Sawtooth Mountain Maple Syrup named Cook County Farm Family of the Year

 

Cook County Extension is proud to name the Sawtooth Mountain Maple Syrup Company as the Cook County Farm Family of the Year for 2023. Each year, Extension highlights the contributions of a farm family to the local agricultural and food landscape of Cook County.

In the 1970s, Kirstin van den Berg and her brother, Chris Cordes, got their start maple sugaring as youngsters growing up in Chisago County. They used gallon milk jugs to collect sap and boiled it in a large, flat pan over an open wood fire. In 1986, Chris started a more serious operation on his property near Almelund in Chisago County. With his parents, Jim and Marianne, Chris expanded to several hundred taps, built a larger sugar house, and invested in a wood-fired evaporator. In 1995, Kirstin joined her brother and parents in the operation. Kirstin’s husband Greg Nichols and son, Calvin Waddell, are currently part of the business as well.

Later that year there was an opportunity for the families to purchase 320 acres of sugar maple forest in Lutsen, in the heart of the Superior National Forest. The next year the families started building their homes, a sugarhouse/bottling building, and their sap collection network. The following year, the families harvested their first crop of sap from 6,000 taps and started a new business: Wild Country Maple Products.

Over the years the operation grew. More taps were added, and equipment was updated. The families focused on selling syrup directly to consumers. In 2002, the operation was officially designated as certified organic, and sales were expanded to the Twin Cities co-op and natural foods marketplace. In 2013, Sawtooth Mountain Maple Syrup Company was formed, focusing solely on the production side of maple sugaring.

Today, Sawtooth Mountain Maple Syrup Company uses 29,000 taps producing between 7,000 and 8,500 gallons of finished maple syrup annually. Trees are tapped starting in January and harvest takes place in March and April. In total, the families have a combined 100-plus years of maple-syrup making experience.

The families are members of the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers Association and the Minnesota Farmers Union. For eight years, Kirstin was on the Cook County Extension Committee. Family members give presentations on their craft to kids at local elementary schools, they donate syrup to a wide variety of fundraising events including youth camps, fire departments, school functions, and local raffles and silent auctions.