Ocean State Pepper Company
Handcrafted and Locally Grown Spice Blends Add Flavor to Every Meal
You have the basic ingredients and now it’s time to cook. What is the one thing that will turn that basic meal into a masterpiece? The answer, of course, is spices.
“Read the ingredients on most of the spice mixes you see in stores, and you will see that the number one and two components are salt and sugar, or the other way around,” says Dave Conner, co-owner of Ocean State Pepper Company. Conner and his business partner/wife Katie Evans found their way into the business in an effort to create more local, organic and healthy options that didn’t involve large quantities of sugar, salt and fillers.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Conner came to Rhode Island to study culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence. He worked as a chef in Chicago but returned to Rhode Island where he met Katie, who is a Rhode Island native. Together, they’ve been slowly growing the Ocean State Pepper Company (OSPC) starting with their first retail sale in 2017.
When most people think of pepper, they think of small black kernels that are found in shakers and grinders on most American tables. Piperaceae peppercorns are imported and only grow in tropical or sub-tropical regions. The pepper in the OSPC title refers to the Capsicum genus. Capsicum peppers are native to the Americas and cultivated worldwide. They are the ones that we see at local farmers markets in multiple varieties— most of them will grow locally. “We grow as much as we can in our greenhouse in West Warwick, but we partner with other local farms to get what we need,” says Conner, in reference to the peppers and other herbs used by OSPC.
The wide variety of Capsicum peppers is leveraged by OSPC to bolster a broad range of roughly 20 unique spice blends—some spicy, some not, but all with clever names that have become a company signature, such as Blueberry Thrill, Surf ’s Up or Cowabunga. The first uses chipotle peppers as the flavor enhancer while the next uses bird’s eye peppers and last the Trinidad scorpion pepper and so on. In place of sugar are things like maple and honey for sweetness and lemon juice and vinegar are used to reduce the need for salt. This different approach to seasonings avoids the overuse of white sugar and salt.
“These guys are running all day, every day,” says Conner pointing to the large drying units filled with freshly harvested peppers in their Pawtucket production facility. “This time of year [autumn], it’s harvest, dry, grind and store,” he adds. With several unique types of peppers growing, there’s a need for flexibility with regard to yields and harvest times.
Once the peppers are safely processed and sealed in airtight containers, they are stored and ready for use. Careful records and storage are essential so all their blends maintain consistency. “We are able to scale up and down according to our needs,” says Conner. The goal is to keep the product fresh, and not have it sitting on the shelf for too long.
The amount of hand work involved in the production of OSPC products defies imagination though a new apparatus is helping to save time and energy. “This machine was expensive, and we had to save up for it, but the amount of time that it saves is worth it,” says Connor about the new label machine. Before its purchase, each jar had to be individually labeled by hand. “Now we have a machine to label the number of jars we need [per batch], then we just have to fill them,” he adds. Filling is still done by hand. “We try to stick to small-batch production methods and produce fresh product on an as needed basis,” says Conner.
The OSPC offerings are not limited to the various seasoning blends. There are other fun items like single-use packs for cooking, from Narragansett Bay Spicy Seafood Boil to Mac Daddy Cheese Sauce Mix to El Gringo Loco Taco Seasoning. Other items include hot honey, flavored salts, dried peppers and more. As with the handcrafted seasonings, most of the pour-and-go packs are gluten free, nut free, sugar free and vegan. “We sold over 1,500 pounds of our Wicked Cocoa mix last season,” Conner says about the delicious, spiced hot cocoa powder available during the winter.
The challenges of keeping everything in stock are daunting. Much of it is tied to the growing seasons, and which is why some of the products sold by OSPC are seasonal. From the graphics on the labels to jars and even the boxes, everything is sourced locally. Even the business relationships have a local angle. For example, the sausage seasonings used by Pat’s Pastured come from OSPC. The onions (and other veggies) come from Luckyfoot Ranch in Saunderstown.
“We want to continue building relationships with restaurants, stores and farmers in the area,” Conner says. The goal for 2023 and beyond is to grow the business both locally and online. “The addition of a filling machine and one more full-time employee would make life even better,” he says. Hard work and dedication by both Conner and Evans built OSPC—its continued quality and creative flavors will surely propel it well into the future both in Rhode Island’s kitchens and beyond.
Find Ocean State Pepper Company products in specialty stores and markets across Rhode Island and online at RhodyPepper.com.
