JAMESVILLE — The holiday season is what Julie Liebmann refers to as “the happy time of year,” and for the past month she’s sought to make folks of all ages even happier with a visit to her local Christmas tree farm.

Rocking Horse Farm, located at 3736 Apulia Road about a mile from Jamesville Beach, is a seasonal stop for u-cut and pre-cut varieties of spruces and firs, becoming a traditional place for couples and families to go to pick out a tree before Dec. 25 rolls around.

This year, the business will be open until this Sunday, Dec. 22 for anybody purchasing theirs last minute. People can stop by between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. both days of this coming weekend or by appointment during the weekdays.

Liebmann, the co-owner of the farm with her husband, Keith, said she doesn’t mind if people spend 10 minutes on the farm or two hours, as long as they’re having fun walking around outside and picking out the tree that’s perfect for them, whether it’s a short, tall, wide or skinny one.

“People always ask me, ‘What’s the best tree to get?’” she said. “And I say, ‘Whatever looks good to you.’”

Always welcoming of snow on its grounds because it puts people in the Christmas spirit, the farm allows visitors to venture out into its fields, chop down their selection with a supplied saw, and drag it back on a sled starting the week before Thanksgiving.

For people who don’t feel like going through that whole process, there are the already-cut trees housed under the property’s newly built pavilion to choose from, all ready to be baled tightly for easier transport, strapped onto the roof of one’s vehicle, and taken straight home to unwrap and stand up in the living room.

On top of giving off a fresher scent, Liebmann said that if a real tree is cared for and kept properly watered, it doesn’t give off the same gases as a plastic tree and it doesn’t burn as much if it catches fire.

Though she acknowledges that some people are allergic to the potential mold spores that come with a real tree or the plant itself, and therefore avoid them, she said fake trees last five to 10 years depending on their quality and then go right to the landfill, whereas real ones are renewable.

She said the real live trees can get ground up into mulch for gardens, placed in backyards as habitats for animals, put near a bird feeder for birds to perch on, or lowered into a pond for fish to swim around.

The beginnings of Rocking Horse Farm can be traced back about 38 years, when Liebmann and Keith fell in love with and then bought the roughly 145-acre property, at the time an old, closed, pretty much empty cow farm.

Christmas trees were indeed planted the year they purchased the land, but the couple didn’t envision the farm being what it is now.

Since those early days, they started a family and their three children, Michelle, Jake and Zach, all went from growing up on the farm to each having a hand in growing it as a business.

With Jake—now a professional tree climber and arborist—helping with the timber framing and the upstairs flooring and Zach assisting with propping up the doors, a barn made out of hemlock and southern yellow pine was built on the land in 2017. With Michelle as the inspiration because she always wanted to get married in a barn, that dream structure was turned into a wedding venue and sure enough she was one of the first to tie the knot inside it, and later Jake would do the same in 2021.

Nowadays there are farmhands doing their part as well as bartenders and additional staff during weddings, while Michelle handles social media posting and website layout and Jake could be seen this season loading trees when he was able.

“My husband and I are very proud of this,” Liebmann said. “We’ve been heavily involved in every building here, and we just love people coming out and enjoying themselves and appreciating what we’ve done here. It gives us a lot of satisfaction.”

Liebmann is still at it with her associated company Mrs. Green Jeans Landscaping and Keith formerly ran a commercial electrical company, but as far as Rocking Horse Farm goes, the couple intends to keep its operation as a business going well into their retirement years.

The family also raises 13 alpacas, four mini donkeys, and one standard-sized donkey on the farm.

Liebmann said she likes having groups of kids interact with the animals, especially toddlers who tend to be “a little hyperactive,” since the alpacas especially tend to respond better to those who make slower movements and less noise.

“It gets kids to just slow down and talk quietly,” she said. “If you want the alpacas’ attention and to have them near you, the kids get that that’s what they have to do.”

After shearing the alpacas once a year, Liebmann makes garments like mittens, hats, scarves and socks out of their warm, “super soft” and non-itchy fiber that she sells out of the farm’s octagonal roadside gift store, which also carries wreaths, teacup sets, bottles of maple syrup and local honey, and Michelle’s line of clean-burning, crackling natural candles made from apricot, soy and coconut wax.

After Christmas every year, Liebmann sets up at the CNY Regional Market for three to five Saturday mornings in a row to sell what’s left of her stock of alpaca products and last people through the remaining cold months.

Rocking Horse Farm hosts weddings at its rural Jamesville setting from the beginning of May until the end of October, usually booking out a year in advance and in some cases multiple years, though there are some summer 2025 openings at the moment.

With full facilities, including a kitchen, bathrooms, a full bar, in-floor heating, an upstairs bridal suite and a neighboring “dudes den,” the largely sealed, weathertight event barn capable of fitting 250 people at once has also been the site of birthday parties, baby showers and conferences.

On the Jamesville site, there’s also a five-acre apple orchard reliant on using entirely organic practices that’s ripe by September and October for picking by the peck or bushel.

For anyone who’s curious, the name “Rocking Horse Farm,” which Keith came up with, stems from his wife’s love of actual horses and her collection of wooden rocking horses, some of which can be found in the farm’s gift shop.

More information about Rocking Horse Farm appears on the websites rockinghorsefarmcny.com and theorchardsbarn.com. The business can also be contacted at 315-247-0122.