As you all know, part of my job is to educate the county on where and how to buy local. Many people ask me how they can purchase locally during the holidays and surprisingly, it is quite an easy task.

Now that Halloween has passed, many clients are eager to bypass Thanksgiving and decorate for Christmas. The one item that seems to stump some of our locavores (those that enjoy buying local), is Christmas trees.

Lucky for us, North Carolina consistently ranks in the top ten producing states for Christmas trees. I know many families have an annual tradition of traveling to the mountains to buy their perfect tree but if you do not want to drive very far, there is a great farm in our area that grows their own trees for families that enjoy the “choose and cut” tree farms.

Pine Top Farm, located on 830 Majolica Road, is the only local grower in Rowan County, owned by Bryce and Naomi Kepley.

Pine Top Farm will open their tree farm on Nov. 19 and will only be open on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. They will close on Dec. 11, so you have plenty of time to select the perfect tree.

Pine Top Farm started in 1971 but lost all of its trees due to a fire in 1980. It took more than four years to have enough trees and size for them to begin reselling. Since reopening in 1984, they have been selling “choose and cut” trees ever since.

If you can remember the time that you would go into the woods looking for your very own Christmas tree, this is as close to that as you are going to get but with better luck at finding the perfect tree.

Pine Top specializes in Leyland Cypress, Blue Ice, White Pine and Scotch pine trees. Some of the Leylands are up to 24 feet tall, if you are looking for the tallest tree around. These are unique trees and are not the typical Fraser firs. However, they will have some “pre-cut” Frasers available.

Customers can also enjoy a hay ride to pick their special tree, and those who buy a tree can receive free tree shaking to remove any dead needles and hitchhikers! If you would like to have your tree wrapped, it will cost $1.

For more information on Pine Top Farm, you can call 704-637-7208 or visit their website at http://www.pinetopberryfarm.com/

The holidays are a wonderful time to shop local in our county. There will be numerous sites that will sell North Carolina grown trees but if the “choose and cut” tree farms are not for you, try shopping at some of the local vendors that carry freshly harvested firs in the county.

The money generated at those locations help support the local economy and a local family.

For more information about purchasing your own local Christmas tree, call or email your local Cooperative Extension agent, Danelle Cutting, at 704-216-8970 or danelle_cutting@ncsu.edu.