Positive feedback from a great new Innovation Kitchen Partner

The Innovation Kitchen welcomes a great new Partner into our family of services.

Our Innovation Kitchen is a model that food entrepreneurs can utilize to start or grow innovative food products and companies. It's also a wonderful opportunity for small businesses that want to expand into food sales.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen can prepare your recipes for commercial sale, and manage all the difficult food management steps in a spectacular state-inspected commercial kitchen. You get to market and sell your food products. Our team does the work!

Karen and John from Ye Olde Manor House B&B, in Elkhorn Wisconsin have come to the Innovation Kitchen and trained our team to prepare their amazing line of vegan recipes for commercial sale.

Karen and John are launching two new product lines initially, The Elegant Vegan and Vegan Eats 'N Treats. After a successful introduction and transition, the Innovation Kitchen will be preparing, packaging, labeling and shipping Karen and John’s recipes nationwide.

The introduction of these excellent new Partners into the system and the outstanding culinary results of this joint effort makes this moment special. We are all thrilled to welcome John and Karen, and we all look forward to sharing these treats at their B&B as well as through a growing network of sales outlets.

Here is a quick note we received from Karen following the recipe testing and training phase of all this delicious fun.

"I wanted to let you know that we have had absolutely the best experience possible at the Innovation Kitchen with Annette, Cathie, Scott, Ray and Becky. They are such professionals, so knowledgeable and just really nice people. They go out of their way to be helpful and they do so with such grace and friendliness that we know we could not have found a better setting for the production of our products. I also want to thank them again for their help. And the Hodan Center client employees are terrific."

"We hired the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen to produce our products. The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is a Hodan Center development designed to create jobs, income and opportunity for their community."

"The Hodan Center is a community based non-profit facility serving people with disabilities. Hodan clients assist with food production tasks that do not require licensed food specialists. The Kitchen is operated by a family that has been in the food production business for years. We are delighted to be affiliated with the Hodan Center through the Innovation Kitchen."

We are thrilled to welcome Karen, John, and their beautiful B&B, Ye Olde Manor House, in wonderful Elkhorn, WI, as new Innovation Kitchen Preparation Partners!



Ye Olde Manor House, in Elkhorn, WI. Photos above are from this beautiful Wisconsin B&B's living room and new indoor pool.

The parent company of these wonderful new food lines is Maxey Lynn, LLC

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County Area Economic Development Come Grow With Us

Corporate Report Wisconsin: "Kitchen Serves Up Jobs and Supports Farmers"

Thanks to Corporate Report Wisconsin for a new article highlighting the valuable jobs and economic potential our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen represents.

I'm encouraged by the amount and the quality of coverage the business and economic development media have brought to our story of the Innovation Kitchen.

Corporate Report Wisconsin's April 2011 issue featured Southwest Wisconsin. This includes Iowa County, Madison and Dane County, as well as the counties south and west out to our neighbor state borders.

Quoting pieces from the main article (emphasis added):

"That's where Rick Terrien enters the picture. As founding executive director of the Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation, his passion and excitement for local agricultural initiatives is boundless."

"He quoted the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture in a recent post on his blog Sustainable Work. 'On average locally produced products return 70 cents of every dollar to the local economy. Non-local products return only 40 cents'"

"To Karen Lehman, from Fresh Taste in Chicago, local is 250 miles from the Downtown Loop. Fresh Taste is an organization advancing local and healthy eating in the greater Chicago area, encompassing approximately 8 million people. The produce being grown in Wisconsin is what will give those millions of people local food."

"'We're in a position to make a significant impact on the food lives of a lot of people that live around us', says Terrien. 'And, lift up the cover on the book, and it's an economic strategy'"

I especially appreciated the way that the writer of this article, Jen Bradley honored the Hodan Center's leadership for creating the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen and leading the experiments in this emerging field. What a great example Tom and the entire Hodan Center team have set for the rest of us.

Ms. Bradley closed out the piece (linked below) with a quote friends will know I am passionate about.

"'I've had some really great business opportunities in my life but this is the one where I feel I can make the biggest impact' says Terrien",

This is a great opportunity to support entrepreneurs, farms, food, and innovation. We can use this experiment to create good new local jobs for people who really need support - especially in rural communities - while helping turn movements into functioning organizations.

And I get to eat the food experiments.

My kind of economic development!



Download story: "Kitchen Serves Up Jobs and Supports Farmers" (PDF format) Corporate Report Wisconsin. Copyright April 2011.

Link to main article at Corporate Report Wisconsin. Teaming to Win. April 2011.

