MONROE - Out of the incubator and into the community, several entrepreneurs in the past year have hatched their food businesses from Barb's Kitchen, a fully certified, commercially equipped kitchen on 16th Street, just off Wisconsin 69.
Local leaders from the Green County University of Wisconsin-Extension office, Green County Development Corporation, Monroe Main Street, Monroe Chamber of Commerce and Industry and others identified a need for a community commercial kitchen through a survey conducted in the spring of 2009. More than 100 people indicated an interest in a shared-use facility, and grant money was available to start incubators in three communities, including Monroe.
But before a facility was even planned, Barb Newcomer opened a state licensed, commercial grade facility that August, which became the home of her Barb's Potato Salad. Newcomer was willing to offer her kitchen at an hourly fee to other creative food entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs who use Barb's Kitchen are able to work with the UW-Extension to promote and market their products using the grant money secured through the Economic Development Administration.
About nine businesses have taken advantage of Barb's Kitchen, and six are now out on their own, according to Cara Carper, the community resources development agent at the UW-Extension office in Green County.
A look at three of the fledgling businesses finds no two are alike, but they have all burst forth on to the food scene this past year under the tutelage of Barb's Kitchen.
Bites, a catering service, has a one-year success story since leaving the incubator in June 2010. Kline's Kitchen, a two-year resident at the incubator, has found another home right next to its preferred market.
And Goose Chaser Farm has partnered its meats and salads with Sugar River Vineyard and Bakery to open Paoli Bread and Brat Haus. Its grand opening is this weekend.
Bites/A Teff Stuart Catering Creation (Monroe)
Bites started in October 2009 as a business specializing in bite-sized hors d'oeuvres, but now caters dinners and wedding desserts. After just nine months developing in Barb's Kitchen, the business moved downtown to its own space in Flanagan's Shenanigans.
Just a couple grades apart at Monroe High School, Cari Teff and Kate Stuart got reacquainted when Teff moved back to Monroe in 2007. They found they shared a love for cooking and eating healthy foods.
"We had the same style, the same philosophy about cooking," Teff said, "and we had all this local, fresh, healthy foods, with wonderful flavors."
Stuart, a certified occupational therapist assistant in the Monroe School District, and Teff, a registered dietitian, now at home while raising her children, decided - just six weeks after Teff's second child was born - it was time to go into business.
Newcomer invited them to make their start in Barb's Kitchen.
"The incubator was fantastic to get us on our feet," Teff said.
The cost to rent the kitchen was affordable and provided convenient access to other people renting kitchen space for collaboration and referrals, according to Teff.
"There was no way we could have afforded all that equipment just starting out," she said.
The only problem using the incubator for the team was a lack of storage at the kitchen site. Teff said all ingredients had to be brought in and the finished products had to be taken out and stored in other places.
"Barb told us her goal was not for us to be there forever," Teff said. "We got out quicker than we thought."
Teff said Barb helped with references and getting the word out.
To this day, Teff said Bites has no need for advertising, because it gets "tremendous feedback" and client referrals.
"We have built up a wonderful relationship with our clients. Some of them pretty much just turn the menu over to us," she said.
They use a Facebook account, "Bites" - A Teff Stuart Catering Creation, that is active and filled with recipes for making at home.
The business was also invited to appear in the August 2011 edition of PMQ Pizza Magazine, a national pizza industry publication. Teff and Stuart created a new pizza recipe for the magazine request, using Klondike Cheese Factory's Feta cheese, a mixture of salad ingredients and seasoned cream cheese.
Bites is still a two-person operation, but Teff said they are dropping the word "catering" from their name, in preparation for future endeavors.
"We are detail-oriented, but we would love to expand and hire more people," Teff added.
Kline's Kitchen (Monroe)
Tasty pastries, while still hot and fresh from Kline's Kitchen, hit the streets on Saturday mornings at Monroe's Market on the Square.
"I moved this spring to Uptown Kitchens, because it's closer to the farmer's market and more convenient," said Kurt Kline, pastry chef and owner. "We just put them on the rack and wheel it out there."
Kline was state certified in restaurant-quality food preparation and had liability insurance, but two years ago he needed a certified kitchen to produce his pies, cakes and pastries in order to sell them.
"Barb kept my name out there, and I shared a (farmer's market) tent with Barb for the last two years. We vended together," Kline said about his two-year stay at Barb's Kitchen.
Kline, who is also president of Market on the Square, which is backed by the Monroe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said setting up a tent and tearing down after the market involves a lot of work.
"It's nice to have help and to work as a team," he added.
