Ulster IDA to provide funds for sauce maker
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Industrial Development Agency board members have agreed to provide $15,000 in support to Ram’s Valley to produce natural sauces and juices through the recently opened Cornell Creative Business and Arts Center.
The project is being developed by Brooklyn-based chef Richard Rajkumer, who has invested about $250,000 in kitchen and packaging equipment that will used at the facility owned by the Arc of Ulster-Greene as a way of providing jobs for disable people.
“I’m going to start hiring people next month,” he said. “My goal is to hire people (who are) mentally challenged and need assistance ... and give them an equal chance as everybody else.”
Rajkumer hopes to package about 200 cases of 34 5-ounce jars of sauces per week that will be sold to local retail outlets as well as stores in Brooklyn.
“I have about 25 different hot sauces that I make from produce grown from local farms,” he said.
“The sauces I make are all natural ingredients and they’re all locally sourced,” Rajkumer said. “There’s no sodium. There’s no additives or preservatives. Everything is naturally made by hand.”
Rajkumer expects to the Industrial Development Agency funding to purchase labeling equipment for Ram’s Valley products.
Production, which is expected begin in several weeks, will include chips and the salsa to go with it.
There will be one product that comes from out of the area, and actually represent something from Rajkumer’s childhood in the Caribbean Islands.
“I also have juices,” Rajkumer said. “I have one made from ... sorrel with maple syrup and it’s good for helping to keep blood pressure down. Sorrel is a flower from tropical islands and it’s very high in antitoxins. I do pineapple juice also and a passion fruit.”
Rajkumer, 42, was raised in Trinidad and said creating food with strong flavors and spices was something he has wanted to do for most of his life.
“I’ve been in the United States for 25 years and the Hudson Valley for five years,” he said. “I worked my north and found the Hudson Valley has something very special. The valley has rich minerals, so I came up here because I had a vision.”