Castle Hill Farm, 1 Sugar Lane, hosted this year’s Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association’s field day on Saturday, August 3. The event was held on location at the family-run farm, and also included a trip to their main tree farm, Paproski’s Tree Farm, at 5 Hattertown Road for a tree study.

CCTGA is an organization that has over 200 members and is dedicated to advancing the Christmas tree industry within the state by promoting research, gathering and sharing information, and connecting people within the industry.

According to CCTGA Executive Director Lisa Angevine-Bergs, the organization holds a field day every year as a chance for Christmas tree farmers from across the state and beyond to get together and network with each other.

The field day also gives them a chance to touch base on trends, learn from demonstrations, earn pesticide credits from the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), and more.

A different farm is chosen to host the CCTGA’s annual field day each year, with this year’s choice being Castle Hill Farm. Over 80 people attended the event, from Christmas tree farmers to vendors and scientists. Many people came from all over Connecticut, but some came from New York, while a few others came all the way from Montreal.

Diana Paproski, who owns Castle Hill Farm with her husband Steve Paproski, said that it was “an honor” to showcase her farm and talk with others in the industry, such as those with the CCTGA. The networking that came about through the event, she says, was “immeasurable.”

“[The CCTGA] is such a wonderful group of people. They’re very knowledgeable and very seasoned to share their knowledge about growing trees,” Diana said. “We want people to know that there is such a group; that there’s a lot of other farmers out there through this event we hosted … That was probably the most beneficial thing; that a group of 80 people could get together and just share their common knowledge.”

As the hosts of this year’s field day, the Paproski family shared the history of their farm, as well as how they diversified. Beyond that, there were many different discussions and workshops for everyone to enjoy. These included pruning demonstrations, a scientist discussion on weed control and disease, a workshop that shared tips on how to make Christmas products such as wreaths, and more.

They also did a two part tree field study, the majority of which, Diana says, was done at Castle Hill Farm’s main tree farm, which spans 42-acres and has different varieties of evergreen trees. The other portion of the study happened at the original Sugar Lane location.

For lunch, everyone had a chance to eat and network under the farm’s pavilion, where there was a wide variety of vendors that sold Christmas tree products such as tags, ribbons, and branded clothing.

According to Diana, a lot of time and energy went into preparing for the event and making sure everything was just right. They had to mow, trim up trees, and were “very involved in just having the trees feel ready at this time of year so people could walk through.”

The event, she and Steve said, also served as an opportunity for them to learn from other farmers. To them, it was as much of a learning experience hosting it as it was for everyone else in attendance.

“You know it’s sort of like any organization when you get together,” Steve said. “It’s so nice for growers to talk to each other, get a rough idea on what they do on their farm, where they buy their seedlings, what they sell their trees for or how they prune them … You can get together needing something, and you come out wanting to go full force and do a better job.”

Both Diana and Angevine-Bergs said that this collaborative spirit and encouragement is especially important in an industry like Christmas tree farming, which faces challenges such as disease, climate change, financial difficulties, and getting younger generations interested in taking over farms.

“It really is such a unique business in that regard because there’s so many [farms] going out of business, and it’s such a hard industry that you do have to stick together,” Angevine-Bergs said.

Castle Hill Farm has faced difficulties of its own. As a family-run farm, Castle Hill Farm was once the second largest supplier of dairy products within Fairfield County. Steve shared that he, as a third generation, watched his grandfather and father take care of the dairy farm, and then watched as his uncle and father worked to take care of it.

Steve says that he took over for many years after that, but eventually sold their cows and tried to go into egg tourism, trying to find ways to keep the farm going because “the milk industry was not doing it.”

“We were just trying to find a way to make it work and keep the property,” Steve said.

Despite no longer being a dairy farm, Castle Hill Farm still works hard to support the community by growing vegetables and Christmas trees while also offering agritourism and special events.

Events like the annual field day then not only help people share important information, but also keep those in the industry connected. Angevine-Bergs said that she believes community goes a long way, and that “with all information on diseases and soil health; all the tips that we give and learn. It would be impossible to grow trees without each other.”

“You learn from others’ mistakes. People are very happy to share what they did wrong so others won’t do it,” Angevine-Bergs continued. “We all work together.”

Looking forward, Diana said that she hopes to create fond memories for families when they come to get their tree around the holidays, and to create a connection and appreciation between them and agriculture when they do. She and Steve also encourage people to use real Christmas trees instead of artificial ones, as real trees help the environment by absorbing carbon and providing oxygen while artificial ones are not recyclable and biodegradable.

“For our farm, we’re promoting agriculture, we grow crops, we grow a lot of things, and Christmas trees are one of the things that we put a lot of time, effort, and knowledge into growing,” Diana said. “We just want to provide people with an experience that will be memorable to continue in future generations, so that they will grow up and keep this tradition alive; keep trees growing. That’s our goal.”

For more information about Castle Hill Farm, visit castlehillfarm.net, email castlehillfarm.net@gmail.com, call 203-774-4440, or visit their Instagram or Facebook page.

For more information about the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association, visit ctchristmastree.org, email executivedirector.cctga@gmail.com, or visit their Facebook page.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.