The White House's Christmas tree is slated to be cut and transported from a North Carolina farm that was hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
The Cartner family had known since last year that one of their farm’s Christmas trees would be headed to the White House this winter., including Avery County, where Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm has stood for decades. Though the farm lost thousands of trees to a mudslide, many more survived, including a 20-foot conical tree that dwarfs most of the others on the sprawling farm.
As Cartner ventures back to the front of the property in his SUV, the damage from Helene comes into view. A section of one of the grassy hills looks like it was clawed out to expose the brown earth beneath it — the aftermath of a mudslide that took out between 5,000 to 6,000 trees, Cartner said. Luckily, those trees were smaller and not market-size, meaning it wasn't an immediate problem for this harvest season, he said.
The farm started off small, raising cows, cabbage and beans alongside the Fraser firs, Cartner said. The family initially planted their trees on the steepest field because they didn't want to use up their best land for them, Cartner said. “We say we've touched a tree over 100 times by the time it gets to the consumer, and that's all manual labor,” Cartner said. at the National Christmas Tree Association's contest. Winning the competition traditionally means the champion will supply the White House's official Christmas tree that year.
“You've got to cut and ship that number of trees in two to three weeks, you put a hurricane on top of that, White House tree and all the activities, it gets almost overwhelming,” he said.
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