It's a holiday moment more than century in the making.
On Monday, the owners of the Turck's Trees historic family farm, located north of Litchfield, cut down and pack up a 15-foot balsam fir that'll wind up in St. Paul as the official Christmas tree of the Minnesota State Capitol building.
The tree, which is believed to be at least 20 years old, was chosen grand champion in a statewide competition run in conjunction with the Christmas tree display at the Minnesota State Fair's ag-hort building.
Last year, a tree from Turck's was reserve champion, a fancy term for runner-up, and was put up at the governor's residence on Summit Avenue.
This time, after operating as a farm for 150 years, they made it to the top.
"It's an honor we haven't achieved before," said Steve Turck, one of six family members who now operate the farm located north of Litchfield. "Everybody tries every year, and there's probably 120-some trees, this one was selected number one."
The Turcks have 100 acres of their farm dedicated to growing Christmas trees.
They also grow corn and soybeans, like their ancestors did when establishing the farm in the 1800's.
The capitol's tree is a 15-footer, and Steve is joined by his son Jesse, both armed with chainsaws, to harvest the tree, and load it up on a trailer for Tuesday morning's trip to St. Paul.
"We just cut it down, shake it out so it's clean," said Steve, who says they usually get just dry needles to fall to the ground during the shakeout.
"No mountain lions, or anything like that," he said.
"Occasionally a bird's nest will be found," said Jesse. "But nothing too exciting."
Their only job is to bring the tree to the front steps of the capitol building.
Crews there take care of the rest, carting it into the routunda and setting it up for decorating, which takes place after the Thanksgiving holiday.
"It's got a taller ceiling, so they like to have a bigger specimen there," Steve said, after they delivered a nine-foot-tall tree to 1006 Summit Ave. in 2024.
Monday's activities at the farm will be pretty cut-and-dried, no pun intended.
"At the capitol, there's something a little more ceremonial," said Steve.