It started with a prized family recipe, the blessing of its maker, and a two-man operation that keeps the taste deliciously down-home. Fast forward a few years to the present day, and the scale is still small even as the menu has expanded: At Fortenberry Farms and Signature BBQ Sauces, it’s all about giving every batch of fruit-infused flavor the bespoke personal touch — in two-gallon handmade batches at a time.

“It’s hard to build a relationship from something you buy off a shelf,” says Jacob Fortenberry, who together with his father, Brian, have been honoring his grandmother, Edith’s, memory by crafting carefully curated sauces from her cherished (and tightly-guarded) original recipe.

“She was very straightforward; a very salt-of-the-Earth kind of woman,” says Brian of his late mother, a longtime Morgan County schoolteacher who gifted her homemade sauce only to close friends — long before ensuing generations made it into a regionally-known phenomenon.

Getting Edith’s approval was a crucial first step in widening her recipe’s reach, says Jacob: “We had to have her permission before we ever started,” he explains, “and we weren’t going to do it without it.”

“She made her sauce only for select family and friends in the beginning,” adds Brian. “It really all got started more than 35 years ago, when she would experiment with fruit and the way it could enhance and complement barbecue in a way that [conventional] barbecue sauce doesn’t.

“Our ‘Peach Sweet Heat’ came from that original sauce, and then she started branching out into strawberry. She passed away before COVID hit, but we had her permission, and now we’re up to seven flavors. This year, we’ll even be coming out with a moonshine barbecue sauce. It’s not just for meat eaters, either: I’d say 10 to 12 percent of our customers are vegan and vegetarian.”

This is also the year when Fortenberry Farms will build its first purpose-made facility for crafting its expanding sauce lineup, and Cullman County is the place the cautiously-growing company is proud to call home.

“We still do it the same way we have from the beginning,” says Brian: “in small, two-gallon batches at a time. “We use no preservatives and all natural ingredients, and we tell people — you’ve gotta put it in the refrigerator once you open it! It’s meant to be eaten and enjoyed in the same natural way that we make it, and it’s something people appreciate: Ninety-five percent of our product pictures that you see on Facebook weren’t put there by us — they were taken by our customers.”

One taste of the tangy original Peach Sweet Heat sauce will evaporate the bewilderment of most skeptics who might question the aptness of fruit-based sauces for pairing with grilled meats. The Fortenberrys are used to watching hesitant first-time tasters experience that inevitable “aha!” moment of conversion, and they’ve become total pros themselves at recommending the ideal sauce for just about every flame-grilled occasion.

“We strongly stress that, when you do hamburgers and hot dogs, you use the ‘Strawberry,’” says Brian. “It’s also good with game, from deer and elk to wild boar. The ‘Peach’ is great with pork, and I actually like to use our ‘Orange Treat’ not only with shrimp, but also as a ham glaze.”

That’s the kind of carefully-considered advice the Fortenberrys have perfected after pouring countless hours into their craft. No Fortenberry Farms recipe is as simple as tossing fruit into a standard barbecue sauce base, and each of the duo’s flavors — from Blackberry Pineapple to Blueberry Sweet Heat to Smooth Bourbon — reflects a delectable due creative diligence that’s uniquely informed by family pride.

“We’re firm believers that, if you take care of family, our family will take care of you,” says Brian. “That’s a big reason why we wanted to build our kitchen in Cullman. We’ve been careful about the way we grow. We’ve sold our sauces at farmers markets; we’ve been at the Strawberry Festival in Moulton for the past four years, and we’ve even done the Alabama Jubilee in Decatur.”

“We believe in every batch,” adds Jacob. “We honestly don’t even try to describe it to people. We just tell them: ‘Try before you buy.’ It’s better to just taste it and discover how it ‘works’ for yourself.”

Check out Fortenberry Farms and Signature BBQ Sauces online at both Facebook and Instagram — and be sure to stop by their vendors’ booth at this year’s Blues & BBQ Festival Sept. 9 and Sept. 10 on the campus of St. Bernard Abbey, to catch some firsthand insight into what the fruit-infused fuss is all about.