Susan Aye

Your best bet is to call the dept that manages zoning, and they will tell you exactly what you need. It’s common for areas to require special use permits like this, and yes, they can be complicated and expensive. I don’t think there’s any legal way to avoid it, if you need it.

Yes, that is considered a cottage food, and no, you can’t sell it on Etsy unless you are using a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

As long as all of the proceeds go to the nonprofit, usually there is an exemption that you can use: http://forrager.com/faq/#nonprofit

No — that would be considered an indirect sale.

1) I don’t think customers can pick it up from your home. Probably the best thing would be to deliver the items.

2) It would depend on your local zoning laws, since that might increase foot and car traffic in a residential area. Since I just focus on the cottage food laws, I haven’t really tracked resources for commercial food businesses, but the…[Read more]

Some farmers markets are produce-only, but I’ve seen many CFOs successfully sell baked goods at the markets that allow them. I’ve seen two distinct approaches: the niche approach and the bakery approach. The former focuses on a few select products, and the latter offers an array of baked goods. The former can command higher prices but the latter…[Read more]

Yes, you should be able to sell from your home, assuming you have your landlord’s permission.

I don’t think that spice blends are allowed, but I’m not completely sure, since the law recently changed. If you could sell them, it would only be at farmers markets. You can contact the health dept to check.

You need to use a commercial kitchen to produce salads, and I’m not sure if they’re taxable. You will need to contact the health dept. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

Since you are making the sale, this is an indirect, out-of-state order. She needs to have a license that will allow indirect and out-of-state sales, which may not be allowed with a TN domestic kitchen license. There’s a very good chance that she will need to open a commercial bakery in order to do this. Unfortunately, I can’t give a definitive…[Read more]

Ashley, you won’t be able to transfer it. You will just need to start up a new business in Florida under their cottage food law, just the same as if you had initially lived there. It’s actually much easier to start a CFO in FL, but also much more restrictive, as you can only sell $15K of product per year.

How to close down your business in GA…[Read more]

No — to sell pet food in Illinois, you need to use an approved facility, and you need to contact the ag dept.

I highly doubt it, but I suppose that if the baker was a licensed TN domestic kitchen, then the ag dept for the county of the Indiana farmers market might allow those indirect sales.

Sales need to be made directly between the customer and producer. A farmers market wouldn’t be able to take orders on the behalf of a vendor. A producer could probably do a paper order (pre-order) one week at the farmers market and collect money then, and then fulfill the order at the next week’s market. But I don’t think anything beyond that…[Read more]

No — you need to go through the health dept and use a commercial kitchen, unless you are merely assembling unopened, commercially-prepackaged items and/or uncut produce. If you are selling anything perishable, like meat, cheese, cut vegetables, etc., you can’t do this from home.

An alternative may be to become licensed as a private chef and do…[Read more]

Ryan, thanks for posting that info. Just in case it’s not clear to someone reading this, that info provides a definition for vanilla extract, but you’d still need to contact your ag or health dept to determine the licensing required to sell it.