the Bertolons' daughter, Jenn, who is now 28.
The original Johnson barn, which has been thoroughly renovated, serves as the Christmas tree farm's home base. The sweet scent of pine, a statue of Santa Claus, reindeer, nutcrackers, a big welcoming fireplace, as well as cookies, hot cider and cocoa await tree shoppers.
For $65, visitors can go out on the farm, pick out a tree and cut it down. A tractor will then drag it back, and it will be packaged up and loaded onto your car.
"My goal is to be able to build something here that develops a life of its own ... and becomes an extremely popular activity for families to do around the holidays," Bertolon said. "We want to develop a quality product and experience and hopefully be able to make a considerable donation to a local charity each year."
If you go
What: Beverly Tree Farm
Where: 300 Dodge St., Beverly
Grand opening: Tomorrow, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; after that Saturdays and Sundays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Dec. 19.
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