HARDWICK — The Old Furnace General Store is a brand new convenient store on 1839 Lower Road that offers fresh brewed coffee and fresh made grinders, sandwiches and salads.

As well, the store carries locally sourced products such as honey from Aunt Chrissy, maple syrup from Richard Brodmerkle, cookies from June’s Bakeshop, ice cream from Maple Valley, popcorn from Kettle and Pine ground beef/steaks from K&S Cattle, wine from Hardwick Vineyard & Winery and pastries & bread from Brynne’s Bread.

“It’s been wonderful so far,” said owner Amber Duval. “We’ve gotten a lot of support from the community and surrounding towns. We have a lot of people stopping in that are driving by from other areas. It’s been fantastic.”

She continued, “This was something my fiancé Jeremy Nowicki and I have been talking about for the last three years. This building has been sitting for awhile. It started as a little farmer’s market years ago when the prior owner had originally built the building and we wanted to provide something for the community back at this location. We have a little bit of everything for everybody.”

Duval told Reminder Publishing that having locally sourced products is a key component in their business plan. Her and Nowicki wanted to be sure to provide to the community what they want, and that is local products. The area in which the couple lives is surrounded by the best local support by the community whether it be by neighbors, farmers and/or other local business owners. Duval added, “Personally, I feel that utilizing as well as consuming local products makes us healthier as a community. I cannot emphasize enough how important it was for us to provide something to our community, it feels so rewarding.”

Duval’s goal for the store is to keep growing and be able to expand their options. In the next couple of months, the store will be opening its ice cream window for the spring/summer season and will try to serve hot dogs out of the ice cream window as well. “We do have future plans,” Duval responded. “We’ll see where things will take us and how the business grow will grow over the next year because we’d like to be able to offer more to the community with other alternatives.”

The Old Furnace General Store is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays. Follow them on Facebook. For questions, call 477-1234 or email oldfurnacegs@aol.com.