Finding the perfect tree

As a child, Lisa Peairs’ job was finding the perfect Christmas tree for her family.

“It was my thing,” she says. “All year long, we looked for Christmas trees whenever we were in the woods. When it came time for Christmas, we would go chop one down.”

Eventually, that tradition grew into something bigger—owning her very own Christmas tree farm. After setting up her veterinary practice and getting married in 1998, the dreams of a Christmas tree farm became a reality. “We were still in the honeymoon phase when [my husband Ricky] said he thought it was a good idea,” she says, laughing.

Peairs and her husband own Windy Hills Farm in Ethel, the last remaining Christmas tree farm in the greater Baton Rouge area. At the farm, customers can walk along the rows of trees and cut down whichever tree they like. The farm planted the seeds for its first trees in 1999, which were sold once they reached appropriate heights in 2002. Now, the farm has around 300 trees of different varieties, such as Leyland Cypress, Murray Cypress and Carolina Sapphire, all starting at six feet tall.

While getting a big tree might be the hip thing to do these days, Peairs warns that a 14-foot-tall tree is about as big as most customers will want to handle.

“Getting those big trees in that house, it becomes a job,” she says.

Windy Hills is open Thursdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., until supplies run out. Right after Christmas, Peairs will get to work on next year’s trees.

“Surprisingly, summer is our busiest time of the year,” she says. “When everyone’s at the beach, we’re getting the trees trimmed, mowing and doing all the hot weather work.”

windyhillsfarm.net