Meet Sage Burnham | Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sage Burnham and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sage, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We decided to start Heirloom Foods because we wanted to have some autonomy and independence in our work. We have always loved food and being able to create and share that with people is something that is really exciting. After spending our whole respective careers in food service, it was a very natural transition into being able to work for ourselves and build a long term career. We’ve played around with pickling, jams and other canned foods for years and found we really loved the creativity in making our own recipes and paying homage to traditional food storage methods. Sharing food is a love language and having people love what we make is an incredible feeling so we decided to try and see how far we could take it. So far it has been a whirlwind of learning what it means to be a small business owner and new experiences, but we’ve loved it every step of the way!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As producers of pickles and jams, we strive to make unique flavor combinations that set us apart from the rest of the industry like our strawberry basil jam, citrus curd, and lemon dill pickles. We started as food service professionals who wanted to experiment with pickling and canning, and that grew into starting our own business because of the reception our products got from friends and family! Starting any business, especially in Northern Colorado and especially in food, can be challenging; from licensing, finding a production space, branding and marketing, and working our day jobs we really had no time to relax, but seeing all of our hard work pay off is the most rewarding feeling. We still struggle with a work life balance, but knowing our time is going into something we’re building together for ourselves and our future makes it worthwhile and we’ve been very fortunate that our business has been able to grow at a sustainable and controllable rate so we know we aren’t taking on more than we can handle.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Fort Collins has so many great local spots that showcase what makes this city so special. For food we would definitely go to Music City Hot Chicken, Jaws, The Colorado Room, and of course Silver Grill for breakfast. For entertainment, seeing a movie at The Lyric is the best, they are a unique local business that celebrates other small businesses and supports art and culture in our community. Live music at Avogadro’s Number on the patio is a great way to spend a Summer night or in the colder weather catching a show at The Comedy Fort downtown. To get out and be active, Horsetooth Reservoir is a fun place to swim, boat and hike or walking down the Poudre River brings a sense of nature into the city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our success has been helped tremendously by our community. The support from our friends and family gave us confidence and allowed us to get off the ground and into the scene, and then having the opportunity to be in local farmers and makers markets have helped us meet more people and showcase our products to a wider audience. Fort Collins is a place that appreciates and values small local businesses and that culture has allowed us to grow and find success. Without that support from event hosts and local shoppers, there wouldn’t be a point to anything we do!

Website: https://heirloom-foods.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/heirloomfoodsfoco

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559417127070