Hello, World!
It's me, Katt, owner and founder of Rolling Pepperoni. When I started Rolling Pepperoni my mission was to create a sustainable model for sharing Appalachian stories across the region: Bake and sell delicious, all-natural pepperoni rolls to fuel story sharing of the Appalachian culture that created the pepperoni roll.
Since establishing the business in winter of 2015, I've been dying to start writing, ideally about Appalachian adventures fueled by pepperoni rolls. But as it turns out... I just started a business and that's basically a 24 hour a day adventure. Rolling Pepperoni is my adventure - and HOLY SHIT! Starting a business is complicated, exhausting, scary, lonely and full of magical bits of star dust on your way to your dream. When I started Rolling Pepperoni a mentor pushed me to start selling the rolls before I felt ready and he said, "Just get going. As the rolls get better so will sales." So I'm going to do the same with the story telling part of RP's mission.
Like I said, I don't have a lot of extra time so my writing will be a little spitfire. Why not? Let's be ourselves. I live a lot of my life baking alone or holding my breath answering problems I don't know how to solve. Here, is a place for friends (and grammatical errors) y’all.
Snacks & Stories - That’s what this whole adventure has been about. Appalachian Snacks and Stories. Since the beginning... below are the very first icons I made for the website on some random app. But then everyone said...
One of the first test-run batches of RP pepperoni rolls made February '15 in my college apartment while going to Point Park University.
WV hills while driving to Thomas, WV for the opening of Lamplight Art Gallery Summer '15.
“You need more buttons.”
So, yea they're right. It was pretty confusing and sales would have been terrible. As it turns out a "Buy Now" button is really important. Rolling Pepperoni's website actually has 2 on the homepage now. Anyway, I just want to make it clear. My heart is here.
Basic Content To Expect: A lot of everything. Transparency. No apologies.
Stories will build into tales of adventuring through Appalachia to shed light on the beauty of the region (Maine to Georgia) and to highlight issues that unite us.
For now, the stories I have to share are about building this business based in the "Paris of Appalachia" aka Pittsburgh, PA. There are so many amazing characters, places and plots involved—it'd be a shame to keep all these highs and lows to myself. It might be crazy to share such intimacy with the greater consumer population. But damnit, I'm crazy and need an outlet. The course of growing a business has been so frighteningly convoluted. Maybe a little honesty will help create a clearer path for the next Willie Nelson or a Master Gardener. It doesn't matter to me what you do, but with my business on the line, I hope you find inspiration and confidence (and then share it with me). Let us unite in the challenges we face in Appalachia and the community that supports us through them.
Let it commence, friends, and let's go on this adventure together.