Kline had shelf space at Barb's Kitchen for some of his baking supplies but he said it was not enough for his small appliances, like a 100-cup coffeemaker, and utensils.
Scheduling time to use the kitchen sometimes conflicts with other users.
Users of a shared kitchen just have to be organized, said Kline, who likes to bake his goods just before the market opens.
"You can't leave the kitchen while the ovens are on," he added.
Kline, who still works 40 hours per week as the pastry chef for New Glarus Bakery, found a little help with his time constraints at Uptown Kitchen, right in front of the Market on the Square.
Uptown Kitchen, owned by Tom and Sherrill Kelly and tucked behind the former Uptown Girl women's apparel shop, produces breads for the farmer's market. The commercial-grade kitchen is specially equipped for breads and pastries, but not certified for producing meat or dairy products.
The two businesses now share a tent at the farmer's market and also stock Barb's Potato Salad for her.
Kline and the Kellys found they can easily work together in the kitchen, while breads proof and pies bake at the same time, and can present their products at the market, practically straight out of the oven and still hot when it gets there.
Paoli Bread and Brat Haus (Paoli Road in Paoli)
Stef Culberson of The Goose Chaser Farms near Blanchardville had been using Barb's Kitchen for about a year to create her many salads, including pasta salads, while meats from the farm are produced in Darlington.
She and her partners Cherri Bell of Sugar River Vineyard and Bakery near Monticello and Jamie Stoiber, Belleville, had been hip deep in creating and marketing in area farmer's markets.
In April, they pooled their expertise - Culberson holds a culinary degree, Bell was a corporate business manager and Stoiber has a marketing degree - to incorporate and opened Paoli Bread and Brat Haus by the Sugar River in Paoli. "BreadBratHaus" announced its opening May 23 on Twitter.
Their idea for sustainable living was to put all the aspects of whole and natural foods found at farmers markets, and which they put into their own products, under one roof. The business uses free-range eggs and greens from local farmers, cheese from local cheesemakers and flours from genetically unaltered grains.
Paoli Bread and Brat Haus features The Goose Chaser Farm meats, Bell's kolaches and other baked goods, as well as a weekend farmer's market and catering services.
Culberson was named the 2011 Outstanding Young Professional of the Year by the Young Professionals of Green County.
Barb's Kitchen is located at 710 16th St. in Monroe. More information about the kitchen and contact information is available at www.greencountyspotlight.com.
Local leaders from the Green County University of Wisconsin-Extension office, Green County Development Corporation, Monroe Main Street, Monroe Chamber of Commerce and Industry and others identified a need for a community commercial kitchen through a survey conducted in the spring of 2009. More than 100 people indicated an interest in a shared-use facility, and grant money was available to start incubators in three communities, including Monroe.
But before a facility was even planned, Barb Newcomer opened a state licensed, commercial grade facility that August, which became the home of her Barb's Potato Salad. Newcomer was willing to offer her kitchen at an hourly fee to other creative food entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs who use Barb's Kitchen are able to work with the UW-Extension to promote and market their products using the grant money secured through the Economic Development Administration.
About nine businesses have taken advantage of Barb's Kitchen, and six are now out on their own, according to Cara Carper, the community resources development agent at the UW-Extension office in Green County.
A look at three of the fledgling businesses finds no two are alike, but they have all burst forth on to the food scene this past year under the tutelage of Barb's Kitchen.
Bites, a catering service, has a one-year success story since leaving the incubator in June 2010. Kline's Kitchen, a two-year resident at the incubator, has found another home right next to its preferred market.
And Goose Chaser Farm has partnered its meats and salads with Sugar River Vineyard and Bakery to open Paoli Bread and Brat Haus. Its grand opening is this weekend.
Bites/A Teff Stuart Catering Creation (Monroe)
Bites started in October 2009 as a business specializing in bite-sized hors d'oeuvres, but now caters dinners and wedding desserts. After just nine months developing in Barb's Kitchen, the business moved downtown to its own space in Flanagan's Shenanigans.
Just a couple grades apart at Monroe High School, Cari Teff and Kate Stuart got reacquainted when Teff moved back to Monroe in 2007. They found they shared a love for cooking and eating healthy foods.
"We had the same style, the same philosophy about cooking," Teff said, "and we had all this local, fresh, healthy foods, with wonderful flavors."
Stuart, a certified occupational therapist assistant in the Monroe School District, and Teff, a registered dietitian, now at home while raising her children, decided - just six weeks after Teff's second child was born - it was time to go into business.
Newcomer invited them to make their start in Barb's Kitchen.
