Brian Ruhlmann on LinkedIn: #burnlocal (2024)

yo Evernote stop squeezing me manAnyone have any suggestions for task management and note taking software?

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We're cooking our most complex sauce we make tomorrow. Holy Fiddlehead. Has foraged ramp, fiddleheads, a handcrafted scallion vinegar, pickled garlic scapes and a medley of peppers we grow like blistered shish*to, cubunelle, and the datil pepper. We cook it once per year in August, so this is our third time cooking it. Our business is so extremely seasonal by the week for what we do. In prep for the cook and our first week harvesting peppers as we try to source 5 tons, I visited back on the short doc we were so fortunately able to have experienced with Jake Davidson and his crew. Here comes harvest season 2024!

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Let us introduce you to Kelpie! This limited edition hot sauce starts in the ocean, just like the shape shifting sea creature the bottle is named after. This sauce features kelp harvested by Chatham Kelp off Monomoy Island in Cape Cod. The Craic crew wanted to really feature the kelp in this sauce and make something that would be a compliment to seafood. We turned to land and our farm partners North of Boston Farm, adding fresh alliums, sage and fennel that is stewed with the kelp for hours. The heat comes from a mix of fermented Cherry Bomb, Serrano and Habanero peppers grown by Farmer Daves. After sampling at the New England Hot Sauce Festival and the Lowell Folk Fest, many people found their perfect match. Some suggested pairing it with oysters, others recommended marinating shrimp, and in my case, it makes a fantastic Irish spice bag! (Recipe coming soon!)Most Kelpies are named after gaining a reputation in their body of water and preying on humans. They may appear as horses above the water, but beneath the surface lies a world of seaweed intrigue that we dare you to explore!The most famous Kelpie is Nessie from Loch Ness, but we'd love to hear your thoughts on a name for the one making its rounds along the Massachusetts shores.

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Lotta feels tucked into this picture. The actual situation was trucking our Lowell Folk Fest set up across cobblestone streets back to our kitchen Sunday evening about 70 hours into the work week. Half of the feels reside with the struggles of entrepreneurship. People may see our sauces “everywhere” but we’re just trying to get by. Part of this is pushing when you’re tired and stumbling over your words after 10 hours of pitching to thousands of customers over the weekend.The other half is the glass half full half. When people see me pushing our cart down the street, a restaurant crew stops me to buy me a shot, a family passing by tells me that their whole family of five from ages 3-40 use our sauces daily. And then the countless impactful conversations ranging from learning about Cambodian and West African cuisine or sharing how we farm, cook, and sell our sauces in our city and seeing them light up with Lowell pride.So while pushing a cart down a cobblestone path while wearing crocs that are blistering up my feet and being the one that covered for a sick employee because I dared him to eat a reaper the day before kinda might suck in the moment, there’s a deeper essence of that moment which and the glass half full has won again. Love ya Lowell and thank you for making our diverse city feel like one crazy family and for a joyful Folk Fest filled with craic 🍀🌶️#lowellfolkfest #entreprenuership #cobblestones

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The part of my job that makes me go into my most creative, focused, manic, truth seeking self is naming new sauces, working on the artwork and the label description for a new limited edition sauce.You gotta let it all come to you through the process of it getting on your radar, to the r&d, the cooking, terrior and luck that comes in the process. You're bound to get jammed up at times throughout the 100 active hours working on it, but there are times where you get that flow and you have to let that follow you through. Final adjustments and I think we're ready to ship off Kelpie to the printers at Amherst Label and get these out in time for the Lowell folk fest and New England Hot Sauce fest. Kelpie the shape-shifting sea monster entices you into its world of seaweed intrigue. Craic Sauce has collaborated with our friends at Chatham Kelp, incorporating their Cape Cod kelp into a hot sauce that’s pickley, oceany, moderately spicy and low in sodium. With the addition of North of Boston Farm fennel, scallion, leek, celery, sage and basil, Craic Sauce keeps it local with Massachusetts farm and ocean grown produce in a sauce that opens new culinary adventures from land to sea!#didntproofreadyet

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Never a dull week at Craic Sauce Here’s some behind the scenes of what we’ve been up of late.

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Is it really dusty in here? I was very fortunate to have my first professional job be with the Boston Celtics.It was in 2013 and we had just traded Paul Pierce and KG for draft picks, and I called 80 people per day selling ticket packages.Since then I've worked for a few different organizations, but from the top down I've never seen an organization respect and honor tradition like the Boston Celtics. The Celtics welcomed everyone into the organization by connecting us with legendary players, owners and leadership. While everyone had their own stories, they all shared the pride of wearing that jersey or playing a role the bigger picture and that humility and bigger vision rubbed off on us.So happy for the organization, the players, the staff, the fans all over the world, the city of Boston and I really recommend watching All In by Shadow Lion, because wow they did an incredible job of encapsulating the aura of the Boston Celtics ☘ https://lnkd.in/evFNdBdA

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closing out the week in the Mill!

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7 years into this shindig we have our first distributor! And a like minded one too that is going to be able to support a segment we're entering and ready to take on. Wouldn't have done it any earlier, but I'm excited for our crew to build this relationship / partnership!

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