Hodan Center

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County Area Economic Development. Come Grow With Us!

Images and text copyright Corporate Report Wisconsin Thank You CRW!

Ways the Innovation Kitchen contributes to profitable local farms and innovative local foods

The following is borrowed from a column posted at Madison's Isthmus Newspaper's online version called 'The Daily Page'.

New items from the winter Dane County Farmers' Market
From tortillas to trout
Terese Allen on Thursday 02/24/2011
(emphasis added)

Sweet potatoes and dill tomatoes.

"Mary and Don Uselman's dehydrated sweet potatoes might be the market's most unique new product. The carrot-colored, candy-sweet disks come in four-ounce bags. You can nibble on them out of your hand if you like, but they're not chips — they're denser and chewier. Mary Uselman suggests adding them to stews and soups. The Uselmans' new line of pickled and canned goods (processed at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, a new shared commercial-food-processing facility in Mineral Point) includes catsup, tomato sauce and bread-and-butter pickles. Not to be missed are their dill tomatoes — small, garlic-seasoned green tomato wedges that are as sassy as a Marcia Ball honky-tonk tune."

Wow. Ms. Allen writes about local foods with the language license of a sports writer. Local foods needs more of that! Thanks Isthmus and their Daily Page.

What's most important beyond all this fun is the emerging business models that are getting proven out. Local farms and food enterprises that were wise enough to experiment with us in 2010, the year we opened, are returning with new orders and new innovative food products.

That's the thing to celebrate. A new platform and new business models are emerging to help local foods and regional food systems become more profitable.

It is vitally relevant that people who experimented with food processing at the Innovation Kitchen made money, advanced their enterprises, and are coming back and continuing to innovate. This is the most important Innovation Kitchen metric of all right now.

It's a great place to start or grow a food enterprise. Join us.

New businesses. New jobs. "Garlic-seasoned green tomato wedges that are as sassy as a Marcia Ball honky-tonk tune."

Almost like we planned it. Forward local foods!


Isthmus Daily Page article. New items from the winter Dane County Farmers' Market. Sweet potatoes and dill tomatoes from the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. Article written by Terese Allen.

Don's Produce write up at L'Etoile. That's our friend Mary in the photo above.

Marcia Ball

Join us at Family Farmed Expo March 17 -19 in Chicago! Building Social Enterprises.

What a wonderful event this year's Family Farmed Expo in Chicago looks to be.

I'll be doing a presentation on Thursday, March 17, which is devoted to their 'Financing Farm to Fork Conference'

The panel I'll be joining is titled, 'Building Social Enterprises'. Our group will be moderated by Zina Murray of the Logan Square Kitchen (good luck, Zina!). Our panel includes a cool new friend I worked with last weekend, Orrin Williams, Executive Director of the Center for Urban Transformation, and Dennis Ryan from the Experimental Station, an org on Chicago's South Side I'm just getting introduced to. Great work from all!

I'm going to talk about our Innovation Kitchen and the emerging Food Action Alliance we're helping launch. I am very much looking forward to presenting these experiments under the banner of building social enterprises.

Will Allen of Growing Power fame and Gary Hirshberg from Stonyfield Farm will keynote. Can't wait.

Here's an overview of the full Expo program borrowed from the FamilyFarmed site:

"Thursday features our world-class Financing Farm to Fork conference supporting the local food movement by encouraging investment in farm and food production, processing and distribution businesses."

"Friday features the Midwest’s leading local food trade show, a major school food track, our Meet the Buyers reception, an innovative Food Policy Summit, and the scrumptious Localicious Party to cap the day."

"Saturday features cooking demos from celebrity chefs, educational workshops, Sally Fallon and an interactive Kids Corner."

Looks like a wonderful event!

Organizations like the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen that support people with disabilities work at some of the toughest and most troubled margins of our economy. The work of the Innovation Kitchen is creating some of the hardest jobs to make in this economic environment.

The Innovation Kitchen is doing it by helping local foods grow into new opportunities and new markets.

Local foods organizations emerging nationwide can incorporate this talented and professional workforce to enhance their own efforts. They can grow their organizations while helping grow jobs for vulnerable people who really need them right now.

I'm watching it work at the Innovation Kitchen.

I can't wait to talk about our experiments in building social enterprises at the FamilyFarmed Expo on March 17 in Chicago!



Rick bio, Family Farmed Expo

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Center For Urban Transformation. Orrin Williams and friends. Founding principals and philosophy: "sustainable urban community and economic development."

