The one thing in common at any show, be it a car show, ren fest, arts and crafts show or any other of a long list, is FOOD.<\/p>\n
People like to eat. \u00a0Look around at a show and see how many people are noshing on something or another. \u00a0Lots, right?<\/p>\n
I just had a thought, and I hesitate to post it but, it seems ironic that the longest lines at festivals are at the food booths and the port a potties. \u00a0sorry<\/p>\n
Anyway, after more that 30 years in the arts and crafts we decided that we would\u00a0develop\u00a0a food item to be sold at shows, farmers markets and hopefully, distributed in stores.<\/p>\n
Once we\u00a0decided\u00a0on a product and refined recipes we needed to research the regulations set forth by the state in regard to producing and selling food.<\/p>\n
We have a little\u00a0experience\u00a0in this department as our home kitchen has a New York State baking exemption. \u00a0After filling out some papers an inspector came in and took a look around, made sure we understood safe practices and issued us the permit. \u00a0This permit, however only allows us to produce a\u00a0specific\u00a0list of food items. \u00a0For example we are permitted to bake a cherry pie with a top crust but we may not make a custard pie. \u00a0Likewise we can bake bread but not\u00a0banana\u00a0bread.<\/p>\n
The item we chose is a fresh food item and requires an inspected kitchen with a 3 bowl sink and it can not be the kitchen used for the\u00a0household. \u00a0That left us with the option of converting a room in the house to a kitchen or setting a\u00a0kitchen\u00a0up elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Setting up at home would be straight forward. \u00a0Buy a sink and refrigerator and a small stove. \u00a0Section off a room and make it easy to clean. \u00a0For example, no carpet, white walls and\u00a0ceiling\u00a0that can be cleaned, hand sink and access to a bathroom. \u00a0This is\u00a0defiantly\u00a0an option but our house is small and we would be sacrificing a room. \u00a0A renter\u00a0probably\u00a0would not have this option at all. \u00a0The only way we could make a good decision is to\u00a0examine\u00a0all the\u00a0alternatives\u00a0and weigh the pros and cons.<\/p>\n
Renting a store front and\u00a0building\u00a0a kitchen is expensive for a small start up. \u00a0If we had tens of thousands of dollars behind us and a proven product this might work we are not in that position. \u00a0 Just to get a key the land lords want firsts, lasts and in many cases a\u00a0security\u00a0deposit.<\/p>\n
An other option would be to rent space in an existing restaurant. \u00a0We have a small deli in town where they agreed to rent us space for a set per hour rate. \u00a0It seemed fair but recent events, the death of one of the owners and the fact that the business is up for sale put this option down on the list.<\/p>\n
This was not going to be easy. \u00a0One of the stipulation set forth by New York State is you may not use the kitchen while the owner is using it. \u00a0For example if you find a restaurant who serves meals, the state will not allow anyone to produce food while the owner is serving.<\/p>\n
We found a site through searching, MiKitchenEsSuKitchen<\/a> \u00a0and Kathrine Gregory was kind enough to send us a few links to helpful sites that list shared kitchens. Unfortunately\u00a0the closest location to us is about 60 miles away but our time on the sites was well spent as there are other resources listed. \u00a0The more info the better!<\/p>\n Then the other day I was helping a neighbor mow his lawn. \u00a0He is a medic in the 10th\u00a0Mountain\u00a0Division here at Fort Drum \u00a0and since he is gone for extended periods the neighbors pitch in with things like mowing the lawn and watching the place. \u00a0As it would happen he is going to\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0for a year starting in a month and he offered us the use of his kitchen while he is gone.<\/p>\n Since no one will be living there is is not a family kitchen. \u00a0There is a frige and a bathroom, work table and the only addition would be an extra bowl for the sink, but that could be on a temporary stand as long as it was plumbed in. We are hopeful that this may work as a year would be a good time to test the product and get things going. \u00a0Moving from site to site would be expensive as this permit costs $400.00 for 2 years, paid in advance and if you move the permit process starts all over and another $400.00 to the state. \u00a0Not a\u00a0fortune, true, but $400.00 goes a long way in buying\u00a0supply’s\u00a0and other\u00a0expenses and I don’t know if I agree with the way the state spends money, but that is another topic for sure.<\/p>\n So we wait for the inspectors reply,\u00a0meanwhile, we are wondering if it would make\u00a0sense\u00a0to set up an incubator in this area.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The one thing in common at any show, be it a car show, ren fest, arts and crafts show or any other of a long list, is FOOD. People like to eat. \u00a0Look around at a show and see how many people are noshing on something or another. \u00a0Lots, right? I just had a thought, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-crafts-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThese sites are:
\nhttp:\/\/www.culinaryincubator.com\/maps.ph<\/a>p\/
\nhttp:\/\/www.commercialkitchenforrent.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nOur ag and markets inspector seemed intrigued by the idea but said he would need to make a few calls to get details.<\/p>\n