diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 1629f55..a410e22 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Upgrade Notes:
 * SchnitzelPress has been rebranded to Schnitzelpress (lower-case p). You'll probably need to adjust your blog app's code for this. (Better now than later, I guess!)
 * Schnitzelpress now adds Rack::Cache in production by itself; you no longer need to do it in your blog app's config.ru file. It is recommended that you remove the Rack::Cache invocation from your app.
 * Configuration is now stored in the database and can be edited from the new "Configuration" page in your Admin Panel; this obviously means that some of the stuff happening within your blog application can (and, in some cases, should) be removed. Please consult the Schnitzelpress 0.2.0 Upgrade Guide for details.
+* Schnitzelpress now expects an environment variable to be present named SCHNITZELPRESS_OWNER, containing the email address of the admin user.
 
 Changes:
 
diff --git a/lib/schnitzelpress/actions/auth.rb b/lib/schnitzelpress/actions/auth.rb
index a982858..1f53ba0 100644
--- a/lib/schnitzelpress/actions/auth.rb
+++ b/lib/schnitzelpress/actions/auth.rb
@@ -18,11 +18,6 @@ module Auth
           auth = request.env['omniauth.auth']
           session[:auth] = {:provider => auth['provider'], :uid => auth['uid']}
 
-          # if no configuration is present yet, make this user the blog's admin
-          if config.author_email.blank?
-            config.update_attributes!(:author_email => auth['uid'])
-          end
-
           if admin_logged_in?
             response.set_cookie('show_admin', :value => true, :path => '/')
             redirect '/admin/'
diff --git a/lib/schnitzelpress/config.rb b/lib/schnitzelpress/config.rb
index 093872c..c5d98fb 100644
--- a/lib/schnitzelpress/config.rb
+++ b/lib/schnitzelpress/config.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ class Config
     field :blog_feed_url, :type => String, :default => "/blog.atom"
 
     field :author_name, :type => String, :default => "Joe Schnitzel"
-    field :author_email, :type => String, :default => ""
 
     field :disqus_id, :type => String
     field :google_analytics_id, :type => String
@@ -21,7 +20,6 @@ class Config
     field :cache_timestamp, :type => DateTime
 
     validates :blog_title, :author_name, :presence => true
-    validates :author_email, :presence => true, :on => :update
 
     class << self
       def instance
diff --git a/lib/schnitzelpress/helpers.rb b/lib/schnitzelpress/helpers.rb
index 634ded2..684d67a 100644
--- a/lib/schnitzelpress/helpers.rb
+++ b/lib/schnitzelpress/helpers.rb
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ def user_logged_in?
     end
 
     def admin_logged_in?
-      user_logged_in? && (session[:auth][:uid] == config.author_email)
+      user_logged_in? && (session[:auth][:uid] == ENV['SCHNITZELPRESS_OWNER'])
     end
 
     def admin_only!
diff --git a/lib/views/admin/config.haml b/lib/views/admin/config.haml
index 352b482..da26169 100644
--- a/lib/views/admin/config.haml
+++ b/lib/views/admin/config.haml
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@
 
     %h2 Author
     = form_field config, :author_name
-    = form_field config, :author_email, :hint => "This is used for authentication - make sure you don't lock yourself out!"
 
     %h2 External Services
     = form_field config, :blog_feed_url, :label => "ATOM Feed URL", :hint => "This is what the /feed URL will redirect to. You can change this to eg. your FeedBurner URL."