In true farm kid fashion, Sarah Scharlau was born at the worst possible time in the middle of the harvest season. Christmas tree harvest season that is. Sarah is now a fifth-generation FarmHer at Pleasant Valley Tree Farm. Her farm is the perfect place to create country Christmas memories. Chatting with her for this episode FarmHer Talks feels like walking in a winter wonderland.
An average day for Sarah includes coming home covered in sap, oil, green spray, bruises, diesel, ragweed, cuts, dirt, and a little glitter. But not a day goes by where she does not think about how lucky she is to work alongside her family on this special farm.
Country Christmas Memories
Sarah grew up alongside four siblings, her parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and dozens of cousins all on the farm.
She enjoys being one big happy family living, growing, laughing, working, and playing together while also building a successful business. Out of her father’s six siblings, he sparked the most interest in the family farm. Luckily for Sarah, that means that she and her four siblings do most of the labor around the farm. All five of the kids may not all agree on this, but she believes they are extremely blessed their father made that decision years ago.
Since she can remember, Sarah has been Christmas tree farm obsessed.
Her father tells the story of him and his four-year-old Sarah driving a gooseneck load of trees into downtown Minneapolis. When they arrived to unload the 450 trees, Sarah followed right alongside her dad, crawled into the back of the trailer, and started trying to carry seven-foot Christmas trees all by herself!
Wherever or whatever her parents were doing on the farm, she has always been right there.
It’s a Family Tradition
Her family farm has been operating for five generations nestled in the hills of Elk Mound, Wisconsin.
The farm was homesteaded in 1893 by Sarah’s great-great-grandparents. The farm started off as a dairy, crop, and hog farm before Sarah’s grandfather got the craving to try something new in 1976.
The first Christmas trees were planted by her grandparents, father, and his five siblings. From there the tradition continued.
The tree farm is now a very successful operation where they’ve added fun activities too, like a fall harvest festival. In addition, they bought many mobile home courts.
The passion for her grandparents and parents really stayed in the Christmas trees, though. Now, her parents and two brothers are running the farm and many rental units. The other two siblings are still in school, but also work on the farm day in day out. She and her brothers each take on a different area of the rental business, but all three work in every area of the farm.
Talk About a Busy Holiday Season
She and her siblings do anything and everything. From baking cookies, bars, and treats for their fall harvest festival, stocking their concession stand, setting up the spooky woods, cleaning out bounce houses, helping set hay forts, planting pumpkins, painting background scenes, driving tractors for hayrides, and working in the gift shop, they’ve done it all. And that’s all just for the entertainment aspect in the fall.
For the Christmas tree side of the business, everyone has a hand in planting 25,000 trees yearly, shearing thousands of trees, green spraying 3,000 white pine, fertilizing all of the trees, picking pine cones on 150,000 Fraser Firs, mowing 300 acres of tree fields, cutting down 15,0000 trees yearly, bailing trees, loading semi-trucks, doing financial books, payroll, taxes, serving over 10,000 of cups and bags of hot chocolate, popcorn and hot cider to their customers, picking boughs, making 750 wreaths, 3500ft of roping, 100 porch pots and then decorating everything so it is over the top festive for Christmas.
Whew! Just reading all of their tasks makes me tired!
Independent FarmHer Spirit
Sarah’s father always told her and her sister that if they put their minds to it, they could have and do everything their brothers did. She is so thankful that he gave them that opportunity. Now, her parents have two hardworking girls who can run a chainsaw flawlessly, graciously back up a 25-foot trailer, drive a tractor, talk about any Christmas Tree species just as well as their sons (if not better). The girls also set up a beautiful gift shop, bake like there is no tomorrow, decorate porch pots, wreaths, and swags just like Martha Stewart.
The girls’ independent FarmHer spirit was modeled from both of their grandmothers and their own mother. From the shop to the field, they were there. And Sarah feels blessed to be raised by women who are proud to be in the agriculture world.
To her whole family, this is more than a job. Their farm is giving back to the earth, promoting keeping Christ in Christmas, helping other families create traditions, continuing a legacy their grandparents started, and most of all building a stronger, healthier, and happier family unit.
And to me, that is the ultimate family tradition.
Everybody Eats
Find More Stories at Everybody Eats
We all eat, and that is why farming will always matter. Everybody Eats is where the stories of food and farming intersect.
These stories told through my FarmHer lens connect us to our food and more importantly, the people behind it.
Everybody Eats is a collection of stories of those who protect our rural communities, who grow our food with extraordinary care, and who provide support, education, and assistance to make sure Everybody Eats.
Beautiful place and the most gorgeous Christmas Trees we’ve been going there for 11-15 years now love the atmosphere and how pleasant everyone is!! Thank you!
