Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 8/25/2021
GRANBY – As Granby resident Lori LeBlanc cooks her barbecue sauce and makes her spices, dips and rubs, for her business Wickedly Wild Gourmet Sauces, LeBlanc is also making glass wine bottle wind chimes and sea glass for her Granby Glass Art, her small, hobby business.
LeBlanc has a licensed kitchen where she makes everything from home, and then travels around to numerous markets and fairs.
With Granby Glass Art, LeBlanc creates bottled art, framed glass art, wreaths, bird feeders as well as wind chime candle holders, selling 20 to 30 of those a year. For those wind chimes, she cuts off the ends of a wine bottle and puts a tiny wine glass inside the wine bottle with a candle in it. “I paint. I do a lot of crafts,” LeBlanc said. “My whole life I’ve been a crafter whether it’'s needle craft or painting water colors. I've always done some kind of art.”
LeBlanc told Reminder Publishing when she’s outside at a festival she usually hangs the wind bottle chimes around her tent because they sound pretty and act as a weight to hold her tent in the breeze.
The idea of Wickedly Wild Gourmet Sauces came about when LeBlanc ran out of barbecue sauce and started playing around with different recipes. When she was fundraising in earlier years for a possible new school in her town, or supporting her boys’ Cub Scouts, she would make and sell barbecue sauce. Her family loved it, she explained, and later people would call her and ask how they could get more sauce. She then decided to turn her sauce into her own small business.
“It started with a spicy bourbon barbecue sauce where I use all local onions, garlic, habanero peppers, brown sugar, honey and wild turkey bourbon,” LeBlanc replied. “It is ‘wicked’ good as people in New England say, and made with Wild Turkey Bourbon, so the name became Wickedly Wild Gourmet Sauces. The barbecue sauce is spicy, so I started making dips and dip mixes to calm the spice. I dehydrate most of the vegetables myself and added spices to complete each spice mix.”
LeBlanc also makes a lot of jams and jellies with heirloom flavors such as strawberry rhubarb, blueberry rhubarb, red currant, rose hip jelly and lemon curd. “I have people who come for the jellies and I have people who come just for the barbecue sauce,” LeBlanc said. “I also do fudge sauce and a peanut butter sauce. I make just about everything myself; make it, label it, package it and sell it all myself.”
LeBlanc was a stay-at-home mom for many years. When her children grew up, she said, she was able to go to various farmers’ markets, craft fairs and festivals. LeBlanc explained she does two farmers’ markets a week, and goes to three craft fairs or markets throughout a month. In the past, she's participated in several festivals and fairs all over Massachusetts and into Connecticut throughout the year. This past season LeBlanc has attended the Wilbraham Made Market, Hampden Market, Forest Park Farmers’ Market, 58Market Place in Peabody and a three-day Blueberry festival at the Odd Pine Farm in Ashburnham. This year, she’s a part of the Chicopee Fresh Farmers’ Market as well as a few Boston Women’s Markets.
She shared, “The best part is meeting people. Everywhere I go, I find a lot of lovely people talking with them from mostly Massachusetts and a little bit into Connecticut, but from Western Mass. and going into the Boston area where I always find a lot of fun people who love to cook and others who want some kind help on how to cook. It’s kind of a broad spectrum, but I love talking with the people all the time at every market.”
During COVID-19, LeBlanc had a couple of stores like Atkins Farms Country Market in Amherst, Dickinson Farm in Granby, Rice Fruit Farm and Stony Hill Farm in Wilbraham buy the products from her. Stony Hill did a weekly order through their farm, which LeBlanc shared “kept her going” through the pandemic. She was able to do drop-offs without having contact with people. In addition to the stores, customers emailed LeBlanc for orders and she would drop them off on their doorstep without contact. Though LeBlanc said sales weren’t as great as the years past, she's happy she was able to deliver. Her ultimate goal, she shared, is to attend larger festivals and to perhaps add a few more stores that would like to sell her product.
“I want to continue moving in a positive direction,” LeBlanc said. “I want to make sure when people see my sign they say, ‘Oh yeah, I know you. I’ve had your stuff before.’ I like the chance for me to work my own hours from home filling different store shelves and going out to festivals, but then still having private time home with my family.”
For more information on her sauces or glass business, go to LeBlanc’s Facebook page: facebook.com/wickedlywildgourmetsauces or call 885-7902.