By Lorrie Baumann

Ruth’s Mustard was named an American Small Business Champion in May by SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors. Laurel Smith, Ruth’s Mustard’s Owner and Founder accepted the award, and a chance to win one of three grand prizes, at an April event in Reno, Nevada, along with her husband, Ed, and entrepreneurs from 101 other small businesses across the country who gathered for a two-day networking and training event that featured presentations by SCORE volunteers who offered information and experience to help attendees grow their businesses.

Founded in 2012, Ruth’s Mustard is a New Hampshire company that’s one of the businesses operating out of Genuine Local, a shared-use commercial kitchen located in Meredith, New Hampshire and owned by Mary and Gavin Macdonald. Like the Macdonalds and some of the other small food producers there, she lost the use of her previous facility when it suddenly closed with little notice.

“When that went out, we were out,” Laurel says. With a four- to five-hour trip to the next-closest available commercial kitchen, that might have been the end of the business, but Ruth’s Mustard was rescued by the Macdonalds’ decision to build the new shared-use facility and open it as Genuine Local. “They bought all the equipment and kept it going and kept us going,” Laurel says. Genuine Local is still a two-hour drive from her home, so she still spends a lot of time on the road on mustard-making days, but that’s just part of the price tag for keeping the business going. “When we make it, it’s a haul, but we want to keep doing it,” says Laurel.

The “Ruth” in the mustard’s name is Laurel’s Grammy Scranton, who used to make her special mustard for family celebrations. “I thought everyone ate this as a kid. I didn’t know it was a unique flavor,” Laurel says. “They’d eat it with ham. It was usually what she put on the ham – just drizzled on. Now people use it for everything.”

Laurel herself started making the mustard without a thought that she’d ever sell it. Instead, she gave jars to friends. And then friends asked for more. They said they’d buy it. Suddenly, she had orders for 61 jars, and she had to step up her production from the eight jars a night she’d been making when she was handing them out as gifts. “We were now up to 24 jars a night to get this order done,” Laurel says.
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The idea was that if they took Grammy Scranton’s mustard into real commercial production, they could use it as a vehicle to help others, as Grammy Scranton herself would have liked. “You always felt welcome, and she always made sure people had enough, and she was always concerned about other people,” Laurel remembers. “When we started this, we didn’t feel like it was ours, so we used her name and put her picture on the label. And we said we’ll make sure we share.”

Today, Laurel and Ed are making nine flavors of mustard in batches of 250 jars. The two of them can make two batches a day, and the mustards are sold in shops across New Hampshire and online nationally – Laurel’s son Cory handles some of the sales. Ten percent of the profits are donated to charities, which have included local charities that serve the homeless, the Make a Wish Foundation and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. “We’ll give 10 percent to feed the need of others, whatever their need may be,” Laurel says. “We feel if you have it and you share it, it comes back. She had the attitude of, ‘Give your best, and God gives you the rest.’”

Ruth’s Mustards’ nine flavors include Original Hot & Sweet, Sweet Grillin’ Glaze, Cranberry, Raspberry, Garlic, Horseradish, Jalapeno, Cracked Black Pepper and Maple Mustard Marinade. In addition to single 7 fluid ounce jars, Ruth’s Mustard also offers three-jar gift sets packed in miniature crates made by Laurel’s son Dwight from recycled wooden pallets and gallons for foodservice use, and she also takes private-label orders. All of the mustards are gluten free, and the Maple Mustard Marinade is paleo. “All of them have vinegar, mustard and sugar – except for the maple. The maple is made with natural organic maple extract in addition to local maple from our area. There’s no coloring or salt – most of them are three or four ingredients,” Laurel says.

Boosted by the experience of the SCORE workshop, Laurel and Ed are looking forward to making good use of the opportunity it provided – whether or not she wins the grand prize that she’d like to have to expand her marketing efforts. “I do want to thank SCORE and Sam’s Club for hosting that small business award,” she says. “Sam’s Club was one of the sponsors.”

For more information, visit www.ruthsmustard.com and look for Ruth’s Mustard on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.