Two Chrises, a wood rig, and a yard full of maples.
CW Farms is Chris Ward and Chris Welte — neighbours, then friends, then partners in a sugarbush. What started as a few taps on the trees behind the house turned into a spring ritual our whole corner of Brooten, Minnesota waits for.
We're not trying to be the biggest producer in the state. We're trying to make the best bottle we can out of the sap that runs past our door — and to still be doing it in twenty years.
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Chrises
40:1
Sap to syrup
6
Weeks a year
185°F
Hot-packed
Four things we won't cut corners on.
One sugarbush, one farm
Every drop comes from maples we can walk to. We're not a broker and we don't blend — if it's in a CW Farms bottle, it ran through our rig.
Buckets, not pipelines
We collect by hand in small batches. It's slower than a vacuum system, and it lets us pull sap at its peak instead of all at once.
Wood-fired, finished by taste
We boil until it's right, not until a timer says so. That's why our Amber and Dark Robust are consistent from year to year.
Six weeks, then it's over
Maple season ends when the buds break. When the cellar is empty, it's empty — which is why we sell out most springs.