TimberSweet puts Minnesota Maple Syrup in the National Spotlight

A “labor of love” is how TimberSweet owners Ralph, “Butch”, and Amy Fideldy describe their work producing maple syrup. Nestled on a 60-acre hillside three miles west of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Butch and Amy tap 3,100 sugar maple trees to produce some of the best, award-winning maple syrup in the nation.

Butch got his start in maple syrup as a youngster in the late 1950’s, helping his father tap trees and collect maple sap on their family farm. Using a large, flat-bottomed pan over an open fire, he learned early on how to boil maple sap — a thin clear liquid — into pure, delicious maple syrup. Today, Butch and Amy use state-of-the-art technology, including an elaborate tubing system for collecting sap and reverse osmosis and evaporator systems, to concentrate and cook the sap down into sweet maple syrup.

The Fideldys typically start tapping trees in February, but this year for the first time they are trying tapping in December while the snow depths are low and navigating the stands of maple trees is easier. This is all in preparation for the sap flows in March and April. Once the sap starts flowing, it’s all hands on deck. Early mornings will find Butch checking his tanks for sap that came in overnight and by evening they are boiling that sap down into pure maple syrup.

Butch and Amy are well-known and respected in the Minnesota and North American maple syrup communities. They have won numerous awards, including a “Best of Show” and several first-place awards from the North American International Maple Syrup Competition for their maple syrup, maple cream, and maple sugar candy. To win these awards, TimberSweet products out-performed competitors from 16 states and four Canadian provinces, showing that Minnesota maple syrup truly is world-class.

Even though it’s hard work, Butch and Amy love making maple syrup. One of their greatest joys is getting to know their repeat customers at the Grand Rapids Farmers’ Marketcustomers lucky enough to find some of the world’s best pure maple syrup made right in their own backyards.

Find TimberSweet and other Minnesota maple syrup producers at minnesotagrown.com/maplesyrup