While most youngsters would simply marvel at well-adorned and sparkling Christmas trees this holiday season, 16-year-old Ryan Brook of Somerset, England does more than that: He grows those Christmas trees, nearly 1,500 of them —and earns good money doing so, which he is saving for his college education.
Brooks sells trees as low as 2 feet in height to as high as 12 feet, with each tree costing £20 each. "Any size tree you see are 20 pounds and we will only cut when you choose," he wrote on his Facebook page.
No wonder, a headline writer for SWNS has coined the term "en-tree-preneur" to describe Brooks' current "passion."
Speaking to SomersetLive, Brooks said he was inspired to grow Christmas trees when as a young boy he became "tired" of following his mom Gail as she looked around supermarkets for the right Christmas tree for their home. It also helped that his dad gave him a sapling when he was nine years old.
Brooks planted that first sapling and then added some more. A few years later he was able to build a forest of fir trees.
"He started selling them for the first time last year. He has really grown a passion for it," his mother Gail said. "He hasn't made loads of money because he's reinvested it every time to grow more. Every time he takes a tree out, he puts one back."
Last year, Brook earned £2,000 selling 100 fir trees to friends and family. This year he hopes to beat last year's sales, according to The Telegraph.
Gail said her son is saving part of his earnings to prepare for his college education. He is currently a student at Whitstone School in Shepton Mallet in Somerset.
Brook said he gets a lot of support from his family in nurturing his tree farm. "My dad helps me cut down the trees because I'm too young to use a chainsaw and my sister and mother help by handing out flyers," he said.
He said selling the trees is the easiest part of the business since there are many buyers.
The hard part is in nurturing them, he added. For instance, "you need to remove all the grass grown around the trees because it gets in the way of the trunk and stops the trees getting nutrients. There's quite a bit of maintenance involved," Brook said.