Experimental Station. Dennis Ryan and friends. Creating and supporting "innovative cultural, educational, and environmental projects and small-scale enterprises."

Logan Square Kitchen. Zina Murray and friends. "As a greenhouse for little businesses, we give culinary talent a place to develop."

Yikes! Look at how cool Jim Slamma and the FamilyFarmed team are at digital:

FamilyFarmed on Facebook

On Twitter

On LinkedIn

Yelp!

Directions and parking

Hotels

Conference overview

Conference schedule

Executive Q&A: Rick Terrien is dedicated to helping people start businesses

Jane Burns, of the Wisconsin State Journal wrote a good piece about our work in this Sunday's paper.

A great opening sentence: "Rick Terrien is always starting something."

Ms. Burns closed the interview with a realistic outline of my ideas about 'slow startups':

"I'm a glass-half-full guy. I've never seen more opportunities in my entire life, and not just in food. Entrepreneurs fix things that are broken and if you can't see things that are broken, you're not looking. The problem comes when you promise people they can be Donald Trump and that they can do it quickly.

My job is to slow them down, but start them. Because it's going to take longer doesn't mean don't start. It means start now. Put a toe in. Make a few mistakes. And it's pretty unlikely you're going to become Donald Trump. On the other hand, you can create a business that will support your family and your community.

I think it's a thrilling time to be an entrepreneur."


Wisconsin State Journal interview link. "Rick Terrien is dedicated to helping people start businesses."

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County Area Economic Development, Come Grow With Us!

Reporting delicious economic success!

As we ramp up the Innovation Kitchen I'm reporting here on different facets of the project. The last post was about our emerging regional network.

This one is about a delicious success story from within the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

The Innovation Kitchen is owned by the Hodan Center in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. It is is a shared-use food preparation and processing facility.

I've been describing this effort as a series of experiments. The idea is to learn from everything and get better every day.

Some experiments just plain work. A great example of this is Matt D'Amour and his Inside Out Wellness food line. Matt's recipes for organic, gluten free flax crackers and granola are wonderful.

Matt had not been a food entrepreneur but teaches the value of wellness. He knew that a food line designed for people with specific health or wellness goals would be a real contribution.

Matt came in under our 'artisan food career' program. Initially Matt came into the Innovation Kitchen and prepared his own recipes. At the same time, Matt was able to engage the professional staff in ways they could all learn the process together. Annette and her team utilized these training sessions to help Matt transfer recipe preparation to the in-house professionals.

Matt was then able to turn his attention to marketing and sales.

Ta da!

Matt's line was initially welcomed by our Metcalfe's Market at Hilldale, in Madison.

The Inside Out Wellness line has now also been brought into our Willy Street Co-ops (East and West), the local Whole Foods, and the Regent Street Market among others. Congratulations and good on ya, Matt!

Here is what makes my glass half full about all this.

Matt was able to start a new food enterprise using our shared kitchen platform at the Innovation Kitchen. He was able to utilize the professional staff to quickly transition from recipe development to commercial production.

Importantly - in a survival of the fittest way - Matt did his homework and he made cold calls. He did the heavy lifting of learning what was needed and then he went out and found customers for his wonderful food products.

Was this easy? Of course not. Matt was one of the first new food entrepreneurs to come into the Innovation Kitchen and he helped us learn and grow this part of the enterprise. What impresses me most is that Matt paid the 'patience tax', learned what was needed to launch this kind of enterprise, and then used his time carefully to develop his recipes and then transfer their preparation to the professionals inside the Innovation Kitchen.

The Innovation Kitchen team also then packages and labels Matt's great line of foods for his new customers.

Along the way, Matt has helped create much-needed jobs in Southwest Wisconsin with his success.

Matt is a great example of what a person can do - given some gumption and the willingness to pay the 'patience tax' - with a food preparation and processing platform like the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. Our new FACT Alliance network partners will help us share this adventure with increasingly more people.

These kinds of experiments in food processing and distribution can make all kinds of people and all kinds of economic development goals healthier.

Best part? My office is at the Innovation Kitchen and I get to eat the experiments.

Congratulations, Matt, and all the great food partners working through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen!

My favorite part of Matt's early success story is the short phrase he puts on every label. It's a little bit of truth with a big, wonderful story behind it:

“Handmade with Love"




Matt's Inside Out Wellness site

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Hodan Center

Metcalfe's Market

Whole Foods, Madison, WI

Iowa County Area Economic Development, Come Grow With Us!

Upcoming presentation at FamilyFarmed Expo, March 17: 'Building Urban Social Enterprises.'

