By SUSAN TOBIAS
Staff Writer
---- — After living in other parts of the country, two local men realized life in northern New York wasn't so bad after all and it was time to make a change.
Craig Bilow and Shawn Glazier knew each other when growing up in Franklin County. They both graduated from Malone's high school, Franklin Academy, Craig in 1986 and Shawn three years later. Both men set out to seek education and careers far away from their roots. Oddly, they both decided to return to the Malone area at about the same time.
"When I got back to Malone, Shawn and I reconnected," said Bilow. "As the fifth generation, he was taking over the family business, Glazier Foods, and I was looking to go into business. Now we are partners in our food line, Sustain Adirondack."
Glazier sees their partnership as a natural.
"I always admired Craig," Glazier said. "We have a great working relationship, and I think we complement each other with our individual strengths."
Bilow earned an undergraduate degree from SUNY Albany and an MBA from the University of Southern California. His career led him into food marketing with Nestle and Borden's. Glazier attended college in Ithaca and receive a degree in business management in 1993. He moved to Denver, Colo., and hooked up with Kraft foods, where he said he learned a lot about sales and marketing on a large scale.
Opportunity knocked for Glazier when his father decided to retire from the family business and his wife was expecting their first child. His choices were Chicago, and the corporate ladder race, or Malone, with roots and family. Malone won out.
"Coming back to Malone was the right choice," Glazier said. "I used to be on the road four or five days at a time. Here I'm home with my family.''
Four years ago, Bilow was living in Ohio. He and a friend, Matthew Kennedy, were in marketing. They were really frustrated when they saw all the local resources going to waste and so many foods coming from outside the area. They came up with a concept that has translated into benefits for the Ohio Valley and the Northern New York food market.
"We call it a food web, an umbrella under which all the local producers of food, processors, distributors come together for their good and the good of the consumers," he explained. "For us, this web includes the nine counties in northern New York state. We don't sell to New York City, and we don't sell to Malaysia."
In the North Country, with a line of potato chips, ice cream and salsa, Sustain foods is drawing on the expertise, freshness and high quality that buying locally can offer. Consumer research has shown that 85 percent of people would love to buy locally, but they either can't find locally produced foods, can't get to the farmers market when it's open or gave up trying. Bilow and Glazier decided to fill that void and give the consumers what they want.
"We look to fill three main goals," Bilow said, "to sustain the economy, that is $1 spent locally stays locally; to offer foods that are better for you, not as many preservatives; and to sustain the overall earth, not using gas to ship across the country. The local farmer is the best sustainer of the land. I'd rather see farms than condos."
Sustain Adirondack potato chips start with fresh potatoes from Childstock Farms on Route 30 south of Malone or Tucker Farms in Gabriels. Giant bins of the earthy smelling tubers are stored in a delicately controlled room with fresh-air exchange fans. They proceed through various stages that include dry scrubbing, wet washing, slicing (25 pounds in 25 seconds), deep frying in canola and sunflower oil, spinning (to eliminate excess oil and to air dry), sorting by hand (to eliminate broken and dark chips), and finally, packaging. A real family affair, Bilow's four children affix the labels by hand and are quick to point out to their dad when he doesn't get the labels straight.
"Out of 25 pounds of potatoes, we yield six pounds of potato chips," Bilow explained. "The rest is water. We designed and built the spinner to make the best product possible. It's important to hit the right speed. You should have seen the trial test we had with chips flying up to the ceiling before we got it right."
The Sustain Ice Cream line begins with milk from Mercer's Dairy in Booneville. Sustain Salsa comes from Adirondack Specialty Foods in Keeseville, whose ingredients are grown locally at Pray's Farms.
"We want the customer to know exactly where that product started, where it comes from, including the name of the farm," Bilow said.
With the Glazier trucks traveling around the state and passing right by the Boonville dairy farm and the Keeseville supplier, expenses and harmful emissions of diesel are kept to a minimum. Wanting to help the environment, the partners plan to recycle their used frying oil into bio-diesel fuel for the delivery trucks.
"I hope to have the conversion on the trucks this summer," Glazier said. "I've made some contacts with a college that researches this technique, and hopefully I will know all the details soon. It used to be a problem getting rid of used frying oil. Soon restaurants will be selling it to be made into fuel."
Distribution is undertaken in the same way with Glazier trucks making mom-and-pop and chain-store deliveries of their meats and Sustain products. The partners are gaining traction but don't want to grow too fast, rather to do it well. They exercise caution, testing their process.
"We are in it up to our eyeballs, now," Bilow said with a laugh. "We are fully committed to working with the local farmers, the local stores and the local consumers to provide the best service possible."
E-mail Susan Tobias at:
writertobias@gmail.com
