GREENFIELD, Mass. — Stephen Bethel's idea of selling his organic salad dressing almost went down the drain. His home kitchen isn't big enough for commercial production of the four flavors he's always mixed up for friends and family, and expanding it would suck away the cash needed to invest in marketing and ingredients. But Mr. Bethel's Kanghi Organic Miso Salad Sauce should be on store shelves in February thanks to the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center, where small business owners can rent space to whip up their recipes without worrying about huge startup costs.

        “The idea of a cooperative kitchen is perfect for what we're doing,” said Mr. Bethel, who will begin bottling batches of his dressing in February with his partner, Kristen Estey. Although they live in Hillsboro, N.H., Mr. Bethel and Ms. Estey say they won't mind making the 75-minute trip to the food processing center.

        “We couldn't go into business without it,” he said.

        Tucked behind a motorcycle dealership and lined with stainless steel counter tops, sinks, mixers and ovens, the 1,800-square-foot commercial kitchen certainly doesn't have a “homemade” feel.

        But some of the 10 entrepreneurs who will begin using the space to cook up their original recipes during the next few months say there was no other place for their businesses to grow. “Instead of making 20 or 30 dough balls at a time, we'll be able to make batches of 100,” said Craig White of Greenfield, co-owner of the Hillside Organic Pizza Co. Mr. White and his partner, Bob Lindner, have been making their cheese, pepperoni and pesto pies for fund-raising groups for the past four years.

        With groups now ordering hundreds of pizzas, Mr. White and Mr. Lindner needed more space than they had at a nearby church and private school kitchen.

        “We'll be able to grow enough here so we can open a place of our own in about a year and a half,” Mr. White said. “And it's going to be great to walk into a bank and say we already have 100 existing customers.”

        The center is the latest of about 15 such culinary incubators in the country, and the first in Massachusetts, said manager Andrea Kohles. It is an offshoot of the Franklin County Community Development Corp., which gives loans, work space, advice and support to fledgling businesses in the area.

        About 10 years in the making, the food processing center was set up with $800,000 in state and federal grants. The center is a nonprofit organization, and its success depends entirely on whether people use it.

        There's enough room in the kitchen for three businesses to operate at the same time. For as much as $35 an hour, aspiring chefs have access to the convection oven, six-burner gas stove and 40-gallon steam kettle.

        “Just making one kettle of sauce a day will fill a lot of 12-ounce bottles,” said Mr. Bethel, who figures he'll sell his salad dressings for about $4 a bottle.

        Also on hand is a 35-gallon tilting skillet, double-decker pizza ovens and an area specially designed for tempering chocolate.

        The cooks can rent room in the walk-in freezer and refrigerator and store their supplies in secured pantries. Along with their ingredients, the only thing the cooks need to bring with them are utensils.

        Once they get state-issued food processing licenses and are allowed to sell what they make, their products are guaranteed local shelf space through an agreement the center has with a food market in Greenfield.

        “This whole thing is about getting local people to buy locally produced food in a local store,” Ms. Kohles said.

        Cooks are encouraged to buy fruits and vegetables from Franklin County farmers, and some farmers plan to set up in the kitchen to squeeze more profit out of their crops.

        “I'm definitely hoping to get a little more income out of my farming,” said Dave Gott, a blueberry farmer in Heath who plans to make jams, jellies and sauces out of his organically grown fruit. “This center has a lot of potential to enhance the local farming economy and help out some new small businesses at the same time.”

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