I am honored to be joining a panel presentation at the next FamilyFarmed Expo in Chicago on March 17.

I'll be making a presentation under the heading, 'Building Urban Social Enterprises'.

My focus will be on exploring new urban/rural partnerships built around small scale, collaborative food processing networks.

The FamilyFarmed Expo is called 'The Midwest's Premier Good Food Event'. I'm grateful for the invitation and look forward to discussing our emerging 3-facility food processing and distribution alliance in South and Southwest Wisconsin.

Our panel is on Thursday, March 17 which "..features our world-class 'Financing Farm to Fork' conference supporting the local food movement by encouraging investment in farm and food production, processing, and distribution businesses."

"Confirmed speakers include Gary Hirshberg, Founder and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, Will Allen, Farmer and CEO of Growing Power, Michael Bashaw, Midwest President Whole Foods Market, Open Table Founder Chuck Templeton, Financier Andy Whitman, University of Chicago's Linda Darragh, FamilyFarmed.org President Jim Slama, Fresh Taste Director Karen Lehman, and many more."

The FamilyFarmed Expo is Co-sponsored by the Chicago Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.

Please join us if you can. Links below.

Thanks for the invitation to present at this year's FamilyFarmed Expo.

Looks like a great opportunity to learn new stories and tell a few.



FamilyFarmed Expo home page.

Financing Farm To Fork Conference, Thursday March 17 at the FamilyFarmed Expo.

Chicago Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.

The University of Chicago Alumni Association was a 20-plus year, much beloved customer (and friend!) of our first business, Banner Graphics. Through that time the alumni offices were in the Robie House, a beautiful, landmark Frank Lloyd Wright designed home, now part of the campus.

Thanks women entrepreneur friends from the Heart of the Farm

What an interesting couple of presentations this week. I learned so much.

On Thursday, I made many new friends at the Midwest Value Added Agriculture Conference in Madison. I got the chance to make a presentation about making good food entrepreneurship easier utilizing our Innovation Kitchen model.

Lots of people are interested in the idea of local and regional food processing as a way of getting good food to a wider demographic. I think our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen made a good impression as a worthy experiment.

Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm was a great keynote. I thank the organizers for the invitation to present at this important, dynamic venue. Oh my goodness, a vast blessing of delicious local foods for lunch and dinner with old and new friends!

On Friday, the entrepreneurship energy at the Heart of the Farm Conference was inspiring. This was a regional gathering of Wisconsin women in agriculture. They packed our wonderful new Iowa County conference venue.

About a third of the group was able to visit the Innovation Kitchen after the conference.

They stayed more than 2 hours and we had a wonderful discussion. Lori, my friend and our local Farm Service Agency partner in the Dodgeville (WI) office, reminded me that every one of those women entrepreneurs had work to do, or cows to milk, but chose to invest their time learning more about this entrepreneurship and business development opportunity.

The questions were inspired, pointed, direct, and wonderful. I could not be more grateful.

Forward good, local foods everywhere!


Polyface Farm, Joel Salatin's family farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley they describe this way: Polyface, Inc. is a family owned, multi-generational, pasture-based, beyond organic, local-market farm and informational outreach in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

USDA's Farm Service Agency. whose societal vision they describe this way: A market-oriented, economically and environmentally sound American agriculture delivering an abundant, safe, and affordable food and fiber supply while sustaining quality agricultural communities.

Iowa County Area Economic Development. Come Grow With Us

Our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

The new year and your new career as a startup

The passing into a new year feels to me like someone opening a curtain. It's a little too bright, and the details out there are fuzzy and indistinct in the glow. But hope and chance are out there, and it feels like a good bet to reach out and grab some of it.

I believe doing your own startups can be a smart alternative to doing nothing. I think it’s wise to be working on ways to increase your personal and financial independence. Building your own small business enterprise can be a good way to do this.

In almost all cases it will take longer than you think. It will likely deliver less clear profit than you want. You will work harder than you supposed. And as you do it, you get faster, smarter, profitable, and more independent. The real message is to get started.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen offers people interested in food entrepreneurship a complete package for testing out their own small food enterprise. This is a model we hope to develop and reproduce in the coming year.

There are growing markets for regional and specialty foods, but without a growing, robust field of food entrepreneurs and artisan food startups, the market will never reach its potential.

The world of local foods needs startups. It needs innovators and creative business models.

The business and economic development opportunities available through local and regional foods are significant. New innovative, specialty food startups are integral to that discussion.

