Kitchen incubator

Food incubators are most commonly developed in USA. It’s a way to facilitate the upstart of small and medium

sized enterprises (SME’s) within the food production industry, usually in regards to specialty products.

It has been defined as follows:

A shared-use commercial kitchen is a type of business incubator where farmers, and producers of specialty/ gourmet food items can prepare their food products in a fully licensed and certified kitchen. The kitchens, often sponsored by an umbrella nonprofit organization or existing business incubator, provide startup businesses the opportunity to explore food production without the high cost of buying their own equipment or constructing their own

building. Kitchen incubators usually offer technical assistance in food production as well as general business management skills, networking opportunities among entrepreneurs, and the opportunity to form shared services cooperatives for marketing, distribution, and supply purchasing.

It’s often been proven that SME’s statistically accounts for the highest number of employment throughout the world. By supplying the initial production facilities for a prospective entrepreneur to launch a new product, history has proven that it often works to test the market, establish outlets and the public demand. In case the product has success the producer will have the necessary experience and proven track record to be able to invest in a private production facility.

The above was written in year 2003, and now 6 years after we finally got it: A place to process our produce from the 17 hectares into anything from bread to jam to hemp-chili spread!

We still need a week more work to finalize it, after which here'll be a photo presentation, but here's a few photos to give you an idea.

The room used to house cows and had been empty for 30 years...well, sort of empty! Here's an international team from a youth camp, moving the very heavy concrete feeding trough, which now functions as a large planter box in our winter garden

During winter of 2007 a couple of local bricklayers moves in for a couple of months, and with very conventional materials managed to make the old place conform to the very strict hygiene codes...

Here's Lubos, the local bricklayer, who now prefers to build with earth plaster. mortar and bricks, after he tried working with it here..

Handwash station and dishwashing area...In the back a hole to easily supply dirty dishes to the galley slaves!

The large gas cook stove and pots suffering from wrong valves for the portable gas bottles. The table in back is for packaging, and the barrels contain bulk food. Table near stove can be removed and exchanged with various machinery, depending on what's being cooked or baked that day.

The hall way from shop to kitchen features a wood fired fruit dryer. In addition the process heats a sauna in the back (ensuring our sweat smells like sweet apples!). A combined raw food cleaning station and storage unit is now being made at the end of the hallway

And Lastly photo of the 5m2 organic shop about to open...More shelves and products to come with the spring tourist season. Apart from our products, the shop features hemp and organic cotton clothes, some books, fair trade products and a selection of other organic food and wine. The red earthen plaster was donated by the kind Austrian firm 'Natur und Lehm'