CM Farms and Services hosts Thanksgiving and Christmas Markets
Vendors set up to sell their goods at the market where CM Farms and Services was selling Christmas trees for local families.
WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) – The smell of Christmas trees wafted through the cool Fall air at CM Farms and Services Thanksgiving and Christmas Markets.
Vendors set up to sell their goods while the owner of the farm, Chad McComic, worked hard to sell and load up Christmas trees for local families.
McComic said the symbiotic relationship between his farm and the vendors is worth the effort that goes into it.
“It’s great, it’s fun, it’s a lot of work,” McComic said. “A lot of behind-the-scenes just trying to get everything coordinated and hoping the weather’s going to cooperate. Even though we don’t have a bunch of vendors here, we’ve got some really good ones.”
Tyriek Foster, Flicker and Fragrance vendor, said events like the market bring people together.
“It just brings everybody together,” Tyriek said. “You can get a bunch of different people from all over come and see what you’re selling and what you’re doing. And it’s a lot of love and it’s a lot of family.”
One vendor, Christabel Morrison, was giving back to the community by donating her proceeds to local humane societies through a Chewy partnership.
“I feel like helping the dogs and the cats that are homeless and hurt or hungry, it feels really good,” Morrison said. “But at the same time, it’s kind of like you’re helping the whole world. It just makes me feel really good.”
The small community feel made one of the Flicker and Fragrance vendors, Aleceia Foster, happy to be there.
“It reminds me of family,” Aleceia said. “Everyone knows everyone, it’s a small town, a small community. So it is a lot of love and a lot of familiar faces.”
McComic said he hopes picking out trees at his farm will become some family tradition.
“Something besides just going to a box store and picking out a tree and taking it home,” McComic said. “We’re hopefully making it a day event where they can come out and just like, making it a family tradition. ”
CM Farms and Services in West Point sells a variety of goods and services from purple hull peas and sweet potatoes to firewood and flowers.
But not every small farm is able to operate the way that CM Farms is.
McComic said small farms are going away every month.
“Oh it’s a dying breed,” McComic said. “We’re losing, the last article I saw, we’re losing about a hundred farms a month, small farms. People my age can’t afford to buy the land to start and it’s hard to rent it because it’s so expensive and all the equity and equipment is just, it’s real hard.”
McComic said he is thankful for the community who comes out to support his, and other local businesses.
“Thank you, I mean you know, the money stays here,” McComic said. “Most of our trees, we’re helping other farmers. Our Frazier’s that come from North Carolina. After Hurricane Helene came through we were, you know, I didn’t know what we were going to have.”
The trees take a while to grow, so there were concerns over next year’s harvest.
Lucky for McComic, his trees in North Carolina were spared from the hurricane.
“We’re already putting orders in for trees for next year,” McComic said.
Based on data from USDA in 2022, small family farms account for 88% of all of the farms in the U.S.
