Virginia Passed the Pickle Bill!!!!! YEEEEEHAAAAAW!!

elcap1999 said:
As well as the insurance. Most of the places I've checked out here require at least $1 million in insurance :)
You'll still need that though. It's irrelevant where you make it - if you make a food product & sell it it's 1-2M in liability ins.

That's more for self-preservation.

If you're in a commercial kitchen you need to add them to your policy as "additional insured" which is usually free (depending on your policy type, but that's pretty standard for a food business)

You'll also have to add any farmer's market you sell at. Same deal.

And I'm guessing that you'll need to be trained to "food manager" certification as part of te cannery iceman process. That's neither cheap not easy.
salsalady said:
 I've never worked with shared use kitchen with regs and deposits like what you guys are describing.  Requiring processors using a shared use facility to be fully licensed is standard and understandable.  $1200 deposit and $1000 a month ??? :eek:  YIKES! 
 
We had a by-the-hour rate, and for a while, there were enough of us food processors using the facility to make it financially viable.  After a couple years, users dwindled away, and the community kitchen closed. 
 
Keep looking for other options/kitchens if the numbers don't pan out.    
The kitchen I was looking at when considering small-batch products was $18/hr with a 24 hour a month commitment. $900 deposit and no monthly fee.

Not sure where those other numbers are comin from. In my experience it was far cheaper. Cheaper still if you're renting a restaurant kitchen in off-hours (the best deals I've seen - $10-12/he, but not as good ergonomicly or equipment-wise)
 
Even with cold prep and packaging, the only kitchen that's within quasi-decent driving distance from me (over 50 miles away) still charges $25 an hour just for the space. There used to be two other kitchens in my area once upon a time, but they both closed down before I moved up here.
 
Yeah, would be nice if they were still here, since they'd be MUCH closer than the one I found
 
Lucky Dog, if you don't mind me asking, does the kitchen you are renting have canning capability? if so where is it located? As of right now I'm in South San Francisco and I know there should be several kitchens with canning capability around this area but for some reason I'm not finding much online. Maybe I'm not researching right. Thank you.
 
☺Raul☻ said:
Lucky Dog, if you don't mind me asking, does the kitchen you are renting have canning capability? if so where is it located? As of right now I'm in South San Francisco and I know there should be several kitchens with canning capability around this area but for some reason I'm not finding much online. Maybe I'm not researching right. Thank you.
 
I am in a copack situation. As I understand it they are not taking on new clients until 2015. 
 
Uptown Kitchen in Oakland is excellent, and has very reasonable rates - I'd flirted with renting space there for a while, but for the scale I wanted to do it wasn't a great fit. That said, for a new start-up it might not be a bad place to start? 
 
Best of luck! 
 
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