The 60th anniversary of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York (CTFANY) summer meeting was held in Sullivan County on July 19, with over 200 people attending.

The meeting hosted a variety of vendors associated with Christmas trees from across the region and boasted over a dozen classes to keep farmers educated. Some notable classes included machine wreath-making, chemical mowing, Christmas shop business plan, media outreach and insect identification.

Suzanne Stokoe of Stokoe Farms in Scottsville, with four generations of Cornell Cooperative Extension graduates, made the trek. She said, “The biggest challenge is in educating new customers. A lot of misinformation is put out by the artificial tree industry, misinformation that non-renewable trees are cut in the forest.”

Co-hosts were Maplehorst Farm Nursery of Monticello and Bells Christmas Tree Farm of Accord. Maplehorst is owned and operated by John Rapp and his children, John Jr. and Karen. Bells is owned by Gordie and Brian Bell.