Helping them become sustainable is a worthy goal for all of us in 2011.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen provides a valuable platform for testing food innovations and the wonderful entrepreneurs who create them. I look forward to sharing this story.

Happy New Year!


The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Photo from a visit to the Eliza Furnace, in Vitondale, Pennsylvania. Download a history of Eliza Furnace prepared by the Indiana County PA Parks Department. A business startup story worth knowing.

Food entrepreneurship presentation at 2011 Wisconsin Local Foods Summit

Want to start next year off learning about becoming a food entrepreneur?

I've been offered several good opportunities in January to talk about food entrepreneurship and the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

The first of these is the Wisconsin Local Foods Summit in Elkhart Lake. The conference is January 13 and 14, 2011.

My presentation is on Thursday Jan. 13 at 10:15 AM. An experiment in local foods processing: The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, Mineral Point, WI.

Another good chance to share this idea will come on with the Midwest Value Added Conference, January 27 and 28, 2011 in Madison. Details to follow.

C'mon you aspiring food entrepreneurs. This is a chance for growers and their food friends to take some positive steps in the new year to build or grow an artisan food enterprise that matches your goals.

Merry Christmas 2010 to one and all!

Download 2011 Wisconsin Local Food Summit brochure. PDF format

Grants for farm entrepreneurs starting food businesses through the Innovation Kitchen

Good news from our Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) this week.

We were able to enroll the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen onto a list of approved consultants who are eligible to be paid for training and supporting Wisconsin farm entrepreneurs.

Eligible Applicants:
"Wisconsin food producers who are selling to the local food market sector are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to applicants selling at least 75 percent of their products to be consumed within 300 miles of the farm. Value-added products must include at least 50 percent Wisconsin-grown ingredients, of which at least 50 percent must be grown by the applicant."

Consulting services available from the Innovation Kitchen through this grant:
• Commercial recipe development, testing, and production services. Packaging and labeling services.
• Small food business counseling, startup and development services

If you grow food in Wisconsin you are eligible for an amazing opportunity to experiment in value added processing. You can create small, inexpensive batches of artisan recipes to sell under your own brand and label through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

This grant program, Producers First, is open to applications through the end of 2010. I'm not sure about the future of this specific program but hopefully this and others like it can continue to help our Wisconsin food entrepreneurs create jobs, grow businesses, and build a more sustainable farm and food economy.

The Producers First grant is a nice opportunity to get your new or emerging farm and food enterprise acquainted with the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen and vice versa.

The grant will pay up to $3,000 per successful applicant, which largely covers recipe development and testing, as well as mentoring in artisan food business planning and execution.

The Hodan Center is sharing this amazing resource with Wisconsin and the world.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is a platform of knowledge, networks and valuable tools. What seems possible with this kind of platform is that these new and emerging food enterprises will become platforms themselves for creating jobs and economies that will be valuable and sustainable.

Julie Miller's article in Agri-View last week caught a quote about leveraging the physical platform this kitchen represents into many new business and community platforms for new and emerging food entrepreneurs:

“I want to start these new smaller businesses as sustainable work platforms,” says Terrien, referring to food entrepreneurs that begin at the Innovation Kitchen. “They feed families, communities, and a larger purpose. It’s these production platforms that are needed and no more so than in food.”


Download information for applicants. PDF format.

Agri-View article: Innovation Kitchen stirs economy with local produce & ready workers

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

The Hodan Center

Iowa County WI economic development

"Innovation Kitchen stirs economy with local produce & ready workers"

One of our premier regional publications celebrating agriculture and rural life is Agri-View, "The Number one Ag Newspaper in Wisconsin"

Julie Martin with Agri-View did a great interview and story in their current issue, dated Dec. 9, 2010. What a great opening to the story...

"At the Innovation Kitchen in Mineral Point, their cookbook is filled with signature recipes of family-crafted specialties.

Among them is their own recipe for success, calling for a heaping tablespoon of leadership, a few cups of community support, and a dash of entrepreneurial spirit.

And don’t forget the key ingredient: a few truck loads of Wisconsin grown produce."

This is a well written story that accurately highlights many of the opportunities available through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

I thought the article did a great job summarizing what's possible: "The Innovation Kitchen helps bridge the gap between locally-produced foods and the grocery store shelf, while also creating Wisconsin jobs. A hub for new entrepreneurs to grow their ideas, this commercial kitchen has a promising outlook."

I especially love the closing quote from Annette Pierce, our Food Service Director (and Master of the Universe):

“They keep telling me that we need to expand already,” says Pierce, with a smile to the center’s success. “We want to be sustainable and to keep our local farmers in business. We’re accomplishing that, and I think this is going to help everybody.”

