Our Farm

The Old Store at Grassy Creek sits in the middle of a working Christmas tree farm, Hart-T-Tree Farms.

About Hart-T-Tree Farms

Hart-T-Tree Farms grows premium Fraser fir Christmas trees in the mountains of North Carolina and sells them at our Christmas tree lots in southeast Florida. Hart-T-Tree Farms is owned and operated by John and Kathy Chefas.  Founded in 1976, Hart-T-Tree Farms originated in Hart, Michigan.  In the mid-1980s, John and Kathy moved the main farming operation to Grassy Creek, North Carolina to grow Fraser fir Christmas trees. 

Grassy Creek, North Carolina is located in Ashe County, in the northwest corner of the state on the Virginia border.  Hart-T-Tree Farms retails its Christmas trees in the counties of Broward, Palm Beach, and Brevard, Florida.  

To learn more about Hart-T-Tree Farms and Christmas tree farming, visit the Hart-T-Tree Farms website.

Our History in Grassy Creek, North Carolina

Hart-T-Tree Farms began growing Christmas trees in Hart, Michigan in 1976. At the time, we primarily grew Scotch pine and Douglas fir.  In 1986, John was traveling through Ashe County with his brother, Regas, on a buying trip.  John was looking for Fraser firs to sell on his Christmas tree lots in southeast Florida and Regas was looking for Fraser firs to sell at his garden center, Gethsemane Garden Center, in Chicago, Illinois.  John and Regas found their way to Grassy Creek and John fell in love with the land.  That day, he purchased the home farm from Edison Thomas.

John learned later that the farm he purchased - with its dilapidated farm house, barns, and outbuildings - was the old John F. Greer - W.C. Greer Farm built ca. 1885-1890 and that the house and outbuildings were part of the Grassy Creek Historic District entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.  Instead of tearing the house and buildings down as he originally intended, he decided to restore them.  Eventually, John and Kathy moved their entire farming operation to North Carolina and over the years, as their business grew, they invested more resources in surrounding farms and buildings - many properties that are also included in the Grassy Creek Historic District.