I really liked this story. I really liked the family traditions category. and it was crazy how many trees there were
i really liked each of your stories in this article thank you for sharing.
I like this article because Christmas is a great season and Christmas trees are an important part of the Christmas season. I did not know that farming trees was so hard and messy! The information from this article is useful because It teaches hard work ethics and that family is important.
I am not going to lie but Christmas tree farming this the first time I heard about it. and so it is a very interesting topic that caught my eye and might have got other’s eyes too.
I loved this article because I love the Christmas season! and Christmas trees are soooooo important in the Christmas season it just wouldn’t be the same without the Christmas tree. I also learned a lot about how hard it is to be a Christmas tree farmer, I mean who knew how many trees you planted! thank you so much for this story it was really inspirational. 🙂
I liked this article because I like Christmas. I learned that it was a dairy farm before and that was neat. It is useful information because if I ever wanted to start a farm.
I liked this article because i love Christmas and I also love Christmas trees they just bring Christmas alive. I also liked this article because I love the dedication you put into your farm just for the customers.
This article is informational and that is one of the many reasons I liked it. The Talk About a Busy Holiday Season section amazed me because that is a lot of work to do. This is use full information because we have a Christmas tree farm near here and this makes me realize there is a lot that you have to do to Christmas tree farm.
I liked this article because I think it’s cool how they do it as a family. I learned that Christmas tree farming is hard work and I think that is important because we need Christmas trees.
I liked the article because it describes everything about the harvest and her life. I learned that in this article it talks about how if you put your mind to it you can do anything. This is useful information because you always need to have motivation in life.
I like the article because it tells me everything about her life and the harvest. I learned that in this article it talks about how much work she has to do but loves doing the work she does. I learned that you always need motivation in life.
Hi, I’m Nadera in Mrs. Arey’s 4E 6th grade Health Class. This artical shares a lot about harfesting crops and it is very intresting. Sarah is very motivating and I love that she found her passion on the farm.
Hi,
I love how passionate Sarah is about the farm. This article taught me a lot of stuff. Not only does it teach people about owning and living on a tree farm but it also talks about working on the farm with family. It talks about the positives and negatives, mostly positive. I love Sarah’s story.
-Eden 6th grade Health 6 Even
Hi,
I love how passionate Sarah is about the farm. This article taught me a lot of stuff. Not only does it teach people about owning and living on a tree farm but it also talks about working on the farm with family. It talks about the positives and negatives, mostly positive. I love Sarah’s story. Thanks for your time!
-Eden 6th grade Health 6 Even
Hi I’m Waylon logue I am replying from Mrs. Arey’s 3-odd health class I like the thought of tree farming and I think it’s cool I have one question do you plant all the trees by hand still or by a tractor.
I like how they spirit the modeled to there grandmothers and their mother. The information that I learned is that her whole family this is more than a job. Their farm is giving back to the earth. The information that is useful is that to take care of the earth.
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I like how they spirit the modeled to there grandmothers and their mother. The information that I learned is that her whole family this is more than a job. Their farm is giving back to the earth. The information that is useful is that to take care of the earth.
6th grad 3 odd Health in Mis. Arey’s
I liked this article because it was really enjoyable to read about someone else’s life and how they grew up and if more people read these kinds of articles it might inspire them to start there own farming family
Mrs. Arey’s 5 odd health class
I loved this article because it showed that a family can do amazing things and that you can learn to do so many things independently or with others. I learned that being in a tree farm business can be a lot of work, which is useful information because it gives you the confidence to do something even if it’s a lot of work and hard at times.
It is incredible how you guys planted 25,000 trees
I like this because it talks about her life. I learned how messy farming is. Its useful because it shows how people farm.
I like this story because I like tree farms the christmas time!!
I liked this one because it has nature and nature is good and I like trees because I can make tree houses
I love your farm it is so pretty I learned that you have a big fam and they like farming
Hi, my name is Nash in Mrs. Arey’s 1E 6th grade Health Class. this article shares a lot of planting/ harvesting plants/crops/tree’s, and it said a lot of use full things.
I like this article because I like getting my Christmas tree and I like Christmas. from this article I learned that this Christmas tree farm has a lot of trees and it sounds like they don’t run out. this article is useful because it can get the word out to everyone and then people can go there.
I loved this article because It is the season for trees to be cut down and for time to be spent with your family. the info i learned is that if you put your mind to do something you can acomplish that thing
Mack 3E 6th-grade health when I saw the title winter wonderland I thought it was like a tree place and it was I have on in my town and when I read your story I want to visit mine sometime and look at the trees in the snow.
