We are grateful to local businesses that are surviving through the pandemic,. A friend our ours on Facebook shared this great feel good story about a mysterious cabinet that travels around Westchester with great Sourdough bread.
The company is the Hudson Oven, (thehudsonoven.com). “Each batch is unique. The Hudson Oven is here to offer you the sourdough bread that your hometown was meant to have. Currently we are trying to develop a steady client base that is willing to pick up their fresh sourdough once a week. The pickup location is always changing, so Subscribe to stay up to date on when and where to pick up your bread! The flour we use is grown and milled organically by Farmer Ground Flour near Ithaca New York,” writes the company on their website.
Recently, the cabinet has been found in Hastings, Peekskill and Ossining in Westchester. For some, finding out where the cabinet is this week makes it a scavenger hunt of sorts. “Awesome bread hunting experience for the whole family! One never knows where The Hudson Oven will take you to explore and seek out the “bread shed”. It’s like geo-cashing for amazing fresh baked sourdough bread!!” wrote one family in a Facebook review.
Here’s how it works. The Hudson Oven is looking for weekly subscribers who want to know where the Sourdough express will be next. Every Sunday an email comes out from Hudson Over owner Chase Harnett of Ossining around 10am. Sign up is free.
“No loaves are spoken for. It’s first come first serve. Currently we have Just one roaming cabinet. I am prepping to launch a subscription model with multiple cabinets in towns all over the Hudson valley. But there will always be one roaming unit,” Harnett told us.
And the payment system is based on the honor code, with the sign reading “Leave what you think its worth to support the next bake,” and a box to drop in on average $6, although Chase said he would like to see $8-$10 per but doesn’t set a price. Most pay cash but Venmo is also accepted. “Dough for Dough,” as he likes to call it.
One problem, The Hudson Oven Sunday fun-great bread event has gotten so popular, (more than 2,000 email subscribers and 3,000 instagram followers) that once the email goes out from Harnett on Sunday morning, you usually have about three hours max. to get to the location before all of the 80 loaves are gone.
“Made my Sunday when we came across this gem at Peekskill waterfront. Please think of something fun for Xmas we all need a little Hudson oven in our lives right this very minute Love the bread!” said another reviewer.
Locations are along the Hudson River from Hastings to Beacon.
Harnett got the idea talking about “big ideas” with his dad growing up in Rockland County. He enjoys providing an experience both in the quality of the bread and the enjoyment of finding it. While he claims that all ideas come from somewhere else, this combined experience, the email, the cabinet, the hunt, is unique and add to it the fact that all of us are trapped at home during COVID, and you have something special.
There is also a Wood Fired Pizza dynamic to Harnett and Hudson Oven. Pre-Pandemic, Chase used to drive up and down the Hudson River Valley to festivals, breweries and other events in his truck and oven.
Now he is available for private parites and any other happening. “Our standard Pizza party offering is designed to offer the most value at the most efficient price while maintaining crowd pleasing standards. 40 Margherita pizzas will be made over the course of three hours. Setup requires 1.5 hours and pack up takes 30 mins for a total of 5 hours on site,” writes Barnett.
We leave you in the hopes that you have become interested, as I have, in this journey for a great loaf of bread. In New York City, pre-pandemic we lovers of great food, be it a dumpling, or crepes or bread, would criss cross the city searching for that great treat.
That journey is now here in Westchester and along the Hudson. I await my first email from Chase, which will end with “Have a Sour Sunday.”
