As promised, here are a few pictures from our opening day on April 24, 2010:

Thanks a lot to everyone who came out for our opening day yesterday, April 24th, 2010!

The weather was fantastic and despite a few operational glitches we received a lot of really nice compliments on our wood fired pizzas (we will be posting pictures shortly).

Many vistors asked us how long it takes to fire a pizza. Based on her calculations, Mary Jane said (not including prep time) that the oven was running about 2 minutes per pizza yesterday. And with slightly hotter temperatures, about 30 seconds less than that.

A couple other observations from opening day:

Lots of people realized how much they love Lively Run’s herbed chevre (we used their Herbs de Provence). Yes, not all goat cheese is created equal.

Also, The Piggery’s pepperoni (aptly named Piggeroni) got absolutely rave reviews. (We’re thrilled at how well it looks and tastes when fired in the oven.)

Launching a business is so much fun… Today the oven was delivered and in an instant the months of planning materialized.

Mary Jane is really excited and I know how much she looks forward to sharing this journey via blog posts and good food.

Here are a few pictures after Cheryl and Amy’s arrival:

The Oven Arrives

Battening Down The Hatches

Inside The Goodness

Putting The Oven To Bed

So, this is my first official blog entry for The Copper Oven…strange and exciting. Sometime last year an idea started to ruminate in our minds. It happened innocently enough, when we created a list with the components of our ideal home and lifestyle. From there, the idea morphed and changed a little more, and before we knew it, The Copper Oven was born. We haven’t even opened our doors, but the show of support from my dear husband Seth, our friends and family – and also our loyal winery customers, has made the experience quite a meaningful one.

While batting around some ideas about what we wanted this enterprise to stand for, the themes of community, sustainability and food culture emerged very clearly. Upon examining our daily lives, we evaluated the importance of the community in which we live – as proud residents of the Finger Lakes, members of the Cayuga Wine Trail and as a family who lives in a rural setting with strong roots in agriculture. The desire to give back to the community in some meaningful way, grow our own produce, create relationships with local artisans and farmers and make decisions that uphold our beautiful environment emerged as necessities. With core values in place, we were then able to start building an entity with aspirations of how The Copper Oven lives and breathes.

This week will be quite busy, with the arrival of our oven, last minute business setup and catching our stride from an operational perspective. We are very much looking forward to the grand opening, on April 24th and can’t wait to see The Copper Oven in full swing!