LOWELL, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A Lowell-based hot sauce company uses locally-grown ingredients to make creative small batch sauces by hand.
Craic Sauce was started in 2017 by Brian Ruhlmann, who began making hot sauces from ingredients grown in his parents’ garden.
Seven years later, Ruhlmann’s company now has 10 part-time workers and four full-time employees, and he grows his peppers and other produce at local farms, including urban farms in Lowell.
Craic Sauce also offers a collection of single-source farm hot sauces grown from produce on Clark Farm in Carlisle, Hutchins Farm in Concord, and Farmer Dave's in Dracut.
Ruhlmann talked about the benefits of growing his hot sauce ingredients locally. “We’re able to really look over every inch of the plot that we’re growing on… People have been doing it this way for a long time.”
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Discussing some of the peppers being cultivated for the company, he said that they are “growing some kind of aji. You don’t see other farmers growing them as much,” describing a type of chili pepper known as the Peruvian hot pepper.
All of the company’s peppers are grown locally in Massachusetts, and 10% come from urban farms in Lowell.
“You think of a farm as being an open spot, but it is possible to do it in urban locations… It means so much for us to grow in Lowell, make it in Lowell.”
Craic Sauce cooks their sauces using a "slow sauté method" at their commercial kitchen in Lowell.
Ruhlmann shared how growing the ingredients for his sauces impacts the flavor. “Sure, I think we have a really good recipe and everything, but a lot of it comes from the produce, and the fact that when we make our Sungold tomato pasta sauce, we’re picking the tomatoes less than 24 hours before we’re cooking with it.”
The company’s name comes from the Irish slang “craic,” pronounced like “crack,” meaning good times and fun.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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