The Blue Stove officially opened its doors on Graham Avenue in Brooklyn on February 13, 2009. After months of renovations with the help of family and friends, we began churning out pies in tiny batches from our tiny kitchen. We soon expanded our menu to offer daily baked goods like muffins, scones, coffee cake and eventually adding savory options like quiche and pot pies. The Blue Stove has always been a work in progress, expanding the kitchen as we go to meet our demand. I started The Blue Stove as a project to honor my mother and all that she taught me and gave me. I wanted to share the tastes and smells of the delicious home baked goodies from my childhood, of which I had been a happy, albeit chubby recipient. My mom's pies were the real treat. I named the pie shop after the blue enamel wood stove that was given to my mom from her grandmother. Her grandparents, my great-grandparents were farmers in upstate New York and the stove had been in their home since 1926. My great-grandmother taught my mother how to make pies, how to make super flakey crust and delicious fillings. The Blue Stove seemed to me a perfect symbol of my family lineage and pie-making tradition. At the shop, we follow the same techniques and many of the same recipes that I grew up with. To maintain that wonderful and unmistakeable homemade quality, we make all of our baked goods in small batches, with simple, good quality ingredients. Our pie dough is made by hand, which is time consuming, but makes for the most flakey pie crusts. We roll out and decorate every pie by handÉeven the little guys! We use fresh, seasonal ingredients and try to use the most local resources as possible. We have a great time making, serving, and certainly eating lots of pie here! I hope you enjoy, Rachel McBride Beyers