Making maple syrup is a pretty sweet business for Stu and Corinne Peterson. 

The couple taps maple trees on their property 30 miles north of Fergus Falls, MN, and boil it in their sugar house. The final product - Camp Aquila Pure Maple Syrup - is bottled and sold throughout the area. 

Camp Aquila (pronounced a-Kwill -a) Pure Maple Syrup, is well known in the region and has very humble roots.

The two moved to west central Minnesota from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Stu, a University of Minnesota agribusiness/ag economics grad, worked for the St. Paul Bank for Cooperatives (now CoBank) for 30 years. The bank finances farmer-owned cooperatives, rural electric, rural telephone and other related rural businesses. 

But a family friend and former teacher was selling his property near Otter Tail County’s Star Lake. The friend had operated it from around 1950-1976 as Camp Aquila for boys. The camp was the teacher’s summer gig, Stu said. The Petersons purchased the property - 190 acres - in 1983. 

A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Forest Stewardship Plan of the property noted its potential for a “sugar bush.” 

They started tapping their first trees, about 50 of them, in 2000. At this time, Stu retired and turned his focus on the maples.

“We knew nothing about making syrup in the beginning,” Stu said. “We knew that we had lots and lots of sugar maples on the property.” 

For their first three seasons, they tapped around 50 to 100 trees and hauled the sap to a neighbor’s outdoor “flat pan” hobby evaporation set up. It was small and inefficient, but so much fun and educational, he said. 

They sold their home in the Twin Cities and moved to the property in 2005.

The couple went on their own processing the maple sap in their own sugar house. They purchased food-grade commercial evaporator equipment and became licensed by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture as a wholesale food processor. They also were USDA certified organic. 

Over time they expanded the number of taps to 1,300 and built a customer base in Otter Tail and Becker counties, in addition to a few stores in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

Regardless how big or small the maple syrup operation may be, the formula to turning sap to maple syrup is pretty straightforward, Stu said. First, sap is collected in the spring. The sap runs from maples during the transition from late winter to early spring. In west central Minnesota, maple syrup production typically is produced in the months of March andApril. Hard freezing nights in the 20s and warm sunny days in the 40s are ideal sugaring weather. 

Next, when the sap is collected, it is boiled over a heat source reducing it from around 97 percent water and 3 percent solids (mostly sugar) downto exactly 33.5 percent water and 66.5 percent sugars. 

“As you go from a simple backyard operation with 25 trees tapped cooking simple pan or pot to the most sophisticated (and expensive) commercial operations with 5,000 to 15,000 taps, the only real difference is the endless application of technology and efficiency to allow higher and higher levels of production and efficiency,” he said. 

Not every year is the same. While they had over 500 taps and made nearly 150 gallons of syrup in 2004, the 2012 season, when they expanded to over 1,200 taps turned out to be a cruel one for maple producers across Minnesota. 

“The season was so short and the weather turned so warm, so early, that the sappin’ season was over almost before it began,” Stu said. “We were all done and licking our wounds by April 1st.” That year, Camp Aquila produced only 40 gallons of syrup. To meet customer demand, they had to purchase bulk syrup from other larger producers. 

“Syrup was not plentiful, but with our contracts in the industry we were able to supply our existing customers in 2012 but not able to take on new customer relationships,” he said. 

Things turned around in 2013 with one of the latest starting and longest running sap seasons the two have experienced. A record harvest of 9,500 gallons of sap produced 300 gallons of pure maple syrup. 

They have focused on pure maple flavor and consistent high quality for their product. Their syrup has won top ribbons in numerous Minnesota Maple Syrup Producer Association and Minnesota State Fair competitions. 

Camp Aquila (pronounced a-Kwill-a) syrup placed first at the NAMSC international competition in New Brunswick, Canada in 2013, second place at NAMSC in Michigan in 2011, Nova Scotia 2014 and New Hampshire in2018. 

“We are grateful for the opportunity to live on and preserve this unique parcel of land and to produce our pure maple syrup from the abundant stand of sugar maples,” they said.

Check out more of Stu and Corinne Peterson’s story at www.campaquilasyrup.com. The web site also has a complete list of retailers selling Camp Aquila Pure Maple Syrup.