15 new of 34 responses total.
I'm sorry-- I am so confused and I feel so.. um.. rural.. what's a co- op house?
A co-op house is sort of an urban commune. Think 60's & hippies, though things have evolved somewhat since then.
Interesting. Evolved like how? (I'm not a hippie.)
Well, never having lived in a commune... The members are all partial owners of the house. They all pay dues that go towards the upkeep of the house, utilities, and food. Anything that is bought with dues is shared (or at least, available to be shared) by the whole house. The house is, in theory, run democratically. In practice, it's an oligarchy run by the couple of people who can be bothered to deal with that sort of thing. All the members are assigned a job, or a few jobs, to help keep the house running. I think what's evolved is the attitude behind the co-ops, not the way they run. They're less of a Vehicle for Social Transformation these days, and more of a place to live, or so I'm told.
It really does sound like an interesting concept, but sounds a little more like a glorified roommate thing to me. Don't think I'd see any such thing out here.
The coop concept goes back quite a ways in rural America, and often just for the practical purpose of sharing big investments. My grandpa the wheat farmer was part of a coop.
The UM Housing coops were set up in the 1930s, long before the hippies came along. Coops, in general, are an alternative business management system. Under the capitalism model the capital for the enterprise is provided by Party A (investors) so that party B (managers) can use it to hire party C (workers) and buy machinery to make products that are then sold to party D (consumers). This business system is codified in US corporation laws. Under the cooperative model, the parties are combined. For example, in the food coop, the owners of the coop are Party A, C, and D. Originally they were also Party B, but when the coop got to be a large business (we do over $4 million a year in sales), we hired full-time managers and some full time workers. This business system is codified in US cooperative law. You may not call your business a coop unless it meets the legal requirements of the coop. Rural electric coops were an early example of a consumer coop, where the consumers of a service or product got together to provide it for themselves. Credit unions are money coops, where the consumers are also the owners of the bank. Wheat, dairy, and other farm product coops are marketing coops, where the members provide the capital to market their crops as a single business, rather than individually. I think Land O' Lakes dairies are a coop. Anyway, it is an alternative business system, codified in US law, so that the business is owned by the consumers of the service or product. Part of the law is that only people who meet certain criteria can join the cooperative. In housing coops, you buy a share of the coop, which makes you a part owner of the house or houses owned by the cooperative. Some coops are single family units (in Ann Arbor there are 20 or 30 of them) others, owned by the UM Housing Coop, are shared living space, whose membership is limited to students at the UM. In this coop, the work to maintain and feed the residence and residents is mostly done by the owners themselves.
(Nitpick: It's the Ann Arbor Inter-Cooperative Council now, membership is open to any students at Washtenaw County schools, and non-students can move in if the house votes to allow it.) If you're not interested in socialism or alternative business models, then yeah, it's a glorified roommate setup. But it's a glorified roommate setup that seems to work pretty well. When I shared an apartment with four other people, nothing got done and we were at each others' throats the whole time. I lived in a house of 45 people last year, and it ran ten times as smoothly.
Thanks for the nit-picks. I didn't know those things.
If it works well, wonderful. That's why I was intrigued. I don't think I'll see it out here, though.
Actually, REI (Recreational Equipment ?I) is one of the country's biggest coops. As I remember, they got their start in Oregon or Washington.
A quick web search turned up the Kindermeadow Housing Co-Op in Olympia, the Sherwood Cooperative in Seattle, a few co-op houses at Oregon State University, a Student's Cooperative Association in Eugene, and a bunch of houses in Portland. Now, these are all probably on the wrong side of the Cascades from you, right? I'm not finding any student housing co-ops on the east side of Washington or Oregon, or any at all in Idaho. Still, as Colleen points out, there are definitely other sorts of co-operative businesses in your neck of the woods. Quick, someone get me off my soapbox...
resp:30 that sounds about right.. resp:31 yep, Dan, all on the west side. But of course, there are a number of farmer co-op stores. That's it, though. Pretty basic. No herbs, spices, etc.-- just mostly a Joe Conservative Farmer deal.
Some techniques are really good for scaling (sous vide, roasting). Measure by mass, not volume, as you can scale more easily, and can just retare to add the next ingredient. Use techniques that offer a wide margin for error (sous vide, braising, etc), since your cadence will be different to cook for 40 versus ooking for 4. Fussy dishes and proper plating go out the window unless you have a crew. Just serve family style. Casseroles scale nearly linearly, and are always appreciated.
Soups stretch easily too.
You have several choices: