Uprooted Vegan Cuisine is the latest CSRA food business to join the unique shared prep concept of OPP Kitchen. As ABD’s Gary Kauffman reported last week, the new space was started by Onnie Stafford, owner of Paleo Num Yums, to save her own struggling business.
OPP (Other People Prepping) will give other food-based small businesses a chance to grow their craft and sell their products under one roof. For Jenn Kraus, owner of Uprooted Vegan Cuisine, the partnership was a perfect fit. She’ll be sharing space there at the beginning of August.
“We’ll start with leasing time on Mondays for our weekly meal plan preps. It will certainly make everything a lot more efficient,” Krause explained, “and the dry storage, cooler space, and retail options are a bonus.”
Uprooted offers vegan dishes as a three-day or weekly option by online ordering. Kraus also takes orders, sells food, and offers custom catering at various locations around town including Cork and Cap and Cold Creek Nurseries in Aiken.
Vegetables are undeniably a huge culinary trend. In restaurants across the country, locally sourced veggies are pushing meat to the side of the plate or sometimes, completely off it. Kraus didn’t jump on the bandwagon of farm-to-table because of the growing popularity, for her, it was a lifesaving measure.
“In 2004, I was diagnosed with renal failure. I did at-home dialysis for more than 6 hours, every night seven days a week. I decided then to go vegan and it drastically changed my kidney function for the better.”
Root vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, packed with vitamins and flavor. Both Kraus and her doctors believe the decision to go vegan gave her another eight years before needing a kidney transplant.
In the meantime, because of demand, she has also added mostly gluten-free dishes to her menu. Between vegan and gluten-free, it’s a great option for the millions of people suffering from food allergies including Kraus’s daughter who struggles with 23 food allergies.
Kraus is a woman of many talents. She is a certified speech therapist with a background in restaurant management. She always wanted to go to art school, but her father told her, “You’ll never make a living as an artist.”
A well-known adage among chefs is “You eat with your eyes first.” Kraus is creating art on a plate with turnips, carrots, and an assortment of other root vegetables. She is living proof of what your mother may have told you a million times when you were a child. “Eat your veggies. They are good for you.”
Kraus’s goal is to redesign vegan cuisine. She is also reinventing how it will be delivered, first by joining OPP Kitchen, and later she’ll be adding a redesigned horse trailer, complete with a kitchen and pull-out deck, for serving at events and parties.
For more information on Uprooted Vegan Cuisine meal plans and pick-up options, you can follow their Facebook page or website.
Editor’s Note:
Mitzi Oxford is a veteran broadcaster and features writer who also worked at the same television station in Columbus, Georgia as Augusta’s Brad Means!
If you have a South Carolina story idea for Mitzi, please email her at mitzioxfordcreative@gmail.com.
