By Curt Peterson
Vicky Allard and her husband, Joe Hanglin, grew up at two extremes within the United Kingdom yet ended up in Grafton, Vermont — population 600 or so. Food was paramount in both of their childhoods — Vicky as a third-generation sustainable land-to-table farm girl, and Joe immersed in Spanish, North African and Italian cuisine at his family table.
The shop features a clean, simple Vermont style with dozens of shelves of unique flavors of jams and preserves.
Perhaps it is destiny that Allard and Hanglin are now leading Blake Hill Preserves, a fast-growing, award-winning, nationally-distributed line of over 60 sweet, savory and spicy jams and preserves.
“Blake Hill embodies a unique blend of preserve making traditions with a deep love and appreciation of flavors from around the world,” Allard told the Mountain Times.
The partners’ 2005 arrival in Vermont fits a familiar pattern. They bought an old farm, intending to continue commuting to New York and traveling for business. Allard’s childhood love of preserving continued, and in 2009, she created a 60-jar batch of preserves using foraged blueberries.
An impressed guest showed a purloined jar to the Grafton Village Store owner, who immediately made the first commercial order. The rest is history.
For a few years the couple juggled their business careers with growing the preserve business.
“Weekends were spent delivering jams to stores, running our booth at local farmers’ markets, visiting farms for more produce, and making jam to replenish stock,” Allard said. “Our home kitchen became an 18-hour a day commercial jam making space, and each room of our farmhouse a separate warehouse space.”
Located at 60 Artisans Way in Windsor, Blake Hill Preserves has grown to be a nationally distributed line of over 60 jams.
But Allard and Hanglin were never happier, she said.
In 2012, they went all in, constructing Blake Hill’s first production facility, in Grafton. They developed relationships with fine cheese makers and bakers — products that pair naturally with preserves.
In 2014, Blake Hill won its first U.S. Good Food Award, and a gold medal at The World’s Marmalade Awards.
“Our quality continues to be recognized with major award wins and media coverage every year,” Allard said.
Four years later, Blake Hill had outgrown the Grafton facility — orders were for pallets of preserves — so Allard and Hanglin built a plant and specialty preserves shop across from Harpoon Brewery in Windsor. Visitors can make retail purchases and taste over 40 varieties of Blake Hill preserves, while the team produces the sweet, savory and spicy products on the other side of the wall.
The shop is open 7 days a week, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the holidays, Blake Hill’s 53 employees work 10 hours, make 10,000 jars of jam, craft 2,800 gift boxes and ship orders across the country, all from their Windsor headquarters.
“[We] still make everything by hand,” Allard said.
Considered “essential workers” in the food industry, Blake Hill shipping orders continued to grow in spite of reduced retail and wholesale sales.
“We love finding communities like the Upper Valley all over the country,” Lindsay Obar, Blake Hill sales professional, said, “and working with their local stores and producers, we also love sharing our preserves in bulk with other artisan makers, schools, and restaurants.”
BG’s Market in Hartland, owned by Bill Gaucher, set up an impressive display of Blake Hill preserves and recently hosted a two-day cheese-and-jam tasting. Gaucher said customers really enjoyed it.
Obar, whose family owned Mike’s Store in Hartland for 22 years, met Joe Hanglin when he and Allard had been making Blake Hill Preserves for 10 years. When Mike’s was sold, Obar met with Hanglin and Allard and was impressed with their passion for their growing business. She’s been in the sales department at Blake Hill now for two years.
“The days have just flown by, and the opportunity to learn and grow is endless with such a rapidly growing company and while surrounded by such talented people,” Obar said.
Besides the classic jam berries, Blake Hill also preserves fresh local onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes and chili peppers for products such as Fresno and Thai Chili Jam, Roasted Garlic, Chipotle Maple or Tomatillo with Jalapeno.
A la King Arthur Flour, Blake Hill has also ventured into providing cooking classes, and creating cooking-with-jam recipes to “help make simple dishes special.”