Amen!


Agri-View article: "Innovation Kitchen stirs economy with local produce & ready workers"

Photo credit: Julie Martin and Agri-View.

Next phone conference 12/15 - starting an artisan food enterprise through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

We'll be having a phone seminar next week for people interested in starting or growing an artisan food business through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. We limit these invitations to keep the conversation effective. There are 5 slots open for next Wednesday Dec. 15 at 2:30 PM CST.

Here are a couple of comments from the first seminar:

"Thank you for the very informative conference call yesterday. I came away from the call with the inspiration I needed to go to the next level. "

"It was really informative taking part in the phone seminar."

If you know someone who might be interested in having the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen be the 'food processing back office', please pass this note along.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is an opportunity to start or grow an artisan food enterprise in a state-inspected commercial kitchen, licensed to legally and lovingly prepare recipes for commercial sale. The Innovation Kitchen can also supply packaging, labeling and shipping support, all of this at a small enough scale that's affordable for most new and emerging food entrepreneurs.

You can live anywhere in the United States and start an artisan food business through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

For people thinking about this opportunity we have a couple of pricing paths into the process. One path will focus on commercial recipe testing and development. The other path will provide mentorship in business startup and development with a focus on artisan food enterprises, as well as the commercial recipe development services.

Our next phone seminar to discuss this food entrepreneurship opportunity is next Wednesday Dec. 15 at 2:30 PM CST. We have 5 slots open for this seminar.

We also have phone seminars scheduled for Wed. Jan 5, and Wed. Jan. 19

Join us or pass this note along to a friend who may want to become a food entrepreneur ! You can register using the link below.

Request an invitation to an upcoming phone seminar for people interested in having the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen prepare their recipes for commercial sale.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County (WI) Area Economic Development Corporation.

Boomer startups and encore careers

Long time Madison and Wisconsin contributor Nino Amato is currently the President and Executive Director of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups.

There was a very good interview with Mr. Amato in the November 2010 Madison Magazine.

The discussion of an aging workforce can be looked at from many ways. Certainly there is a financial risk to individuals and to the system.

However, starting new careers and new businesses may be one way older Americans can meet this challenge.

As Mr. Amato closes out his interview, he cites a movement I'm seeing in many areas of my economic development work, especially in the field of artisan food entrepreneurship through the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

“'Baby boomers don’t think they’ll be ‘old’ until they’re eighty,' Amato says. Citing survey research conducted by Merrill Lynch, Amato says 76 percent of baby boomers intend to continue earning income full- or part-time after they retire from their main line of work. Many plan to begin new professional careers or start their own businesses."

For anyone thinking about starting their own small food enterprise to help carry them into and through their older years, the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen may be a great option right in our own back yard.

Sounds like a plan...


Interview with Nino Amato in Madison Magazine.

Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups. Focusing on issues that impact older adults and people with disabilities.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. Mineral Point, Iowa County, Wisconsin.

Newman's Own. Shameless!

My good friend Robin K. lent me her copy of Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner's great book "Shameless Exploitation: In Pursuit of the Common Good."

In 2008, the year of Paul Newman's passing, this was republished as "In Pursuit of the Common Good: Twenty-Five Years of Improving the World, One Bottle of Salad Dressing at a Time."

My goodness. What a contribution these explorers provided to all of us interested in food, philanthropy, and economic development.

Some good summaries of food entrepreneurship from the beginning and end of Newman and Hotchner's adventure...

"Sometimes you get what you want but it ain't what you expected. Newman's Own was supposed to be a tiny boutique operation - parchment labels on elegant wine bottles of antique glass. We expected train wrecks along the way and got, instead, one astonishment followed by another. We flourished like weeds in the garden of Wishbone, like silver in the vaults of finance. A lot of time we thought we were in first gear we were really in reverse, but it didn't seem to make any difference. We anticipated sales of $1,200 a year, and a loss, despite our gambling winnings, of $6,000. But in these twenty years we have earned over $150 million, which we've given to countless charities. How to account for this massive success? Pure luck? Transcendental meditation? Machiavellian manipulation? Aerodynamics? High calonics? We haven't the slightest idea."

"That bottle of salad dressing that we concocted as a prank in Newman's old stable twenty-odd years ago has had a hell of a ride. Without realizing it, by being both stupid and stubborn we stuck to our guns, insisted on all-natural, no preservatives products, and in some small way caused an industry to change its ways. A business we ran by the seat of our pants, without plans or budgets, is now a significant player in the world's markets. A camp we built in Connecticut for sick children has now been duplicated for afflicted kids all over the world. A vision realized. Like a grain of sand in the oyster, it just grew, and for us, these camps are indeed the pearls.

