When to Harvest Balsam Fir for Wreaths (and How to Do It Without Hurting the Trees)
When Danielle's email landed in my inbox asking if we were interested in greens, I looked at the name of her company, Mainly Wild, and thought, oh, we are sisters. Wildly Native, Mainly Wild. I had to talk to her.
Danielle owns Mainly Wild, and she supplies wild-foraged balsam fir from deep in Downeast Maine to people all over the country for wreaths, garlands and seasonal arrangements. She joined me for a short and sweet conversation, and I learned so much.
How Mainly Wild Got Started
Danielle grew up in the UK. When she and her husband were dating, she came over to visit and he walked her around his 60 acres of land in Maine, showing her the birch trees and how people use the bark in artwork, and how balsam needles go into sachets and wreaths. He told her to rub the needles between her hands and smell them.
Her mind was blown. Her first thought was, people would buy this.
So they opened an Etsy shop, and within a couple of days, people were buying. That is how Mainly Wild began.
Why Balsam Takes People Straight Back
Danielle has been in Maine nearly four years now, and she says the thing she notices most is that everyone who has ever been to Maine has a story. A childhood vacation, a family member who lived there, or simply the smell of balsam. Her Etsy customers don't just place an order. They tell her where their love of Maine comes from, and a lot of them come back year after year.
I know this feeling so well. Scent is tied to memory in a way nothing else is. One smell can take you right back to a moment you didn't even know you remembered. (Danielle's example was walking past something and thinking, that smells like my ex-boyfriend. Not always the memory you want, but there it is!)
I see it with our greens and with eucalyptus every season. After a big eucalyptus harvest, I have honestly woken myself up in the night because my hands still smelled so strongly of it.
When to Harvest Balsam Fir for Wreaths
This was the part I was most curious about, because Danielle's availability lists greens from before frost and after frost.
Here is the answer. You can technically harvest balsam fir all year round, but if you are using it for a wreath, a garland or any kind of Christmas greens, you want the needles to be set first. In Danielle's experience, that happens after three hard frosts, which signals to the tree that it is time to go dormant for winter.
Once the needles set, they are much harder to pull off, and the greenery lasts significantly longer.
So when someone tells her they want to make a wreath right now, she can send greens right now. But if they wait until after those three hard frosts, their wreath will hold up much better.
For Mainly Wild, that usually means shipping starts around mid-November, though it always depends on the weather that year.
How long can set balsam last? Danielle still had her Christmas wreath on her front door when we recorded, months later. It had turned completely bright orange, but the needles were still on. We decided it was now intentional fall styling.
How to Harvest Balsam Fir Without Harming the Tree
This is the part that made me love what she does even more.
Danielle doesn't cut down trees, and she doesn't top them. She selectively harvests from each tree, working her way around the land so she is never taking too much from one spot. Once the needles have set, the tips snap off easily, and where she snaps a branch, she sees it grow back into two the following year. With 60 acres, by the time she circles back to where she started, everything has grown back.
She also showed me the trick for carrying it all. You take a long stick with a little hook on the end and layer the tips around it in a clockwise pattern, so they support each other. Then you put the stick over your shoulder and carry it out. She says one stick can hold 30, 40, even 50 pounds. The first time she tried, she spent half her time dropping greens and picking them back up. Now she is a pro.
She recently drove past a large commercial balsam operation where the tops had all been cut off the trees, and she said they just looked sad. "Our trees are treated better than that." I love that she feels that way about her trees.
And her land is clearly healthy. Danielle has seen more moose there than anything else, including a moose with twins caught on their trail camera, which she understands to be a sign the ecosystem is giving them everything they need. Moose approved! She says she has met plenty of lifelong Mainers who have never seen one.
Why Pricing and a Real Website Matter
When Danielle started reaching out to florists about wholesale, she looked around online at who else was selling wild greens. What she found was either no prices at all, or websites that looked like they were built in 1995.
So she made sure Mainly Wild had a clear website with real prices and an easy way to order. I have to say, as a buyer, that was one of the first things I noticed and appreciated. Clear availability, clear pricing, and the story of where it comes from. People want to know something was wild-foraged and not mass produced.
What to Make with Balsam Fir
Wreaths are the obvious one, and balsam brings a clean, fresh scent that is different from other greens. It is one of my favorites.
