Established in 1980
Lynch Creek Farm handcrafts traditional and decorated Christmas wreaths, fresh centerpieces, and other beautiful holiday gifts.
The Story
In the beginning, the farm was a hobby with the purpose to keep our three kids out of trouble and give them a job while attending school.
We started with an organic vegetable farm and sold our produce at the Shelton Farmers' Market. In 1984 we started selling our goods at the Olympia Farmers' Market, the 2nd largest farmers' market in Washington State, where we continue to sell our products today.
The youngest son, Andrew Hunter, has stayed with the tradition of the family farmer and loves every minute of it. (Except when the goats get out!) The farm sells dahlia flowers during the summer months and produces the highest quality evergreen Christmas wreaths and centerpieces during the holiday season. We have expanded the dahlia business over the years and operate a stand on the farm with U-Cut dahlias and bouquets. It helps support the local community with a family activity we all enjoy. We've had great success as local fundraisers have taken over the dahlia stand and earned 100% of the sales for that day. The dahlia field is a huge hit in our community and for folks from all over western Washington who come to enjoy walking through the flowers, making bouquets, taking photographs, and having picnics.
We continue our main focus of selling fresh Christmas wreaths and centerpieces online. We have grown and expanded over the years, and the farm is proud to have many team members who work hard all year to help improve our customer service and product lines. With over 200,000 square feet of warehouse space, our facilities are able to take on any size order. We pride ourselves on delivering only the best product every time with no exceptions. We have a reputation for excellence, and our customers have come to expect nothing less from us.
We have enjoyed making a living from growing and hand harvesting the fruits of our labor over the years. As Andy once said, "Well, in simple terms I really love what I do and am happy in the fields cutting flowers and picking squash at 6 a.m. before market opens each day. It's a career that I would not change for anything."
The Story Behind Our Name
My name is Andy Hunter, owner of Lynch Creek Farm along with my wife Tracey Hunter. It all started when my folks bought 10 acres of land in 1974 on Lynch Road the year I was born! They built a house right away and soon after started growing vegetables on the land, initially to feed the family but soon it seemed we were feeding a small village.
As my folks got serious about farming in 1980, we started going to the local Shelton Farmers’ Market and soon needed a name to better sell our veggies. Our last name is Hunter and "Hunter Farms" would have been the most obvious name, but in our small town there is another Hunter family who had been well established for years running a huge pumpkin patch and other business ventures. So at that point, we had to pick another name. Lynch Road was the local road the Farm was on, and it was also the road my mother was born and raised on and, in fact, still lives on today. My grandparents and many other relatives lived on Lynch Rd at that time back in 1980. There is also a beautiful, wooded stream called Lynch Creek that ran through the back of our family property. As kids, my two brothers and I spent countless days playing in and along the creek. So, when our family business needed a name, Lynch Creek Farm was born :)
The history of the name “Lynch” dates back many years before the turn of the century. A settler to the area named Jeremiah Lynch and his wife settled on a large plot of land on Lynch Rd and Lynch Creek, likely including our family farm. Jeremiah eventually sold the property to his niece, Marguerite, and her husband who continued to farm shellfish into the 1900s. They never had children and were very close friends to my grandparents who also lived on Lynch Road…..back then, the road was still just a dirt road. Sometime after WWII, Marguerite and her husband were selling the property and all but begged my grandparents to buy it from them. History would be a little different if this would have happened, as I might be selling clams and oysters today instead of evergreen wreaths. The property was eventually purchased by relatives of Marguerite named the Bishops, and they continue in the shellfish business to this day. We are lucky to have such good neighbors in the Bishops as they continue in the tradition of shellfish to this day and are good stewards of the land.
Here is more information from a South Sound Business news article about Little Skookum Shellfish Growers and their harvesting history:
In 1849, Jeremiah Lynch left his home in County Cork, Ireland to seek his fortune in the California gold rush. Luckily, gold eluded him, and by 1883, he had found his way north to the Washington Territory, to what is now the town of Shelton. There he built his home on the shores of Little Skookum Inlet, a small inlet at the south end of Puget Sound. He quickly discovered the beautiful oyster beds on the tide flats of his homestead, and began his practice of sharing his bounty with family, friends, and neighbors. This soon grew into the family business, now known as Little Skookum Shellfish Growers. Today’s owners, Lisa and Brett Bishop are the fifth generation of Jeremiah Lynch’s family to dedicate themselves to the legacy which began over 125 years ago. They, with their sons, Jeremiah and Justin, plan to continue farming the tidelands just as it has been.
I hope this information is helpful, and I truly appreciate telling our family story. My wife and I purchased a house and old dairy barn on the other side of the road from the original farm on Lynch Rd and live very close to the original homestead of Jeremiah Lynch, and my Aunt and Uncle live beside us.
Handcrafted
Pride in our Work We handcraft our fresh evergreen products onsite which allows us to perform quality inspections from start to finish. The quality of our products is our highest priority.
Environmentalist
We don't cut down trees! Our sustainable practice of trimming branches for their boughs, without cutting down trees, helps protect our local forests and their fragile ecosystems.
Our Fresh Wreaths
Lynch Creek Farm handcrafts beautiful, highly decorated Christmas wreaths. Our holiday Christmas wreaths are made with fresh noble fir, juniper, incense cedar, variegated holly, salal, and ponderosa pine cones. Other Christmas decorations are often added depending on the unique design features of each holiday Christmas wreath. We are proud to offer many styles with something for everyone.
Size of our Christmas Wreaths
Each decorated holiday wreath is handcrafted to a finished size of 26 inches. Our Christmas wreaths weigh approximately seven to eight pounds. Most holiday wreaths on the market of similar size only reach a finished weight of four pounds. The extra greens we add create a beautiful and full three dimensional, long lasting, and very attractive Christmas gift.
Hand-tied Bows & Quality Ribbon
The bows on our holiday Christmas wreaths are all hand-tied, not with a jig but by real people. We have six bow makers who work all year making bows. Sandy has been with the farm making bows for over 25 years and is truly part of the farm family. (Thank you Sandy!) The holiday ribbon we use is of exceptional quality and is special-ordered to our specifications. Our bows, without question, are the best in the business.
Routine Wreath inspections
To ensure we provide a superior holiday Christmas wreath, we compare our products with our competitors' over the course of each season. We weigh our competitors' holiday wreaths, look at their construction, measure them, and test them to see how long the wreaths hold up in normal conditions. What we continue to discover is that our holiday wreaths generally have more layers of evergreen boughs, thus often weighing two to four pounds more than our competitors' Christmas wreaths. Also, our bows are usually larger and not machine or jig made.
A Real Green Gift
It doesn't get much greener than giving natural evergreen wreaths and centerpieces as Christmas gifts. Why, you ask? Noble fir trees are never cut down when our boughs are harvested. Instead, the lower branches are trimmed to ensure a lifetime of continued bough production. Our evergreen boughs come mostly from the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, near Mount St. Helens, on either permitted government or private land.
Sustainable
Buying your Christmas gifts with Lynch Creek Farm equates to sustainability. Similar to the concept behind the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), we generate revenue for local landowners, giving them a reason to protect their forests versus opting to clear-cut, a controversial method of tree harvesting because of its visual effect on the landscape and effect on the local ecosystem.
Carbon Footprint
Enjoy the fragrant aroma of evergreens without the guilt. Customers concerned about their carbon footprint, who can’t make sense of whether it is better to buy a live Christmas tree or an artificial one, can avoid the entire debate by filling their home with our sustainable evergreen products. There is no harm to the forest through sustainable bough harvesting, and our evergreen products naturally biodegrade.