Market your own BBQ sauce
Contributed by S.C. Barbecue Association

The state's first workshop to help South Carolinians get their own barbeque sauce on the market is to be held Saturday, August 26, in Columbia by the S.C. Barbeque Association (SCBA).

SCBA will conduct the workshop to help people who have a recipe for a barbeque sauce they think might be good enough to market. Instructors who are members of the SCBA and who have already marketed their own sauce will show attendees how they did it and tell them what they need to do in order to follow in their foot steps.

Tom Raines who makes Uncle Pete's Original BBQ Sauce and Russ Cornette who sells Smoking Cole's BBQ Sauce will share their secrets in how to successfully bring a sauce to market.

The workshop will be held at the Dan Ramage Conference Center located at the State Farmers Market, 1001 Bluff Road, across from Williams Brice Stadium.

There will also be an instructor from the S.C. Department of Agriculture who will have handouts on the rules and regulations one has to follow to successfully bring a specialty food to market. Greg Jones of Red Arrow International which markets a line of natural smoke flavoring products will also instruct.

Lake High, president of the SCBA, and David Kellin, an SCBA barbeque judge, decided that it was time for their organization to help South Carolinians who want to get their secret BBQ sauce on the market.

"Nobody knows more about barbeque sauces than South Carolinians," High said. "South Carolina is the only state in the nation that regularly serves all four kinds of barbeque that one finds. When we discovered that nearly a dozen of our members already market sauces we figured that it was time for us to help others get started. We think our state can become the barbeque capital of the nation given our diversity. Our people just need a little help and we plan to give it to them," he said.

Anyone interested in attending the SCBA barbeque sauce workshop can contact High through the SCBA website, www.scbarbeque.com, or email him at Lhighl@sc.rr.com.

www.scbarbeque.com