Our Kitchen

As a mostly-raw, fruit-heavy, and strictly-vegan intentional community — our kitchen is the beating heart here at Terra Fruits.

The Banana Cabinet

If you like bananas, you’ll love our kitchen!

Photo of a very large wooden cabinet with 9 shelves that are full of bananas.
Our Banana Cabinet

Over the past several years, we’ve planted hundreds of banana trees. While we certainly have plenty of cavendish bananas, you’ll also find an unlimited supply of oritos as well as lesser quantities of 12 other banana varieties.

All food grown at Tera Frutis is shared by the community. And because of the overabundance of bananas, we have an unlimited supply for all — year-round.

Food Prep Areas

We have two large stone-countertop food preparation areas; each has space for about 3 people.

Photo of an outdoor kitchen with 3 sinks visible, a refrigerator, a chest freezer, a 4-burner gas stove, 3 blenders, 1 food processor, a lemon juicer, two large food prep areas, two water filters, compost buckets, seating for 5, and a wide variety of bowls and cutlery.
Our Community Kitchen meets the needs of many people cooking (or not) simultaneously

We have several large cutting boards and about a dozen knifes. We have a whetstone.

Blender Areas

Terra Frutis is tied to the Ecuador grid with ample power for electrical appliances like blenders and food processors.

Photo shows two blenders, one food processor, and one citrus juicer
Community blenders and a food processor

Unfortunately, abuse of our blenders leads to regrettable blender attrition and death. But, at the time of writing (October 2023), we currently have two community blenders (600W & 1,500W), one food processor (450W), and an electric citrus juicer.

Fridge, Freezer

We have one (342 L, 360 W) refrigerator at Tera Frutis that’s shared by all members.

The glass-door design reduces power consumption by eliminating the need to open the fridge door to inspect its contents.

Space is fairly limited in the fridge.

A large fridge with a glass door stands next to a chest freezer
We share space in one large refrigerator and one chest freezer

We have one chest freezer at Tera Frutis that’s shared by all members.

Generally we have plenty of space in the freezer. About half of it is occupied by large tubs of processed frozen bananas, which are great in smoothies or used to make delicious 1-ingredient (n)ice cream in the food processor 🙂

Sinks

Our kitchen has four (4) sinks.

Photo of an outdoor kitchen with four sinks
Our kitchen has 4 sinks

The water in the kitchen comes from a private spring on the property that’s located about 350 meters away from our kitchen.

The spring water in the sinks is safe to consume if boiled, but we do not recommend drinking it or brushing your teeth with it.

Drinking Water

For drinking water, we have a gravity water filter that uses a dome ceramic candle cartridge to safely remove bacteria & parasites up to 1-micron in size.

Everyone in the community contributes to manually filling the water filter’s tank with water from the sink as-needed.

Community Spices

We have a shelf of spices that are shared by the community.

Photo of a shelf full of spices, including various jars and plastic storage containers of herbs
Community Spices

Everyone in the community contributes by buying spices when we’re low — especially for the spices that they personally use a lot.

Food Storage Cabinets

As fridge space is limited, we have built several large, shaded, and screened-in outdoor cabinets for storing of personal fruits & veggies.

Photo of two large wooden, screened-in cabinets full of food.
Food storage cabinets for residents

Bowls

Our kitchen has an abundance of various-sized, stainless-steel bowls and cutlery.

Photo of a very large food-preparation counter with shelfs containing dozens of large steel bowls
Food Prep Counter, Steel Bowls, Cutlery

Dehydrators

We have three (3) differently-sized Excalibur dehydrators.

Phot of three dehydrators branded "Excalibur"
Dehydrators

Sugar Cane Juicer

We have a 2 HP electric sugar cane juicer, which we use to juice canes that we grow on our property.

Stove

For those who wish to cook their food, we have a 4-burner gas stove.

Photo of a 4-burner gas stove with a blue gas pipe coming out of it.
Gas stove

Last updated on October 19, 2023

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