The smell of fresh pine trees, burning wood, steaming hot chocolate, and freshly baked cookies fills the air at the Guberud Hill Tree Farm from Thanksgiving weekend through Christmas or until the last tree is sold.
Starting the day after Thanksgiving and continuing every Saturday and Sunday until Christmas, the public is invited to stop by and select the perfect Christmas tree from the family farm. When you see the wagon with the “Christmas Trees” sign, you’ll know they’re open for business.
The first Christmas tree was hand-planted in 1991, and the first Christmas tree was sold in 2001. It takes 7-10 years for a tree to be the right size to harvest.
The farm is owned by Steve and Diane Guberud. It is located east of Spring Grove on Highway 44, on the Guberud family homestead which was originally settled in 1854.
Seventy-nine-year-old Steve grew up just down the hill from the tree farm on the homestead. Interestingly, the homestead’s mailing address is Caledonia, but the tree farm up the hill has a Spring Grove mailing address. Steve homesteaded the tree farm in 1990.
A Vietnam veteran, Steve shared that his dad died when he was 17, leaving him to take over the farm at a young age. He received a one-year deferment and then a six month’s deferment. It took longer than six months to run the farm, so he enlisted and served two years of active duty.
The small farm is just around 200 acres. The buildings on the original homestead have been sold and the tillable acreage rented out.
Steve explained that the new trees are planted by hand by the stumps. Trees are planted every year.
Steve likes working with his hands. In addition to building their home, he carves figurines in the basement workshop. He also likes to reuse whatever he can. Recalling earlier days, he shared, “My brother and I once built a little shed for the chickens using bent nails and oak.”
In unison Steve and Diane offer the following advice on selecting a Christmas tree, “It keeps getting bigger-it’ll grow on the way home and even more when you get it in the house.”
When it comes to choosing the perfect tree, Steve has some advice: “Look at the stump and make sure it’s straight,” Steve said. “If it’s crooked at the bottom, it’ll be a challenge to get it to stand up straight.” He also recommends checking the color. “I like spruce – they’re a deep, dark green. But balsams are my favorite. If you lift the needles, you’ll see a silver-gray color underneath that sparkles in the sunshine.” Both spruce and balsam leave a wonderful aroma in the house.
Like any family business, there’s no shortage of memorable moments at Guberud Hill Tree Farm.
Steve shared a couple stories. “It got to be real busy, and one day I was asked to put a tree in a pickup. I asked which one and was told to put it in the black truck. They went in and had their hot chocolate and cookies. I got up to the top of hill and there were four black trucks. I had to go back down and ask which black truck?”
“Another time, when it was busy again, there was this man from Spring Grove. When I came back up the hill, I offered to help tie the tree on. The man replied, ‘Oh, I think I can do that.’ I saw him leaving and thought, ‘O gosh, it doesn’t look good.’ He had put it on this way instead of that way. He just had to go to Spring Grove with it. But he didn’t make it all the way, and said that, doing 55, the tree bounced off pretty well. The wind picks up the branches and people just don’t know that.”
While prices haven’t been finalized, the Guberuds traditionally keep it simple – one price for any size tree. They advertise as a “cut your own.”
Steve said they also deliver trees. He shared one last story. A man called him from California and asked if they deliver trees. Steve said yes until he heard that the man lived in California. Then he said no.
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