Community Highlights: Meet Amber and Dannie Burr of Daddy’s Homemade

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber and Dannie Burr.

Hi Amber and Dannie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
We honestly never had the intention of starting a business! My husband developed some health issues that got us looking closer at ingredients on labels. We used to buy the big containers of syrup from the store and he quickly realized how much high fructose corn syrup was in those containers. He decided to try making his own homemade maple syrup from his Grandma’s recipe for our kids and family. After he had perfected that, he tried Vanilla. He made it for 2 years for us and our friends and family before they convinced us to try selling it. We sold our first few jars at a garage sale we had. When we sold out of what we had on a weekend at a garage sale, we decided to turn it into a business. It officially became Daddy’s Homemade just a few short months before the pandemic hit!

We are just so passionate about our story, family, and how much fun we have experimented with using our syrup in so many different ways, we just love sharing that with everyone. Not to mention we are getting to share that our daughter’s drawings were the inspiration behind our labels and she drew each by hand when we started! We are so proud of her!

Community, friends, and family are a huge part of our lives. We are so grateful for all the support and love from everyone that has been helping us get through each challenge thrown our way. We want to continue to build something our kids can learn so many incredible life lessons from by growing up in a family-owned business they were a part of from the beginning and that if you put your mind to something, anything is possible.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not only have we been faced with normal startup and small business challenges, including working full-time with 3 young kids but we also started our business right before the pandemic, had all the events canceled, and have had to regroup and get more creative with getting the word out about our products and business multiple times. Trying to get funding for small businesses is not easy to help expand into a commercial kitchen and this is something we are still working to overcome.

This past year, our 3-year-old son also ended up in the hospital for several nights while we learned he had asthma and allergies, I was laid off from my full-time job Nov. 2022 and found out about more health issues with Dannie that we continue to work through on a daily basis, as well as two deaths of members close in the family within a few months of each other and both from Cancer. It has not been easy this past year for us personally. Still, despite all this, we received New Business of the Year and Home Based Business of the Year, nominated young professionals of the year, and have plans to expand this year to have our own commercial kitchen but also to partner with some co-packers to help us keep up with the demand for our products.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Although we have competitors, we don’t have any direct competitors that we have found so far. The versatility of our product is replacing other products in households. We started our all-natural homemade syrup for our kids’ breakfast foods. Now, with flavors you can’t find anywhere else; we add them as a tasty topper to just about everything. From coffee and beverages to ice cream and desserts; even popcorn and salty snacks! Other syrups we have found are typically created for a single purpose. 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.

Oftentimes you can find us sponsoring local schools or nonprofits, putting together some of our products in baskets that are donated for silent auctions for nonprofits or fundraising efforts, organizing food drives for local food banks, or doing anything we can do to help others in the community. We are most proud of the impact we are making and the inspiration we are providing in our local communities.

Be on the lookout for some donation efforts coming up for the American Cancer Society in honor of my mom and uncle who we lost this past year.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I was always around a family who owned their own business and loved to help wherever I could.

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/@daddyshomemade8715

Image Credits:
Smashed Ink