We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amber Burr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amber below.

Alright, Amber thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

It all started when my husband Dannie started having some health issues and we started taking a closer look at ingredients on labels. We were in the store buying a big jar of syrup for our pancakes and we realized how much high fructose corn syrup was in the syrup. He decided he would try making his own at home for the kids and family from a recipe of his grandma’s. It was a hit! When we ran out and tried to buy syrup from the store again; our kids refused to eat it, because they wanted Daddy’s Homemade Syrup. After 2 years of making it for our kids; our friends and family convinced us to share and sell it. Inspiration for our labels and brand came from our oldest daughter was always bringing home drawings of the family. Each label was hand drawn by her until we were able to turn it into a brand and stickers for our labels you now see today. We knew immediately we wanted a more unique container and they had to be in glass jars to help do our part for sustainability and helping eliminate plastic.

Our three key values were very clear from the beginning and very much a part of our story, mission and who we are….
Family- Engage our three generations to develop and deliver high-quality products.
Environment- Lower our carbon footprint by committing to sustainable packaging.
Work Ethic – Utilize our multi-step process of creating then packaging our products meticulously by hand to ensure every batch is of the highest quality.

From our family to yours, we inspire the joy of creating kitchen memories through food, family, and fun by producing high-quality, all-natural homemade syrups and ready-to-blend breakfasts while supporting sustainable packaging.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Dannie is a stay-at-home dad who started taking a closer look at all the high fructose corn syrup and other artificial ingredients in the pancake syrup our kids were eating so much of. Between our family and some health issues that developed, it was important to have a healthier alternative, so he started experimenting with his own syrups – mixing, matching, and calculating all-natural ingredients and flavors. He created our syrup with no artificial ingredients, no high fructose corn syrup and no preservatives. Our daughter is the pickiest eater, so when she approved the taste, we knew we were onto something. With the encouragement of Dannie’s mom, we started giving it to friends and family to sample. They loved it, he loved making it, and from creating the labels to taste testing, the kids loved being a part of the process. Each member of our family, even our littlest at 3 years old likes to have his special jobs!  

Community and sustainability play a huge role in our personal lives, which have transitioned over to Daddy’s Homemade. Both Dannie and I are Colorado natives and I am an Evergreen native making our kids the third generation of Colorado natives. When Dannie was researching what type of container he wanted in the syrup; there was no question; it was going to be a glass jar to help lower our carbon footprint. They are better for the environment for the start; plus, we wanted to be sure to provide a more unique look so people could reuse them for their own needs if they like and we also encourage people to return the jars back to us if they are just going to get rid of them. We also encourage food donations for local food pantrys at events and we also will be donating a portion of proceeds to Wilmot PTA for any memberships.

From our ingredients to the hand-tying of the twine on our jars, we utilize a multi-step process of creating then packaging our products meticulously by hand to ensure every batch is of the highest quality. Dannie has found a passion for trying new flavors, and I love experimenting with what we can use them for. Having three young kids who never agree on anything makes meals difficult most days, so he has created over 60 flavors, so there is always something for everyone. All our kids love helping us experiment with new recipes too! Even after customers have tried all of the flavors, there is always another flavor available or will be available soon. It’s exciting to see our return customers at events when they find a new flavor they want to try.

We started using it on our breakfast foods, but because of the unique flavors, it is easy to enjoy on just about anything! In addition to our breakfast foods, we now put it in our coffee and beverages; meats and vegetables, popcorns and salty snacks; desserts and baked goods and so much more! We started as Daddy’s Homemade Syrup but have gone with Daddy’s Homemade when people started saying they would love to have homemade pancakes but didn’t have the time to make them. When Dannie heard that, he took his favorite fluffy pancake recipe from his mom, found some unique jars and created Daddy’s Homemade Perfect Pancake Mix. We listen to and value customer feedback which is another reason we now have so many flavors in different sizes and pancake mix. Coming soon: Waffle mix and cornbread mix!

