BBQ Sauce Being Manufactured in North Kortright

NORTH KORTRIGHT – Russ Betz has done a little bit of everything over his eight-plus decades, but his newest venture is something he has had on his to-do list for awhile. He is now producing Rusty Hill Farm  BBQ Sauce, Spicy.

If his name sounds familiar, you might know him as the blueberry guy from Blue Sky Farm, where he had a successful pick your own blueberries and blueberry winery. He was a regular at local farmers markets and vendor events.

At the end of World War II his dad moved the family to the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri where he owned a printing company. One of his father's workers gave his dad the recipe for a barbecue sauce. "There are only 11 or 12 ingredients," said Betz. "It's easy to make."

When Betz got older, his dad gave him the recipe. 

"When I sold the winery, I said I was to make the barbecue sauce commercially. It goes great on pork spare ribs and chicken."

He used to make three or four gallons at a time on his home stove and hand it out to friends. Anyone Betz has ever given the sauce to has said they love it. "They ask me if they can have the recipe," he said. But his lips have remained sealed. Only he has the recipe.

The sauce is now selling in 4 or 5 mom and pop locations. It costs $16.50 for a 24 ounce jar. 

His little barbecue factory is located inside the late Gene Muthig's garage in North Kortright. Muthig used to sell milk products and used the garage to store his products.

"When I sold the blueberry farm two years ago, I started looking for a place where I could manufacture my sauce. Muthig's storage barn and house were ideal for what I needed."

So he worked with state Agriculture and Markets to build his sauce factory. He cooks his sauce in turkey fryers and has designed his own  agitators to keep the pots stirred as he slow-cooks his sauce. The whole process, he said, takes a little over an hour. Then he has a five-person assembly line come in to bottle and label the sauce. It's a simple process, but he said, "it all works".

It isn't his first endeavor. Back in the early 70's he purchased the Bun-n-Cone in Margaretville. It was already a successful operation, but he knew nothing about owning a business or running an ice cream shop and eatery. Charlie Schoonmaker showed him how to run all of the equipment. Betz only had it open during the warmer months and one winter, someone made him an offer he couldn't refuse and he sold it around 1980. 

He still needed to make a living, however, and began commuting to Connecticut where he returned to being a mechanic for a time. He did that for a couple of years, but then decided he needed to get back home and start another business. This time he opened a sporting goods store in Arkville. He sold that business twice.

He ended up with the blueberry farm because he was looking for a house. He liked the farm house on Charcoal Road. It was part of an old farm and he used to let a neighboring farmer hay it each year.

Then, while visiting his son near Rome, he made a chance encounter with a little old lady who had a blueberry farm. He turned his Charcoal Road hay fields into blueberry patches and went by the "Blueberry Bible" published by Cornell University which she loaned him to learn everything he need to know about blueberries. He was so successful, he needed to find a use for all the excess berries, which launched him into the winery business.

He is mostly self-taught and has a knack for knowing how things should go, which helped him set up his BBQ sauce factory.

Some of the things he has done by design and some simply to make a living, but Russ Betz can pretty much do what he sets his mind to do. He has a few decades on him, but he still has the knack to know what people like. He believes they are going to love this sauce.

He gave me a sample and I tried it. I did like it, even though it is a little spicy. I usually don't like spicy. It is different than most  barbecue sauces. You'll just have to try it for yourself.

The sauce is currently being sold at the Stamford Farmers Coop in Stamford and some other locations.

Betz's factory is located at 22258 State Hwy. 23, Davenport.