Source: John Deem, WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 8/20/22

Evergreens line the slopes of Joe Freeman’s Ashe County farm like a regiment of soldiers in tight formation. They stand at attention in precise, terraced columns of uniform green, awaiting their eventual deployment as holiday staples. But as sunlight burns through the light mountain haze on a warm afternoon, there are interruptions to the carefully cultivated symmetry at Mistletoe Meadows Christmas Tree Farm, just as there are at hundreds of others like it in the state.

For more of this story, click here.