Keith Stewart thinks New Yorkers need organic Christmas trees to go with their organic cleansers and dog biscuits. “It’s the environmental way to go,” says the city hippie turned farmer, who’s been selling his unkempt-looking Norway spruces alongside his vegetables at the Union Square Greenmarket. Why invest in an organic tree if you’re not eating it? It’s strictly a matter of holiday karma: Stewart says many of the Douglas firs and Scotch pines hawked on our streets are sprayed with pesticides and are rather too manicured for some Birkenstock tastes. His comparatively wholesome trees run up to $65—as much as $25 more than Daniel Lemay charges for his balsam and Fraser firs over on Second Avenue and 10th Street. Asked about Stewart’s trees, Lemay wondered if the prices were a joke; then he suggested that an organic tree may carry bugs. Stewart disagrees. “The only thing you might find in one of our trees is a bird’s nest,” he says. “People seem to like that look.”

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: Dec 26, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!