So, whatever it is, whatever it amounts to, whatever it does or doesn't do, we grabbed it by the shirttailand hung on. Sure makes a believer out of you."

So here is my own shameless pitch... the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is a state of the art food processing center that can supply all the needs of a ‘virtual’ food entrepreneur - purchasing, ingredient prepping, recipe testing and preparation, packaging, labeling, storage, and shipping. You can utilize the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen to be your safe, legal, wonderful food preparation center, operated for whatever worthy purpose you designate, from wherever you live.

The Innovation Kitchen also supports the employment goals of adults with disabilities. With your help and patronage, we can do this all over the world.

For people who would like to experiment in food entrepreneurship and philanthropy the Innovation Kitchen is a perfect storm of good news.



The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Amazon link to these great books

Wikipedia Newman's Own. "According to the Newman's Own website, by March 2010 over US$290 million had been generated for charity since 1982"

Presentations about job creation and local foods - Mon. Nov. 29

We are hosting presentations organized by Wisconsin Senator Dale Schultz highlighting the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen and the Highland vegetable processing center. November 29, 2010. Both projects are supported by our Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation and SW CAP.

(emphasis added by me)

From Senator Dale Schultz:

Greetings -

You are invited to take part in stops being hosted by leaders for job
creation and Wisconsin's bioenergy future on the afternoon of Monday,
November 29. This invite is to you and other community leaders in the
region of Grant, Green, Lafayette, Richland, Sauk, Juneau, Crawford and
Iowa Counties. Please consider forwarding this invitation to your
community contacts. Stop #1 is at a new regional food-jobs generator in
Mineral Point, plus we'll get an update on the next regional food-jobs
generator in Highland and an update on other regional E.D. initiatives
from SWCAP. Stop #2 is at an exciting bio-energy generator in
Dodgeville. Take part in one or both stops. There is no cost involved
at either stop.

FIRST STOP, 1:30 to 2:40
Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen
851 Dodge St. (old Hwy 151), Mineral Point WI 53565
Web: http://www.wi.innovationkitchen.org/, phone 608 987 3558
Host #1: Rick Terrien, director of the Iowa County Area E.D. Corp,
(http://www.iowacountyedc.org/)
You'll get a tour and hear how WINK is helping food-related
entrepreneurs from a large region.
Come if you want to keep or create local food jobs in your community.

Host #2: Wally Orzechowski and David Vobora of Southwest Wisconsin
Community Action Program
They will be at WINK to describe their programs to help you keep and
create jobs in your community.
SWCAP (http://www.swcap.org/) is the region's leader for community and
economic development.
Come if you want to keep or create frozen-food-related jobs in your
community or you want to help people escape poverty and become
financially self-sustaining.

SECOND STOP, 3:00 to 4:15
Energy Unlimited, Inc.
4881 CR YZ, Dodgeville WI 53535
http://www.energyunlimitedinc.com/
Host: John Lundell, President.
The Wisconsin Office of Energy Independence is one of many entities
excited about the Biomass Burner. Lundell plans to have the system
operating for your visit. See how various biomass inputs can generate
electricity at less cost than a digester, and heat a large facility.
Come if you want your community to be a leader for our bio-energy
future.

RSVPs are not essential, but if you do, we can offer you car pooling
possibilities with other folks coming from your area.
To rsvp, email Tom Jackson, tjackson@legis.wi.gov.

Questions?
- Tom Jackson, Office of Senator Dale Schultz, tjackson@legis.wi.gov
- Rick Terrien, ICEDC, rickt@iowacountyedc.org
- Wally Orzechowski, SWCAP, w.orzechowski@swcap.org
- David Vobora, SWCAP, d.vobora@swcap.org
- John Lundell, Energy Unlimited, john@sawdustburner.com


WI Senator Dale Schultz
Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, WInK
Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program, SW CAP
Dodgeville's Energy Unlimited Sawdust Burner site

Photo notes. - see the wing chunks missing bottom left wing - Monarch predation. A small biz strategy worth considering...

Encore careers: Boomer entrepreneurs and the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Did you know Americans aged 55 to 64 start small businesses at a higher rate than any other age group?

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is an ideal platform for launching an 'encore career'. You can live anywhere you want and start a safe, legal food business without betting your savings. It can even be a lot of fun!

