Brain Storm: Minimal Kitchen Facilities for Functional Collective Housing

[claire_58]

 A comment about multi-generational living on the Frugal Friday post ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/286498.html sparked another line of questions for me. The commenter, Maxine, mentioned the family compound idea had been tried several times on the island where she lives. The ones where everyone had their own kitchens worked out while the ones where everyone had bed/sitting rooms with a breakfast nook and shared a kitchen didn’t. Other threads about insta-pots, solar ovens and cooking out doors going on at the same time got me thinking. What are the minimum kitchen facilities needed to make it work. 

 

A full kitchen, stove, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, microwave etc and all the assorted smaller appliances for each household is expensive. As JMG has pointed out most potential eco-villages never get off the ground because most people can’t imagine anything less than the full comforts and conveniences of a middle class life in an era of abundance industrialism. If you, like me, have been “low tech hobbyist” (thanks to Misty Friday for the phrase) you probably can imagine living with less, maybe even much less.  

 

So here we go. Imagine there is a full communal kitchen available to you. Your large volume food processing and cooking for large gatherings and parties can be done there. You also have your own private kitchen. What are the facilities you need to make your small kitchen complete? 

 

Let’s assume that they all have running water at least. Electricity is also an option. What do you need for daily food prep to make it work? What are your must-have tools and appliances? Are there alternatives that might be viable? What could you easily do without? What modern conveniences would you most appreciate having? Do you want them all or could you make it work with less?

 

This is a brainstorm. Anything goes: high tech, low tech, modern, retro . . . What would you need? Curious Collapseniks want to know.

Comments

[methylethyl]

There are some working models for the communal kitchen, if you look at the Bruderhof and the Hutterites. I think in both those, there's a large industrial kitchen, and everyone works in it on a rota, but each family has its own private living quarters. Requires a very large investment in shared religion, and low priority on individuality and individual/family possession of material goods. Hard for most modern people, but can work.

There's a long tradition of communal ovens in all sorts of communities, as a practical way to save fuel, avoid heating the house when it's hot outside-- everybody prepares their own breads, and they bring them to bake in the big oven on baking days. Things that cook in a pot over a small fire get cooked at home. This is efficient, social, and seems to work well enough. One of the problems with "all the modern conveniences" is that it took nearly all of the *social* out of housework, and made every housewife a prisoner in isolation, chained to her technological wonders. In some ways we swapped friends for washing machines and ovens. It'd be interesting to see some experiments in what could be, not just brought back into the communal sphere, but what's most socially congenial. A communal oven for large-quantity baking seems like a good place to start.

We lived nearly a year in S.America, in what was basically a boarding house for the genteel poor. Some of the units had kitchenettes and some did not. Rent varied accordingly. There was a communal kitchen off the open patio, run by the building maintenance ladies. Several of the retirees ate at least one meal a day down there. It was the only kitchen in the building with an oven and a fridge. It's also where the sewing machine lived, which I gather anyone could use, with permission. The building's single washing machine was just outside, and they used it exclusively for sheets and blankets. Everyone did their personal laundry by hand, either in the kitchenette or up on the roof in a big shallow laundry sink. Our kitchenette consisted of a tile countertop with a sink, and a two-burner propane stove, like this one:

https://www.ofertadeldia.com/puerto-rico-ofertas/oferta/Temporadas-Outlet,-San-Juan/22b4456f-c6bc-409a-6acd-08d85ff3da03

It was hooked up to a grill-sized propane tank that sat on the floor, and whenever that ran out, we could pay the landlady and swap it out for a full one. Empties were swapped out by a guy on a bicycle, whenever he came by.

White enamel, with the hinged lid and all-- it was cute :) We had no fridge, no oven, no electric cooking appliances. And it was great. I was totally fine cooking almost all our meals that way with just one saucepan-and-lid, and one frying pan, for about nine months. A big part of what made that OK was having so much fresh food available within walking distance-- we didn't need to store anything because we walked to the grocery, the mercado, or the tienda across the street, every day to pick up whatever we were cooking for dinner. So... in my book the absolute minimum needed to have a perfectly functional kitchen is a gas camp stove and a sink. Even electricity is totally optional.

[claire_58]

Great story about living in S. America. Camp stove, running water, and easy access to a reliable year around supply of fresh food. Sounds good.

I like the communal oven idea. We have a solar oven and a good sized toaster oven that can fit the same pans, as well as our range. We can't use the solar oven year around here but we hardly use the big oven at all. I could see doing my Christmas baking and roasting turkey etc. in a communal oven. I don't make bread because I'm gluten intolerant.

I could certainly get by with much less space and equipment if I didn't do so much food processing and have so much stored food. We have a short growing season so some way of storing food is essential.

I know of the Hutterite model and it works for them. As Atmospheric River pointed out in her comment above it takes a shared culture, which we don't have.
Lots of people raised with the expectations of an era that is passing quickly away are - well - as AR says, they are grumpy and resentful about having to adapt. But one of the big take aways from your S.America experience is that when people have less they do adapt. They create functional systems with what they have.