Veteran Christmas tree growers from the Wild Rose, Wis., area looked 100 miles northeast to Oconto to expand into a championship tree farm. The new enterprise for the three Yeska brothers and their wives includes a thriving retail store with lots of Christmas amenities.

“Our wives took it and ran with it,” Ken Yeska says, “and they’re doing a very good job.”

“We retired from our jobs — Carolann [Ken’s wife] and I — to start a new adventure,” says Megan Yeska, Randy’s wife. The third brother is Dan Yeska and his wife, Sharon.

Randy began working with Christmas trees in 1986, selling out of his house at Waupaca. The Yeska brothers began to replace field corn with Christmas trees on their home farm. Yeska Brothers Farm runs 2,000 acres of vegetables: potatoes, cucumbers for pickling, jalapeno peppers, sweet corn, green beans and cabbage.

“But in 2009,” Randy explains, “we landed a grocery chain in the Chicagoland area to sell wholesale Christmas trees. It was very tough to find customers, but now with the Christmas tree shortage, the phone has been ringing off the hook.”

Soon, Christmas trees began to replace some of the vegetables. The Yeskas now raise 300 acres of Christmas trees, mostly Fraser firs, in the Wild Rose and Waupaca areas, and have added another 198 acres of Frasers and balsams at Whispering Pines Tree Farm in Oconto. While the brothers continue to sell trees wholesale from their central Wisconsin location, Whispering Pines Tree Farm is primarily a choose-and-cut retail operation.

Dave and Mary Vander Velden, the former owners, had purchased trees wholesale from the Yeskas, but went into semiretirement in June and sold Whispering Pines to the brothers. They will consult with the new owners through this year before fully retiring to begin their own new adventure.

Champion trees

Whispering Pines has a reputation for producing quality trees, with state champion entries from 2010 through 2014 and the national champion in 2015. A version of that champion tree went on to be displayed at the White House the following year.

Whispering Pines opens the choose-and-cut operation the day after Thanksgiving, according to Megan, who notes the gift shop opens earlier in November, with the Yeska wives making the 100-mile trek from Wild Rose to Oconto. Two full-time employees, Chris Duffy and Travis Pecha, have stayed on, helping to manage the day-to-day operations of the farm. During the height of the season, Randy says there are about 40 employees at Whispering Pines, and Ken says they’ve hired 20 to 30 people to help harvest trees at the Wild Rose and Waupaca locations.

As the brothers prepare new land for trees, Randy says, they chop up the old stumps and plant a year of corn or oats before returning to planting trees.

At Oconto, however, they will plant next to the old stumps “to keep trees going year after year.” Randy says the soils differ between the two locations, including different pH levels. “We have to be on our toes a little more than in the Waupaca-Wild Rose area,” he says, adding, “This is hard work, and it’s very labor-intensive.”

Randy shares an idea the brothers are “kicking around” with a tree grown at Whispering Pines. Dave Vander Velden and Chris Duffy worked on growing balsams from a very specific seed source. This balsam has many of the positive characteristics of the Fraser fir. After settling into their new enterprise, the brothers will decide how to move forward with this situation.

Good times

The Yeskas say the tree business is booming but acknowledge they have no crystal ball to predict how long the tree shortage and good demand will last. But, Ken says, tree prices are good right now. “It’s a good time to be a tree farmer.”

A trip to Whispering Pines has become a holiday tradition for many families.

“We hope to build up the shop, offering unique holiday merchandise,” Carolann says. The Yeskas are working with local artisans to create one-of-a-kind decor and ornaments.

Missy Mittel, a Wisconsin children’s author, will come to Whispering Pines to read her books to children visiting the farm. Other activities at the farm include a talking reindeer, pictures with Santa and refreshments. Learn more at whisperingpinestreefarm.com.

Buchholz writes from Fond du Lac, Wis.