IT MAY have been a spring and summer of woe for farmers, but an exceptional year for home grown Christmas trees is providing a tonic.
Record sales of festive firs have been totted up at Ravendale Farm, where Peter Strawson Ltd has supplied hundreds more trees than ever before.
Mr Strawson puts the success down to the weather, and an appetite to have a merry Christmas, regardless of cutbacks.
Sales, taking place just yards from where reindeer graze, were so good that an extra delivery of nearly 1,000 more trees had to be secured.
Mr Strawson said: "The trees have received an almost unanimous accolade – everyone is saying they are great. We have had to get an extra load in and sales have gone so well. Normally we would have two loads, this year it has been three – that's an extra 925 trees.
"I think they are very nice trees and the weather has been kind. They are looking extremely well, and a lot of people are spending Christmas at home and are intent on having a really nice Christmas, regardless of everything else that has been going on."
And while many opt to take a pre-cut tree that has been graded and displayed on site, others have chosen and dug out their own from the family's Maltby Wood at Little Cawthorpe.
"People do come along and choose their own tree," he said. "They do come and dig them out, which is fine as long as they don't come with high heel shoes, they do tend to sink in this time of year!"
The bumper year is prompting future plans, too.
"A lot of them are grown on our soil, but we do have to bring in trees, too, said Mr Strawson. "They come from Northern Ireland, Irish Republic and Denmark, but we do grow as many as we can ourselves.
"This year will certainly encourage my family to plant more. They don't have any moisture stress when growing, they like a wet climate a lot better than other things."
As reported, cereals, potatoes and other vegetables have all been hit by a bizarre year, that saw drought conditions in the spring followed by a prolonged summer washout.