Spent a couple of days in the mountains shooting the North Carolina Christmas tree industry. North Carolina is the 2nd highest producer of Christmas trees in the country, behind Oregon, and the 1st as far as money earned from trees goes. Over 2 million trees come out of Ashe County alone every year.
Had a great guide to the local farmers from the Ashe County Extension Office. The farmers had been burned on a couple of stories before, so having a local guide who knew the people involved was invaluable.
Many of the seasonal workers are Latin American, primarily Mexican, and all that I met were H2A guest workers who return for years when the big season starts, before Thanksgiving, many coming from further south where they were harvesting citrus fruit in Florida, or soy beans in eastern North Carolina. Got to practice my slightly rusty Spanish, too.
The story will not run until Decmeber 17th, I will let you all know, but here is an approved teaser.
[...] promised, a larger edit of the NC Christmas Tree story is there and the story on semi pro football. Look [...]