The Star Christmas Tree Farm was started in 1993. It was formerly the Hertenstein Farm purchased in 1949 by Karl and Frieda Hertenstein who were the grandparents of the current owner Ted Krasnesky and his wife Jan. When Ted Krasnesky inherited the farm, in 1992, he had to make a decision about how to use the acreage
that his grandfather had used to grow corn, wheat, barley and soybeans. A friend suggested Christmas Trees which didn’t sound to difficult to grow at the time. So 1000 Douglas Firs, 1500 Scotch Pines,
250 Norway Spruce, 250 Colorado Blue Spruce and 100 White Pines were ordered for an April 1993 delivery. Little did Ted
know that he ordered about 2500 more trees than he should have. After calling in every friend and favor he could
think of, the planting was completed over the next four weekends. Since then, it has been a battle against grass, weeds, insects, deer, draught and the school
of hard knocks, but finally at the beginning of a new millennium there was harvest.