Episode 80 – From Side Hustle to Sausage Company: The Colvard Story
In this episode of the Dennis Knows Food Podcast, you’re listening in on a tour of Colvard Sausage Company as Chef Trevor and members of the Dennis Food Service team learn more about the company, its growth and the story behind the sausage.
What started as a side business along the coast of Maine has grown into something much bigger.
Colvard & Company began in 2016, when Chef Carter Light started making sausage alongside his restaurant, Coda. When the pandemic forced the restaurant to close, Carter shifted gears, converting the restaurant’s liquor storage area into a licensed sausage-making facility and putting his focus on Colvard.
Today, the company operates from its facility in Ellsworth, Maine- and growth continues to be a big part of the story.
Recently, Corporate Chef Trevor Lizotte and members of the Dennis Food Service team stopped by for a visit. Carter opened the doors, walked us through the operation and shared what goes into building both a better sausage and a growing food business.
A Chef’s Approach to Sausage
Carter didn’t come into sausage making from the traditional meat-processing world. He came at it as a chef.
That perspective influences many of the choices Colvard makes, from using pork butts as the foundation of its sausage to natural casings and the way the finished links are handled before packaging.
During the visit, Carter explained that sausages are hung overnight with gentle airflow, allowing the casing to dry and tighten. The result is the kind of snap he wants when the sausage is cooked.
Growing Smarter
Producing more sausage has also meant finding smarter ways to work.
Carter showed the team equipment that has dramatically changed what a small crew can accomplish. Processes that once took. hours of hands-on work can now be completed in minutes, while upgraded packaging equipment has helped the team increase output without simply adding more people.
Those investments have allowed Colvard to grow while continuing to focus on the product and the people making it.
And they’re not finishing yet.
Plans for the next stage include additional production space, a loading dock, more capacity and the ability to expand what they can produce in the future.
It’s a big change from the company’s earliest days, and even the facility Colvard expected to call home for much longer is already being tested by the pace of growth.
As Carter put it. “It’s a good problem to have.”
The Reality of Building a Food Business
One of the best parts of the visit wasn’t a machine or a production statistic. It was hearing the stories behind the growth.
A packaging machine that required cutting a hole in the wall. A borrowed forklift repaid with lunch for the crew. Pallets of labels. Bigger orders. New logistical challenges. And plenty of learning along the way.
Carter’s description of running a growing business was refreshingly simple: sometimes you figure it out as you go…and apparently, a lot of coffee helps too.
That combination of ingenuity, persistence and a chef-driven approach has helped turn Colvard from a side hustle into a growing Maine food company.
Listen In on the Tour
Episode #80 of the Dennis Knows Food Podcast takes you inside our visit with Carter as he talks sausage, equipment, growth, growing pains and what comes next for Colvard & Company.
📺 Watch the video version here: Creating Colvard
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