This is the Renaissance age of entrepreneurship, and it's just beginning. If you are a boomer thinking about starting your own artisan food business, you need to contact the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.


SBA site for 50+ entrepreneurs

"Encore careers combine purpose, passion and a paycheck"

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Photo is of a fall crocus, a late bloomer and great contributor to the landscape, just like boomer entrepreneurs.

Milwaukee Public Radio interview

Milwaukee Public Radio, WUWM, is home to one of my favorite radio programs, Lake Effect. I had a chance recently to talk with their producer Mitch Teich about the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. The link to their audio archive of this conversation is below.

From the show's intro: "More that 350,000 jobs in Wisconsin - about 10% of the state's workforce - depends in some way on agriculture.

But for people who aspire to starting their own food related business the challenges can be daunting. Issues such as developing a business plan, obtaining the raw materials, and acquiring the proper licenses to process and sell food products can deter or derail a would-be entrepreneur... One pioneering facility is the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen."


Milwaukee Public Radio interview, Nov. 18, 2010

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

The Artisan Food Career program

Iowa County Area Economic Development

"Keep or create local food jobs in your community"

This is from a news release from our Wisconsin state Senator Dale Schultz (emphasis mine) -

At the request of Senator Schultz, leaders for jobs and energy are hosting a visit for you and other community leaders from the region of Grant, Green, Lafayette, Richland, Sauk, Crawford and Iowa Counties on the afternoon of Monday, November 29.

Stop #1 is at a new regional food-jobs generator in Mineral Point, plus we’ll get an update on the next regional food-jobs generator in Highland.


FIRST STOP, 1:30 PM

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

851 Dodge St. (old Hwy 151), Mineral Point WI 53565

Web: http://www.wi.innovationkitchen.org/, phone 608 987 3558

Host: Rick Terrien, director of the Iowa County Area Economic Development Corp. (http://www.iowacountyedc.org/)

You’ll get a tour and hear how WINK is helping food-related entrepreneurs from a large region.

RSVPs are not essential, but if you do, we can offer you car pooling possibilities with other folks coming from your area.

"Come if you want to keep or create local food jobs in your community."

We are encouraged our work can be described as a being a 'leader for jobs'. Please join us Nov. 29.


TO RSVP, email Tom Jackson - tjackson@legis.wi.gov

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County Area Economic Development

Photo is of my 2010 Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen (WInK) pumpkin. Some of my other pumpkin carving through the years

Early Stage Symposium follow up

The Wisconsin Technology Council's Early Stage Symposium was a big success. This is our area's premier event for investors and growth businesses.

There were a record number of attendees and many great seminars. This was the first time to my knowledge that this organization has included food in its program of topics. I believe the addition of the food track helped boost attendance numbers. All of the food seminars were packed.

My friend, and fellow participant our Iowa County economic development work, John Biondi made the best presentation about one of the coolest companies I've ever seen, Xolve. John is CEO of Xolve. Xolve is in the national CleanTech finals this week in San Francisco. This is a major accomplishment. Please check out their link below. Best wishes to everyone at Xolve from all of us in your community, your state, and your region!

Governor-elect Scott Walker gave one of the keynotes, and I was energized by his goal of starting 10,000 new businesses during his first term. We're building a model to crank out new enterprises and grow our existing Wisconsin food businesses. I'm watching it work: The team behind the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen has helped individuals start new businesses, helped existing Wisconsin businesses to grow and has processed well over 25,000 pounds of local foods from our wonderful Wisconsin family farms.

This all happened in their first 3 months of kitchen operations.

When the Highland food processing center comes on line our region will be able to kick it up another notch. There are many new businesses that can be created in both rural and urban communities using these models.

I sincerely believe these kinds of value added food platforms can help our state get to Governor-elect Walker's goal of 10,000 new businesses in 4 years.

Good luck this week John and everyone at Xolve at the CleanTech Open finals this coming week. Break a nano particle!



The CleanTech Open Awards ceremony. Wed. Nov. 17. Congratulations to everyone at Xolve for this amazing achievement!

Wisconsin Technology Council's overview of the symposium and Governor-elect Walker's opportunities. Great to hear the food cluster discussed so prominently. The Bill Joos interview at the end is great.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, which is owned and operated by the Hodan Center, in beautiful Iowa County, Wisconsin.

I was fortunate to share a panel with my friend Michael Gay from the City of Madison's economic development team, who also farms in beautiful Iowa County, Wisconsin. This is a great online interview Michael shared with In Business Magazine's Coffee with Michael Gay.