David Crabill

I see now. Have you contacted the ag dept to verify that they do, in fact, permit home food processing establishments? The law is there in theory, but I still have yet to see one implemented. I know a number of counties don’t allow them at all.

So if they will allow one with zoning approval, then I think it’s just a matter of education for the zoning board. Of course the entire point of having the home food processing establishment law is to allow these types of businesses in residential zones. You are correct that that type of business is separate from a commercial food business. However, it’s usually possible to have a commercial kitchen permitted on a residential property, especially one the size of yours. So the difference really shouldn’t matter from a zoning perspective. The difference in the eyes of the ag dept is that the former allows you to use your home kitchen, while the latter requires you to build a separate kitchen.

The person in charge of zoning probably hasn’t dealt with this before. He’s correct that a traditional bakery wouldn’t be allowed in a residential zone. That’s what he’s familiar with so his response makes sense. But if you understand what the zoning board cares about, it should be quite doable to get them to realize that you actually should be allowed to receive a zoning variance. They want to make sure that your business doesn’t make a residential zone start to feel like a commercial one. Since you are mainly looking into wholesale accounts, you can specify that you either won’t have customers coming to your property, or specify limits on how many customers you will allow per day. Both restrictions are commonly found in laws and ordinances across the country, and work well to meet the needs of both zoning boards and CFOs.

Shereena, here’s the link to the website tutorial: https://forrager.com/learn/website/

I’m not sure if the health dept has taken an official stance on that. I could see it going either way… either they allow it because it’s nonperishable, or they don’t because it’s alcohol-based. If you learn more after contacting them, I’d love to know the answer!

Thanks Roberto! Jessie accidentally responded to your message via email (which came to me). Here’s her response:

Hi Roberto, thank you so much for your response to my post. Italy is a place I’ve always dreamed about visiting. I should’ve been born there because I love all the cuisine, culture, landscape, etc.

I so appreciate your feedback on my hard candy dilemma. I have tried so many times to replicate it and have yet to succeed. I have even tried making it was just powdered sugar to see if that made a difference, but it didn’t. I will try your suggestion of the “brute force” next time I give this a shot. After many attempts to replicate it, I had come to the conclusion that it must be just a product of a mistake or oversight on my part.

I want to thank you for spending so much time responding to me. All the information you shared is very helpful and validated some of what I was thinking. I love to cook and bake and I’m always willing to try some thing new. Making hard candy is a new love I discovered after trying to replicate the caramel “Nips” hard Candy that I have loved since I was a teenager. I’m a pretty persistent person, so I will continue my trial and error experimentation to replicate my mystery candy :-) But this time, I’m going to pay attention to each step I take and note any changes I see happening during the cooking process. Take care Roberto!

For the fruit blossoms, I don’t know but I doubt it. For the second, it probably depends on your county. Some counties will be very strict and will say no to anything that’s not on the official state list of allowed foods. Either way, I recommend that you contact your local environmental health dept for clarification on whether you can make these items.