It is hard to pick just one thing we are most proud of along our journey so far. Despite many challenges we have faced, not only as a small business but one that started just before the pandemic and personally in our lives as well as raising 3 kids and have a full-time job besides the Daddy’s Homemade; we have received New Business of the Year and Home-Based Business of the year as well has have been featured in several local magazine and newspapers. We have become an inspiration to many in our mountain community. Our business has taken us on journeys we didn’t expect, including being the voice on Conifer Radio Coffee on the Corridor to share the weekly events in our community. It is such a great feeling to be able to work with other small business owners and community members and help them out where we can. We love being able to teach our kids all kinds of valuable life lessons by doing what we are doing with our story, brand, products and community. We have yet to find any other product like ours at events, markets, and on shelves which makes it a product much to be desired everywhere we go. We are excited for the future and hope to have our own commercial food kitchen to be able to take our products and story to even more people and places in the near future.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Our entire journey is actually one of resilience. When Dannie started making the syrup, I was pregnant with my third child and my husband was dealing with several health issues. Just over a month after we officially decided to start our small business, COVID-19 hit. Every event I had planned to sell our products at cancelled. I never used social media except to post a few pictures of our kids for out-of-town family but I keep seeing and hearing more and more people talk about the social media especially when it came to their business. I learned tips and tricks and stayed consistent and grew our brand through social media and took advantage of any small business resources I could find since we were limited on what we could do and how to do it during the pandemic. 

In addition to some of the health issues we were already working through with my husband, he ended up having to have an emergency surgery to remove and infected kidney stone and even more recently a hip surgery. Feb 2022 our 3-year-old son ended up in the hospital for a couple of nights due to allergy and asthma related issues we weren’t aware of. March 2022 my mom who had been battling cancer passed away, followed by a series of ear infections, shingles and getting hit with one thing after another. While faced with all of these new challenges, I was also trying to help grow our small business, work a full-time job; raise 3 kids and now trying to sort through everything after my mom’s passing. Often, I am asked how we keep doing what we are doing.  “We just find a way to make it happen. We have some big dreams and want to teach our kids so many incredible life lessons that come along with our resilience and not giving up.” We hope that all our efforts and hard work will shine through our kids as they get older.

“No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.”
― Greg Kincaid

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
― Nelson Mandela

“I tried and failed. I tried again and again and succeeded.”
― Gail Borden

“The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.”
― Woodrow Wilson

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Having our daughter’s drawings for the labels has helped to start the foundation of our reputation. It is usually one of the first things people ask about or comment on. People see a kid’s drawing and we immediately have their attention. There are so many parts of our story and our business that help build our reputation. We were using our own product and sharing with friends and family for 2 years before officially turning it into a business. It’s a product that sells itself, especially since we love it so much. We have used the business not just to sell our product but as a way to connect more with our community as well as help others. We are members of a couple of the local chamber of commerce and have received a couple of awards this past year. We are open and honest through all avenues of our business including social media. When you think of syrup, most people think of syrup for your pancakes. Having a local bar / restaurant that uses our syrup to make cocktails, mocktails, coffee drinks, lemonades and limeades as well as a local bakery using our syrup for their baked goods help people understand the variety that can be used with our syrup. We make sure people know we are a local small family-owned business and we are real people with real challenges. We help work with nonprofits in our local community where we can.  This local feel and sense of community and word of mouth is a big part of what we are using to continue to build our reputation. We are hoping it will help us take it to the next big step as we continue to grow and hopefully expand in the near future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daddyshomemadesyrup.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/daddyshomemadesyrups
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/daddyshomemadesyrups
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/daddy-s-homemade
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCennqrMTiE-DQStcT2g_W1A
• Other: Google reviews https://g.page/daddy-s-homemade-evergreen/review?rc

Image Credits
Evergreen Chamber of Commerce Colorado Community Media