Danielle's personal favorite is a long garland running down the staircase, so you brush it every time you walk past. Some of her customers make kissing balls, and many leave reviews with photos of what they made. One customer built something like a gingerbread house using little fir boughs as the roof shingles, then added fairy lights.
Danielle likes to keep things simple and let the greens speak for themselves, but her favorite pairing is balsam with cedar. The cedar is a slightly different shade of green, so it adds depth, and the two scents together are wonderful.
If you love the idea of a fresh, fragrant wreath but want something a little different, our fresh eucalyptus works beautifully on its own or mixed with evergreens, and we also make a ready-to-hang eucalyptus wreath.
Balsam Beyond Wreaths
Danielle's balsam is now in a drink! Mainly Wild partners with Soba Sparkle, a sparkling buckwheat tea, and their Balsam flavor is made with Mainly Wild's foraged fir. It launched around New England, and she told me about the moment a box arrived in the mail and she held it up to her husband: look, that's ours. It's real.
If you have ever wondered how a farm product turns into something entirely new, that is exactly what we dug into when we talked about turning what you grow into a new product in Episode 130.
Making It Yourself
This season Danielle is planning DIY wreath kits and a simple how-to guide for people who want to say, I made that.
I could not agree more. Anyone can buy a wreath, but when you put it together yourself, your whole house smells incredible and your hands smell like the forest for hours afterward. If that sounds like you, our DIY Christmas Wreath Kit comes with everything you need, or you can join us in person for one of our wreath workshops.
And don't worry if you think you're not a natural! Danielle told me her husband, a stonemason and in her words the manliest man you could ever meet, can throw an arrangement together in five minutes and make it look like art, while she can work at it for hours. I see this in our workshops all the time. Some people just have it, and everyone else gets there with practice.
Why We Do This
Near the end, Danielle said something I felt in my bones. Being able to make a living walking the woods, harvesting balsam and birch bark, noticing the same bird again or a plant she didn't know was growing there, is a privilege. She used to sit at a sales desk 10 to 12 hours a day, and she would never go back.
Same, friend. There are days I sit down to do invoicing and payroll, walk out of the office, look at everybody and say, I can't, I need to go outside for a little bit.
Everything starts with a seed, or in Danielle's case, a tree. Then it grows into something that feeds your family, your team, and everyone connected to it. That makes me so happy.
Thank you, Danielle, for reaching out and for spending part of your day with us.
Listen to the full conversation on The Flower Files, Episode 136. You can find Mainly Wild at their website and on Instagram.
Now tell me: what is the scent that takes you straight back? Mine might just be eucalyptus at 3 a.m.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the best time to harvest balsam fir for wreaths?
For wreaths, garlands and holiday greens, wait until the needles have set. Danielle of Mainly Wild waits for three hard frosts, which signals the tree to go dormant for winter. Greens harvested after the needles set hold onto their needles better and last noticeably longer than greens cut earlier in the fall. In Downeast Maine, that usually means harvesting and shipping begins around mid-November, depending on the weather.
What does it mean when balsam fir needles are "set"?
Set needles are firmly attached to the branch and much harder to pull off. This happens as the tree moves into winter dormancy after repeated hard frosts. Set greens are the ones you want for anything that needs to last through the holiday season.
Can you harvest balsam fir without hurting the tree?
Yes. Mainly Wild never cuts down or tops its trees. Instead, Danielle snaps off tips selectively from each tree and rotates around the land so no single area is overharvested. In her experience, the spot where a branch is snapped grows back into two branches the following year.
How long does a fresh balsam fir wreath last?
A wreath made from greens harvested after the needles set will last much longer than one made from early-season greens. Danielle's own wreath was still hanging on her door months after Christmas. It had turned bright orange, but the needles were still holding on.
What goes well with balsam fir in a wreath?
Cedar is a favorite pairing. It is a slightly different shade of green, which adds depth, and its scent blends beautifully with balsam. Eucalyptus is another lovely addition for color, texture and fragrance.
What else can you make with balsam fir?
Beyond wreaths, balsam fir is used for garlands, kissing balls, balsam sachets and creative holiday decorations. It is even used in food and drink, including a sparkling buckwheat tea made with wild-foraged Maine balsam.
