Page 70 - The Hunt - Winter 2022

We’re expanding because other people are getting smaller or getting out.
—Old Stone Farm’s Mark Gruber
If there’s something in common among the Brandywine Valley region’s Christmas tree farms, it’s that their owners like to see things grow. And true to form, many have successfully grown their trees and their businesses. That hasn’t been easy in an industry that’s been gradually constricting. Take, for example, the number of growers in the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association. Long-standing members recall when that figure was well over 600. Now, the organization confirms that there are fewer than 160 members.
Even so, the PCTGA website continues to claim that Pennsylvania ranks third in the number of Christmas tree farms in the nation—more than 1,400 of them. At Old Stone Farm in Lewisville—all of a post office and a crossroads for
(Here and below) Scenes from last year’s cutting season at Wiggins Trees
in West Chester.
(Opposite page) Mark Gruber does some trimming at Old Stone Farm.
68 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
winter 2022-23
Routes 841 and 472—Mark and Mary Gruber have grown Christmas trees since 1992. Mark’s father, Al, grew trees in Newark, Del., and he’s grown them since he was 15— 50 years. Though he ran a less sophisticated and smaller operation, Al was able to pay
for his son’s engineering education at the University of Delaware. In turn, Mark has paid for his three children’s college educations with tree sales.
One of those kids, Evan, is studying soil agriculture at Penn State University. He’s involved in the tree business, with 10 acres of his own on the family’s 75-acre farm. At 34, Evan represents a young man in an older man’s world. “For new farmers to get started, it takes capital,” he says. “My grandpa had
a successful career already, so he had capital to get started. Young people don’t have that time. It’s why the moms-and-pops are disappearing, so you’re going to have bigger and bigger farms growing more and more trees. Just buying the land requires capital.”