Passion for jam leads to sweet success
Joe Hanglin and Vicky Allard, the owners of Blake Hill Preserves, in the retail space at their facility in Windsor, Vermont. (Photo by Blake Hill Preserves)
Making jam has always been a part of Vicky Allard’s life. Now, that passion is fueling a vibrant, growing business, Blake Hill Preserves, where she is co-owner and head chef.
Not only is Allard doing what she loves, but her company is winning gold medals. Blake Hill just struck it big at the World Artisan Marmalade Awards, taking home two golds, two silvers and a bronze. The company also ships to wholesale accounts nationwide, and just keeps growing — it now employs 34 people and is looking to hire more.
If there’s one central theme to all that success, it’s staying consistent. There’s a laser-focus on using top-quality ingredients and how you work with them, Allard explained.
“It’s being fastidious with respect to when you add the ingredients, how you add the ingredients, how you combine them together,” she said.
An important note: Different fruits react to the process in different ways. Some jams, for example, may need to be cooked a little slower to maximize the flavor; others might be cooked faster to retain their bright color.
“If you’ve got some beautiful peaches or some gorgeous strawberries, you want that jam to be cooked at a reasonable pace, so you retain even the beauty of the color of it,” Allard said.
Unlabeled jars of Seville Orange Marmalade cooling. (Photo by Blake Hill Preserves)
The company offers 60 different varieties of jams, with sweet, savory and spicy flavors. Their process is highly creative, open to new ideas, and their products are always evolving. One of their latest was the result of experimenting with lemon, jasmine tea and honey — and they put it into a marmalade, Meyer Lemon with Jasmine & Honey. It won silver at the recent worldwide competition.
“We’re continuously creating,” Allard said.
The Blake Hill team also has something not every company in this sector has: a line of sugar-free jams. It was requested by Central Market in Texas three years ago, and quickly took off.
“It’s done phenomenally well,” Allard said. “Beyond our wildest expectations.”
From home to the park
The company’s location is at Artisans Park, where Blake Hill Preserves and seven other businesses have their headquarters. The park is just off Route 5 in Windsor, and a stone’s throw from Interstate 91, making it an easy spot for travelers to find.
Before Blake Hill Preserves arrived at 60 Artisans Way, however, the business began with tons of jam-making at home. Allard and her husband, Joe Hanglin, bought the Blake Hill Farm property in Grafton in 2004, and moved there the following year part-time. It didn’t take long for Allard to discover there were a number of blackberry bushes on the property — which took her straight back to the fruit-foraging days of her childhood in England, when she and her family would pick the fruit and make jam out of it. She quickly revived that routine in Grafton.
The garden beds at Blake Hill Farm in Grafton, Vermont. (Photo by Blake Hill Preserves)
“We made about 70 jars of blackberry and apple jam, just because I got carried away,” she said.
This was even before the business came about, and Allard also made labels for her jams, which she kept organized in the pantry. In the fall, a friend came and stayed over, and when he went down to the Grafton Village Store to grab a newspaper, he took a jar of jam down with him, and asked if they’d like to try it.
“He came back with his newspaper and an order, which was a complete surprise,” she recalled. “That was the start of the business, and totally unexpected.”
After other local businesses expressed interest in the jam, the couple started their business as a home-based operation. They still went back to their jobs in New York City during the week, and spent the weekends up in Vermont selling jam. Allard worked for a New York financial firm in operational risk management. With the popularity of their business only going up, they decided to leave New York behind and move to Vermont full-time in 2012 to focus on their burgeoning company.
“We never imagined how much it would grow, and it happened so much faster than we’d ever envisaged,” she said.
They switched from the farm’s name to Blake Hill Preserves in 2011, to better reflect their chosen specialty of preserve making. They built their first commercial kitchen in 2012, and moved into their new facility at Artisans Park three years later. Allard raves about the park, calling it a perfect place for businesses to showcase what they do.
“It’s got that perfect blend between having the artisan manufacturers here making their products, and having the opportunity to showcase them to the customers,” Allard said.
The exterior of the retail shop at Blake Hill Preserves. (Photo by Blake Hill Preserves)
Just as important was a great place for the team.
“This is just the nicest place for people to come to work,” she said during an interview outdoors, overlooking the quiet yards nearby. “You’re on grass, you can hang out, and you’ve got beautiful views from the facility.”
After moving to Artisans Park, the organic growth of the business continued. Now, Blake Hill Preserves is renting additional warehouse space from Vermont Farmstead Cheese, to supplement the warehouse in the Blake Hill facility at 60 Artisans Way. That’s just the latest proof of local collaboration they’ve experienced consistently over the years.
“Vermont’s an amazing place to work, because people are always happy to help you figure out the challenges,” she said.
As for the future, Blake Hill Preserves is doing even more business with local farms than last year. Along with that, the business is looking to become a Certified B Corporation. All B Corp companies balance purpose and profit, and must consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment, according to the B Corp website.
“It’d be a nice thing to be able to do, given that it resonates with what’s important to us,” Allard said of the certification.
Blake Hill will also be continuing its online “Cooking with Jam” series, which has become a popular resource for customers looking to get creative in the kitchen.
But Allard and her 34 employees know, not all the good ideas come from in-house. Recently, a customer who had just moved to Vermont from Texas, came in asking if they'd be able to make a favorite snack of his which he couldn’t find here: candied jalapenos. The kitchen dove right into the new project.
"We thought it might be a one-time batch and we'll see how it goes, but they've become really popular," Allard said, noting they're popular with wholesale customers, on the website, and also in-person. "They're one of those items where people come along and they will literally snap up five or six jars."
— Gareth Henderson
Find more information at blakehillpreserves.com, call 802-674-4529, or email info@blakehillpreserves.com. The business is located at 60 Artisans Way in Windsor, Vermont.
Kettles at the Blake Hill Preserves facility in Windsor, Vermont. (Photo by Blake Hill Preserves)
