Growing Christmas Trees in DeKalb County

DeKalb County Farmer, Joe Bybee, and his family’s Christmas Tree Farm was recently featured in the December 2018 edition of Connections Magazine, which is published monthly by the DeKalb County Farm Bureau.

Bybee started growing Christmas trees on three acres of their farm near Lee, Illinois in 2007 and began selling them in 2014. They now have 2,000 Christmas trees on their property and sell about 250 a year.

Besides several varieties of trees, including White Pine, Fraser, and Canaan Fir, they also sell custom-designed wreaths, tree stands, cemetery tree stands, and other items.

After picking out their tree, customers can warm themselves by a wood stove and enjoy cookies and hot cocoa in a small cabin that Joe Built himself on the property.

The entire business is family-operated, with Joe’s wife, Pam, and the couple’s children and grandchildren all pitching in to run the operation during three weekends after Thanksgiving.

The Bybee Farm also contains 33 acres with prairie grass, windbreaks, waterways and two ponds that are part of the Farm Service Agency’s Conservation Reserve Program.

To read more about the Bybee Christmas Tree Farm, check out the article on the DeKalb Farm Bureau website: “Growing Christmas Trees“