Anyone have experience with a community kitchen?

Owl

A really smart lady just pointed out, in another discussion, that a community kitchen might be just the way to justify the expense of a freeze dryer. With so many people working to become more self sufficient it sounds like a brilliant idea and I would love to know experiences with this type of arrangements.

VermontCathy

This could make sense as part of a community garden arrangement, where a number of local gardeners get together to garden a small piece of provided land. They could buy gardening tools and food storage tools (pressure canner, freeze dryer, etc.) jointly.

An even simpler arrangement would be for several local gardeners to jointly buy a pressure canner, freeze, dryer, and so forth, and agree that it will move from one of their kitchens to the next over the course of the canning season. If you live in apple-growing country, a cider press would also be a good addition.

Torey

We have several people in our neighbourhood with cider presses so it is easy enough to borrow one. But it can be a big job so it is nice if several people can get together and do a joint pressing. Then you only have to clean the unit once. I plan to organize a pressing "party" this fall.

I know of one community in my region has set up a communal kitchen at their community hall. It is inspected by the health department and there is a very small fee for using it (mostly to cover costs of power, etc.). There is a couple who makes wild berry jams & jellies for commercial sale who use that kitchen. But they don't have extras for people to use such as dehydrators, canners or the larger pots that are needed for preserving. You need to bring your own.

I do think it would be ideal to have a community kitchen that had all of the equipment needed for preserving and larger scale food production. It would be expensive to set up but there might be grants available for start up.