Local Food Cannery & Shared-Use Commercial Kitchen
Oct 17th, 2008 | By Mayda | Category: Local Food ProcessingIdea stage:
A non-profit shared commercial kitchen and food processing facility specializing in creating value-added and preserved foods from local farm products. The focus will be on producing foods to be sold in the state of Ohio. A commercial meat canning license would be maintained. Cheese making capability can be considered if sufficient demand exists.
The kitchen would:
- Create jobs and foster new small business centered around local food by providing support and access to a commercially licensed kitchen. The organization would provide some business incubation type services such as planning and marketing to local entrepreneurs. These small businesses would use locally produced food in products or to provide catering services. The facility will offer commercial kitchen rental to these small businesses that would otherwise find it prohibitively expensive to operate.
- Help local farmers by preserving the bounty during peak season into value-added products such as soups, canned meats, dried herbs and canned and dried vegetables. The organization and or it’s entrepreneurs would provide co-packing services or farmer’s could sign up for time to do it themselves.
- Enhance the food security of the area by focusing on food preservation of the local harvest, in one of the less energy intensive storage methods, primarily canning and/or drying. In an energy scarce future a local facility for food preservation would be an asset to the community.
- Be located so as to be available to both rural and urban community members. (if possible)
- Promote better nutrition by developing nutrient-rich traditional foods and providing education on how to get the most out of fresh, naturally grown foods.
From my research on other Shared Use/Community Kitchens available in Ohio there is currently no facility that does low-acid food canning. This is due to the regulatory burden imposed by the FDA on commercial low-acid canning. In the short term it may be worth exploring other alternative processing such as freezing and drying. However as a long term goal, I believe a cannery that can process low-acid and meat is an important component of a viable local food system. For more on this topic please see our Project Page: Local Cannery.
Update 10-20-08: A company in GA supplies small scale canning equipment:
* Can sealer, hand cranked: $3,100
* Retort pressure canner: $18,600 (does 81 cans at a time)
These a basic equipment for a cannery. There will also be a need for stainless steel tables, carts, sinks and such which can be procured used in most cases. Then there is the 40-50 gal. Steam kettle. To keep startup cost down the operation can be mostly manual then upgrade for more automation. We would want to also be able to handle jars and bottles also. More research is needed on that process.
The drying equipment is yet to be sourced. If anyone knows of any such suppliers, please comment.
The building for the facility could be a former restaurant that could be converted. This would have some of the basic equipment, water heater, dishwashers, sinks, etc. already in place.
I would like to see what sort of equipment is in use at the shared-use kitchens at ACEnet in Athens, OH. ACE could be a good resource for education on this sort of processing. Although they are too far to serve the local area here effectively.
Is it possible to start up at very low-cost by renting an existing commercial kitchen and using pressure canners like the All-American 30 or 41 Qt. Pressure Cooker/Canner ? The 41 qt can process 19 quart jars at a time.
Would that be acceptable to get the state dept. of Ag cannery lic. ?
Hello all. This lack of processing in central ohio for local farmers seems like the issue to dig into a bit more. Do you think a committee should be formed to look into it more. There’s talk from many groups, like OEFFA, OSU and local farmers. But no discernable action. So far the focus is on the Cleveland region to get a Mobile chicken processor. Acenet is great and has helped a lot of farms in the southeast region. But that now is giving an unfair advantage to those farmers to sell in Columbus. We need to support our own. To me local means local. It should be just that. Columbus needs jobs too. How about presentations to city council, Morpse or even private businesses to expand like the produce distributors or even a couple well placed restaurants or catering services? Mid-Ohio foodbank and HealthCare Alliance would even have vested interests. We could also survey local Farm Bureau members and FFA members for their imput.
I agree. Everyone (farmers) and small business people I talk to confirms the need for a facility that processes local food.
The chicken processor is more tricky than the food processing because there is more involved in managing it. A mobile unit could be more workable. A business plan for a mobile unit could be made (probably there is one already online). I would think talking to some of the folks in this business already would be a good start. Maybe some of the “sons” in King and Sons would be interested in a mobile unit to serve parts of Ohio that are far from their facility? Since the facility is on a trailer, they would not have to pay all the infrastructure fees such as utilities, property taxes, water, sewer and such that a sited facility would and it would be parked or leased out in the off season. Or perhaps it could be dual purpose for pork, goat or lamb for winter slaughter during non-chicken season? I don’t know.
Sometimes the farmers want to turn their goods into value added and some may not have time to do it themselves but would pay to have a small biz co-packer do it for them. I think a Facility like ACEnet located in central ohio would spawn small business who do this processing for the farmers. I know of several small startup food businesses that would love to have access to a good commercial kitchen without having to build one themselves
I found an organization recently that provides seed money grants for start up co-ops. http://ocdc.osu.edu/ If you look at the projects they have funded, this one is right up that alley. It would be helpful to site the facility in a rural town that needs development and jobs, but not too far from Columbus so that small business entrepreneurs would still find it convenient. The facility could be a closed down restaurant or some other similar facility so that cost would be lower than building it from scratch.
The first step would be a feasibility study then a business plan and marketing materials, website development. The cooperative dev center offers UP TO $1500 in feasibility study grants. They will provide half the funding needed for the study, 1/4 must be in cash raised funds and 1/4 from in kind donations. These are reimbursement grants after you complete the project. The second phase they offer is up to $5000 in funds for marketing materials, websites and/or accounting systems. From what I have read the way to go is with a non-profit org for this type of facility this can be argued in the feasibility study.
The thing is that I can put in some time to start the business and get it running, but will need someone to manage it on a day to day basis. I would think that a feasibility study would reveal some interested parties that would be passionate about such a kitchen.
Worth talking about some more and developing a plan of action that we are going to follow through with.
-Mayda
I am looking in starting one in lower south west michigan near amish and fruit and vetable produce farmers. What to have a mobile unit. would like help in what to charge and how to set up. Thank you and Take Care Melton Powell
Hi Melton,
For setup assistance you may want to contact Leslie Schaller of AceNet. They do consulting for other kitchens that want to get started and can offer help getting grants for your project. (740) 592-3854 http://www.acenetworks.org/services/peerconsult/
There is a small cannery in California that does some consulting to help setup other small canneries. Embarcadero Home Cannery is
http://ehcan.com/
In our state, the Ohio Cooperative Development Center helps with start-up grants for Co-ops. You probably have a similar organization in Michigan. I did a google search and found:
If you want you can contact the Ohio co-op development center and ask if they know of similar in Michigan. http://ocdc.osu.edu/
Another kitchen is in NW Ohio and may be able to offer advice and assistance is:
http://www.agincubator.org/AIF/NOCK2.html
Bowling Green, OH 43402
Phone: 419-823-3099
Another startup cannery you might want to get in touch with to compare notes is:
http://www.schohariecannery.org/
Please share the progress, challenges and resources with us. Good Luck.
Hello: Thanks for the mention of our website on your blog. A word about Embarcadero Home Canning in California. We were talking with them for several months, only to have them abruptly end the conversation by stating, “No one cans vegetable and fruit; we exist only for the fisheries.” I would like to hear from anyone with a business plan on which we could model ours (without plagiarising, of course!). We’re stuck on not being able to finish the business plan. We do keep getting wonderful press notices, even to the point of being quoted in the New York Times (see ourwebsite). The business plan is one issue for us, and so is uncovering a similarly-scaled canning operation…does anyone know of one? We don’t want to re-invent the wheel. Thanks! Peter Pehrson, Managing Director, Schoharie Co-op Cannery, Schoharie, NY