After donating so many Christmas trees to local nonprofits and schools each holiday season, it’s a wonder that Patchen California Christmas Tree Farm has any left to sell to the general public. The list of organizations PATCHEN donates to is almost as long as Santa’s naughty and nice list. It includes churches, schools, hospice centers, job training facilities, community centers, and the list of not-for-profits goes on and on. PATCHEN also hosts field trips by area schools. Since the late […] Read More
The PATCHEN California Christmas Tree Farms have expanded their recycling operation by including two locations in the Santa Cruz Mountains where anyone can drop off discarded REAL Christmas trees, FAKE Christmas trees, or tree lights & ornaments. Since 1969, PATCHEN has pioneered a cultural practice that “reuses” the tree stumps. Owner Jim Beck explains how to cut trees, leaving a whorl of branches on the stump. “This keeps the root system alive so it can grow another tree, ready to […] Read More
Over the years, Holiday fundraising has become a major source of funding for schools, churches, and all varieties of not-for-profits. Now, two local Companies team up to make that task easier and more profitable. The lingering shortage of Christmas trees from the Pacific Northwest has made it almost impossible to get trees for organizations who once sold them as fundraisers. Prices continue to increase every year and buying anything less than a full truck-load (500-700 trees) is difficult. But fortunately, […] Read More
James Beck, a Northern California electronics engineer, developed the Patchen technology in the early 1990s. He founded Patchen, currently a subsidiary of NTech, in June 1992 with an initial capitalization from private investors. He then designed a spraying system integrating the technology, began to establish a dealer organization, and applied for U.S. patents. Another investor financed perfection of foreign patents in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada and several other countries. The first U.S. patent was issued in 1994. Additional patents followed […] Read More
The PATCHEN name goes back at least 2,300 years in England, before the Roman dominance and the birth of Christ. More recently, interesting characters and fateful events have dotted the landscape to shape Northern California’s history and Christmas Tree shoppers at PATCHEN are able to enjoy some of this past and help preserve it for their children. In the mid-1700’s, the earliest writings about the wilds of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where PATCHEN stands today, were set down by Spanish […] Read More
The market for REAL Christmas trees has been declining for as long as anyone can remember, largely due to the FAKE plastic ones from China. Most people understand that plastic trees are environmentally hazardous. We think of the giant plastic factory in China, belching toxic black smoke and the freighter, guzzling diesel across the Pacific. Not to mention the warning label, reminding us to not breathe the fumes of the PVC plastic. In contrast, there are 30 million “REAL” trees […] Read More
12 HASSLES OF CHRISTMAS In a free market, when prices go up, market share goes down, and vice versa. It is called price elasticity and it’s the cornerstone of the free-market system. So why has the price of REAL Christmas trees remained unchanged (in constant dollars) for decades while the market continues to shrink? It’s tempting to blame FAKE plastic trees in this Walmart world of ours, but consider that part of the problem is with the REAL trees themselves, […] Read More