This article about Sarah and her Christmas tree farm was awesome! It really told me about how hard it is to work on a farm and how much work it is. This is really useful information because it tells me how much work really goes into running a farm.
I really liked this article about you because it’s fun to learn about another person’s life and what they choose to do in it. I think it’s very interesting how you have a passion for these Christmas trees and you never stop working hard to achieve what you have become.
I enjoyed reading this story a lot! I liked that it talks about her and her family. I learned about the tasks they do to the trees for the holiday season and found it interesting! It would be useful to people who are planning on harvesting crops.
I liked the story because I love winter. lead that farming trees is hard. it is useful because if you star your on you now want to expect 5E even [email protected] 6th grade herth
I liked the articular because it has a lot of family love.
I really liked this farm because it was interesting to hear how she grew up and how she became the way she is now. I’ve heard of a few Christmas tree farms, but they were very small nothing big. This was also interesting because it used to be a dairy farm before a tree farm, I’ve never heard of one farm becoming another or different type, like dairy to tree or tree to dairy.
I think this was a cool thing and I think that this was very interesting one thing I thought was interesting was how much you have to do to cut down the pines
I like this Articular because it shows that you just need practice and you can master anything, like using a chainsaw, knowing Christmas tree types and more! I learned that all you need in life is confidence.
Hi I’m Kaelyn in Mrs. Areys 6O 6th grade health class. With a family relative that wants to live on a farm thins is very helpful. I would love to vist and buy a tree sadly i live in Indianola though. i hope you can continue for longer plentiful year to come
I like how you include your memories and I like that you like Christmas like me! I also learned that there is almost 2500 trees hand-planted every year!! This is useful information because it shows how important family is.
Hi, I’m Kaelyn in Mrs. Arey’s 6O 6th grade Health Class.I have a family relative that wants to live on a farm and with this articular I learned more things about it. I loved reading about your family traditions and how hard it is to be a Christmas tree farmer I am really grateful for it and I’m sure others are to.
I like this article because I like Christmas and Christmas tree farms. I learned that Christmas tree farms are really hard to work on, so next time I get a Christmas tree I’ll be 5 times more grateful! This information is helpful because it helps people understand each other better because they have different backgrounds, and there isn’t a lot of online information about Christmas tree farming backgrounds, so it helps understand and relate to Christmas tree farmers.
I like this article because it talks about Christmas and I like Christmas. I learned that this Christmas tree farm makes a lot of money and trees. this is useful because if I need a Christmas tree I can go there.
I’m Colby in Mrs. Arey’s 4E 6th-grade health class. This article told me a lot about how fun Christmas is for their family and a lot about harvesting crops.
This story is very cool and I learned more about Christmas tree farming. It shows that with hard work and effort, you can make it happen.
I really liked this article because it shows how her family has grown into this business. I have learned that Sarah is happy working on their farm. This article contains useful information because some people need to know that you need at least some fresh air.
I liked this article because I love Sarah’s story. Like here conection with her family though the farm, how the farm has been past down sence her great grandpaerents, and her love for the farm!
I really liked this article because it’s interesting how she really likes to do tree farming. I learned that she has always been working very hard like sense she was a young kid. I think this is information is useful because it’s telling people that you have to believe in yourself and have motivation in yourself.
This story is so amazing.I learned a lot about Christmas tree farming.
I think this artical is very interesting because I love Christmas and especially decorating the tree. I also love the way that she puts hard work into her farming and that she puts all of her hard work into something that only comes around once a year and I love her motivation. It is also information in case I ever wanted to start my own farm.
I liked this article because how interesting it is that there are actually chritsmas tree farms and its cool how much work it takes. And This is useful information because in the future this might be a cool place to visit and get a christmas tree.
I found that this story was very interesting because I love how it talks about how much work goes into getting the trees ready. I found it interesting how much Sarah loves her job, that amazing to me.
I loved this story all the family traditions this was a fun and heart warming read
hi, I liked this one because it has the most helpful thing helping her family in the winter, summer, spring, and fall it’s so heartwarming.
I learned many years ago that christmas tree farms are good for the environment because conifers clean a large amount of harmful co2 from the air, Another factor is that the trees are grown in a constant cycle being replanted every year.
I liked this article because I love the Christmas season. I found it very interesting to learn how much work goes into a Christmas farm.
I liked it because it was a sweet story, I learned that you should do what you love, this is useful because I could use this lesson in the future.
This information is useful because if I had to ever experience working at a tree farm or any other tough activity I would know that it takes hard work.
I really liked this article because it tells me how hard work pays off. You can learn more about harvesting by reading this article and learn more about her life.I love how she never gives up!