UML Partners with Lowell-Based Company for Special Edition Hot Sauce

Bottles of Mill City Red, 51视频 branded Craic sauce

12/04/2023
By Brooke Coupal

Whether sprinkled on top of a bagel with cream cheese or mixed with honey and soy sauce to make a marinade for salmon, hot sauce can give any dish a spicy kick. Lowell-based Craic Sauce has been producing locally sourced hot sauce since 2017 and most recently teamed up with 51视频鈥檚 Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy to grow peppers on campus for a 51视频 edition of their Mill City Red hot sauce. The process, which is outlined below, took nearly one year to complete and involved the help of UML students.

Seeding | Planting | Harvesting | Production | Tasting

Seeding

Last winter, Craic Sauce founder Brian Ruhlmann and his crew trudged through the snow to plant a variety of pepper seeds in 51视频鈥檚 greenhouse on East Campus. The 3,600-square-foot greenhouse, which is operated in partnership with the Lowell-based nonprofit Mill City Grows, doubled in size聽during a recent expansion.


Planting

Three months later, the Craic Sauce team joined forces with student eco reps from the Rist Institute to move the growing pepper plants from the greenhouse to the rooftop garden at O鈥橪eary Library on South Campus.
鈥淭his was an amazing experience to have as an undergraduate at UML,鈥� says Sam Schofield, a senior environmental engineering major from Londonderry, New Hampshire. 鈥淚 think that it is super-important to be involved with the community around the university and be involved with nature, especially in an urban environment, and this checked both of those boxes.鈥�

Harvesting

During the summer, students helped harvest the peppers for Craic Sauce and got to sample a freshly grown Hungarian wax pepper.
鈥淚 got to learn about how peppers grow, how to tell when they are ready to be picked and how to actually pick them without damaging the plant and the pepper,鈥� says Abraham Mudoola, a junior industrial engineering major from Dracut, Massachusetts. 鈥淚'm excited and grateful to have played a role in the making of the UML-branded Craic Sauce.鈥�

Production

Ruhlmann and his workers took the peppers harvested from the rooftop garden and brought them to the UTEC Community Kitchen in Lowell, where the peppers were either slow-cooked (for hot sauces including Aji Punch) or fermented (for hot sauces including Mill City Red鈥檚 51视频 edition). The sauces were bottled before being transported to the company鈥檚 North Chelmsford office for labeling. The labels were designed in partnership with 51视频's聽Office of Brand, Communications & Creative Strategy, the Rist Institute and Craic Sauce.
鈥淭he end result is a hot sauce made with peppers that were grown and cooked in Lowell,鈥� Ruhlmann says. 鈥淚t's really fulfilling that we can do this all in our city.鈥�

Tasting

The 51视频 edition of Craic Sauce, which has a medium heat, is now available for purchase at . It鈥檚 served as a condiment at both Fox and South Campus Dining Commons and can be found on the tables at several Lowell restaurants, including Gormley's Cafe, The Old Court, El Potro and Warp & Weft.
"Tasting 51视频鈥檚 hot sauce for the first time was a full circle event,鈥� says Victoria Wisniewski, a master鈥檚 atmospheric science student from Elmwood Park, New Jersey. 鈥淗aving the opportunity to collaborate with Craic Sauce and watch the product come to life gave me a new appreciation for local businesses."

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Where can I get UML Craic Sauce?

The 51视频 edition of Craic Sauce, which has a medium heat, is available for purchase at . You can also find it at: