UPPER TOWNSHIP — “Sometimes three cars come down the driveway and it will be the originals, their children and their grandchildren,” Janet Yunghans said of the multi-generational customers at Littleworth Tree Farm.
“We’re on our third generation. We’ve been in business 30 years and we just have developed close relationships with many customers who come for trees, blueberries, and it’s really fun.”
It’s those close relationships and the joy she and husband Karl Yunghans have spread around the community that they will miss the most when they sell the farm at 1957 Tuckahoe Road in Upper Township.
They operate the choose-and-cut farm that provides fresh-cut and precut Christmas trees. Janet said families stop by the farm, walk through the stands of trees — breathing in the fresh air and aromatic pine scent — while picking out their favorite and tagging it.
“Customers often decorate their trees in the field once they’ve tagged them,” she said.
Customers, many who return year after year for the nostalgic experience, bring their family to enjoy walking through the fields of more than 6,000 growing trees.
Karl, who has a degree in Wildlife Resources from West Virginia University, bought the property in 1990.
During college he had taken a forestry class during which he visited a Christmas tree farm “and that sparked my interest in having my own.”
“I had no farming experience other than having a small garden. Early on, I almost gave up but I decided to persevere,” Karl said.
Janet said the couple met in 1995 and got married in 1998, and that was the first year the trees were big enough to sell.
Laughing, she recounted how Karl thought they wouldn’t sell anything and went fishing. Meanwhile, she and her father sold the first tree to a customer who still buys his trees at their farm.
It’s relationships like those that will remain uppermost in their minds as they bid the business goodbye.
Calling herself a “steward of the Earth,” Janet said operating the farm is “very joyous” because it puts her in touch with nature.
“Being able to give the gift of nature to the people in your community is very, very special. Sharing it with them, sharing a special place with them,” she said, noting that whether during strawberry or blueberry season or tree time, families are traipsing through their grounds.
“You can look out on any given day in a season and there will be 10 families out there — grandparents, kids and dogs — everyone so happy to be roaming around our yard,” she said.
Karl, 68, and Janet, 66, have two children — Kasey, a 2017 graduate of Ocean City High School, and Connor, a 2020 grad — who now have their own careers and no plans to take over a farm in southern New Jersey.
Janet said the sale is “very bittersweet.”
“We are just aging and you can’t farm forever; it’s pretty physical work,” she said.
They have visited a lot of tree farms and seen what happens when the owners can no longer keep up with the demands of the operation.
“We would rather have a young couple come in and do something instead of it falling down around our ears.”
She said they hope the farm will be passed on to a new generation.
“We’re hoping to find a young family who would like to continue the legacy,” Janet said. “We care very much about our customers, our community, and believe we have had a positive influence on the community and want that to continue. We feel an obligation and don’t want to take this beautiful thing away from them.”
The couple is willing to share their knowledge of the operation with the buyer.
“Our hope is that a buyer will find us during the season and we can train them how to do it, they can work with us through the season,” Janet said.
The 9.45-acre property, which consists of a four-bedroom home, barn with a solar array, attached two-car insulated garage and all of the equipment, is listed for $1.4 million.
Janet said the operation could easily be expanded but they kept it intentionally small.
She said they sell about 200 field trees each year, reservations only, noting they have a list of 1,200 customers.
“I send them an email with available dates and times, and it’s a race. It sells out in an hour or two.”
After opening weekend, they bring in about 220 precut trees, which she said are of top quality “because our customers have high expectations.”
Opening weekend is before Thanksgiving, this year Nov. 21-22, when they will be open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for tagging by reservation.
After the holiday, this year Nov. 26, they begin selling precut trees through Dec. 20, while supplies last.
“We will have a large variety of freshly cut Fraser, Nordman, Douglas and Noble firs,” Janet said.
They will be available 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, as they have in the past, but this year the couple is offering something special. Starting Dec. 3, they will be selling trees from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays on a patio beneath strung lights.
“It will look very magical out there and people can purchase a tree under the lights,” Janet said.
The trees are cut, baled and secured atop the buyer’s vehicle and off they go.
“We do everything they need,” she said, adding that family members travel from California, Massachusetts, Florida and Pennsylvania to help during opening weekend and Thanksgiving weekend.
The couple also sells wreaths and grave blankets.
“We take a lot of pride in the fact we are using all fresh greens and a lot of natural materials, including winterberry and red twig dogwood,” she said, adding that she makes a couple of hundred wreaths each season, many custom-made to order.
Janet said Santa and Mrs. Claus visit once a year to pick up their extra-large wreath, handmade by Karl.
Their newest venture is barn quilts, which they intend to continue, as well as offering quilting classes.
Janet said they bought a home on the Tuckahoe River and would continue to be active members of the community.
“If I’m going to leave a special place, I am going to go to a special place,” she said. “We’re fortunate we could live the dream of a farm, now we’re living the dream of being on the Tuckahoe River and staying in our community.”
Other places
to find trees
Also in Upper Township, Curtis Corson, owner of a 30-acre farm at 3065 Route 9 where he grows beach plums, gourds, corn and other crops, has reserved almost 3 acres for Christmas trees, mostly Norway spruce and white pine.
The township mayor, who is the third generation of his family to farm the land, said he started growing the trees in 1998.
He said he sells about 120 trees each season, usually starting the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Corson said he plants 300 to 400 new trees each year, noting he must balance the number he sells with the number he plants to maintain a steady supply.
Like the Yunghans, Corson lets customers choose their tree. He will cut it and bale it and even deliver it if desired, as far away as Sea Isle City and Ocean City. Hours are 10 a.m. to dark Saturdays and Sundays.
Those looking for precut trees can find a stand operated by Northfield Boy Scout Troop 72, which has been selling the trees as a fundraiser for more than 70 years
The troop, with assistance from Troop 39 of Linwood, is selling trees beginning Nov. 27 at the firehouse on Burton Avenue. Hours are 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends.
Longtime troop leader Don Edwards said the troop started selling Christmas trees in 1957 and now is in its 69th year.
The troop buys 250 trees each year, ranging from 6- to 10-foot Douglas and Fraser firs.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