"The incubator was fantastic to get us on our feet," Teff said.
The cost to rent the kitchen was affordable and provided convenient access to other people renting kitchen space for collaboration and referrals, according to Teff.
"There was no way we could have afforded all that equipment just starting out," she said.
The only problem using the incubator for the team was a lack of storage at the kitchen site. Teff said all ingredients had to be brought in and the finished products had to be taken out and stored in other places.
"Barb told us her goal was not for us to be there forever," Teff said. "We got out quicker than we thought."
Teff said Barb helped with references and getting the word out.
To this day, Teff said Bites has no need for advertising, because it gets "tremendous feedback" and client referrals.
"We have built up a wonderful relationship with our clients. Some of them pretty much just turn the menu over to us," she said.
They use a Facebook account, "Bites" - A Teff Stuart Catering Creation, that is active and filled with recipes for making at home.
The business was also invited to appear in the August 2011 edition of PMQ Pizza Magazine, a national pizza industry publication. Teff and Stuart created a new pizza recipe for the magazine request, using Klondike Cheese Factory's Feta cheese, a mixture of salad ingredients and seasoned cream cheese.
Bites is still a two-person operation, but Teff said they are dropping the word "catering" from their name, in preparation for future endeavors.
"We are detail-oriented, but we would love to expand and hire more people," Teff added.
Kline's Kitchen (Monroe)
Tasty pastries, while still hot and fresh from Kline's Kitchen, hit the streets on Saturday mornings at Monroe's Market on the Square.
"I moved this spring to Uptown Kitchens, because it's closer to the farmer's market and more convenient," said Kurt Kline, pastry chef and owner. "We just put them on the rack and wheel it out there."
Kline was state certified in restaurant-quality food preparation and had liability insurance, but two years ago he needed a certified kitchen to produce his pies, cakes and pastries in order to sell them.
"Barb kept my name out there, and I shared a (farmer's market) tent with Barb for the last two years. We vended together," Kline said about his two-year stay at Barb's Kitchen.
Kline, who is also president of Market on the Square, which is backed by the Monroe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said setting up a tent and tearing down after the market involves a lot of work.
"It's nice to have help and to work as a team," he added.
Kline had shelf space at Barb's Kitchen for some of his baking supplies but he said it was not enough for his small appliances, like a 100-cup coffeemaker, and utensils.
Scheduling time to use the kitchen sometimes conflicts with other users.
Users of a shared kitchen just have to be organized, said Kline, who likes to bake his goods just before the market opens.
"You can't leave the kitchen while the ovens are on," he added.
Kline, who still works 40 hours per week as the pastry chef for New Glarus Bakery, found a little help with his time constraints at Uptown Kitchen, right in front of the Market on the Square.
Uptown Kitchen, owned by Tom and Sherrill Kelly and tucked behind the former Uptown Girl women's apparel shop, produces breads for the farmer's market. The commercial-grade kitchen is specially equipped for breads and pastries, but not certified for producing meat or dairy products.
The two businesses now share a tent at the farmer's market and also stock Barb's Potato Salad for her.
Kline and the Kellys found they can easily work together in the kitchen, while breads proof and pies bake at the same time, and can present their products at the market, practically straight out of the oven and still hot when it gets there.
Paoli Bread and Brat Haus (Paoli Road in Paoli)
Stef Culberson of The Goose Chaser Farms near Blanchardville had been using Barb's Kitchen for about a year to create her many salads, including pasta salads, while meats from the farm are produced in Darlington.
She and her partners Cherri Bell of Sugar River Vineyard and Bakery near Monticello and Jamie Stoiber, Belleville, had been hip deep in creating and marketing in area farmer's markets.
In April, they pooled their expertise - Culberson holds a culinary degree, Bell was a corporate business manager and Stoiber has a marketing degree - to incorporate and opened Paoli Bread and Brat Haus by the Sugar River in Paoli. "BreadBratHaus" announced its opening May 23 on Twitter.
Their idea for sustainable living was to put all the aspects of whole and natural foods found at farmers markets, and which they put into their own products, under one roof. The business uses free-range eggs and greens from local farmers, cheese from local cheesemakers and flours from genetically unaltered grains.
Paoli Bread and Brat Haus features The Goose Chaser Farm meats, Bell's kolaches and other baked goods, as well as a weekend farmer's market and catering services.
Culberson was named the 2011 Outstanding Young Professional of the Year by the Young Professionals of Green County.
Barb's Kitchen is located at 710 16th St. in Monroe. More information about the kitchen and contact information is available at www.greencountyspotlight.com.