Life is definitely sweet for Tim and Cheryl Vieth of Vieth Valley Farms in Marthasville. For 15 years, the couple has been learning the ins and outs of gathering maple sap from their trees and producing a natural maple syrup.

“Our first attempt turned out to be maple ash,” said Cheryl Vieth. “The second wasn’t much better with maple brown water. We finally nailed it, word got out and now we have a thriving maple syrup business.”

The Vieths raised four kids while working in the flooring business. A bad accident for Tim changed everything for the couple. Now they live off eight acres in Marthasville, gardening, fishing, and taking care of their maple trees.

“We discovered this good, sweet, fun, healthy and wholesome food,” said Tim. “It is mind-blowing — a gift to us that we all need to discover. People don’t realize how good maple syrup is for you.”

Although the Vieths said they struck out in their first few attempts at turning sap to syrup, they learned the process of bringing the temperature down when you get closer to syrup and understanding the ratio of sap to syrup, which is 40-1.

In 2020, the Vieths built a maple syrup shack on their 8-acre property, dedicated to making the sweet product. It includes a 25-gallon stainless steel cooking pan that cooks the sap at 220 degrees. It takes 12 hours to cook three gallons of sap. An air conditioning unit keeps the sap cool in a nearby tank while waiting for the cooking process.

Vieth Valley Farms has more than 300 taps gathering sap from January through March, depending on the temperatures. The ideal tapping time is usually in February, with temperatures around 30 degrees at night and 40 degrees during the day. The Vieths usually begin checking their buckets after 11 a.m. Sap is clear, looking more like water, than syrup.

More than 60 sap gathering buckets are attached to trees with tubing. Four additional 275-gallon tanks gather sap from several trees with gravity-fed collection tubing flowing down a hillside. Containers in the shack can hold up to 130 gallons of sap. It takes three days to collect from all the trees.

Tim said when people look for the best, natural maple syrup, they should always see a little bit of sugar resting in the bottom. He said glass bottles are the best container to house the syrup.

“Maple syrup is better for you than honey,” said Vieth. “It just doesn’t have the allergens that honey has. It is more nutritional and includes a lot of minerals.”

Vieth also said maple syrup is great as a natural sweetener. He said even if people didn’t like the taste of maple syrup, when added as a sweetener, the maple syrup taste is often not noticed.

“I do this for the fun of it,” said Tim. “I have free syrup for my family and I love people to visit the farm. I love my life.”

Cheryl said her husband saved something that was given to him several years ago. It said that “later in life you will find wealth getting water from rocks.” As you look at their property, large rock formations support the trees that give them the sap.

“The maple trees are growing right out of the rocks,” said Cheryl. “The wealth we get are the visitors that visit our property and love our maple syrup.”

For more information, to schedule a tour, or to purchase some maple syrup, visit facebook.com/viethvalleyfarms or call 636-259-0093. The farm is located at 16467 Hilltop Road in Marthasville. Visits are by appointment.