Chris Martin with bakernobakery
Chris Martin of Charlottesville, VA shares how she used her experience working at 3-star Michelin restaurants to build a successful cottage food bakery, and then reinvented it despite its popularity
Elena-Maria Hert with European Baked Delights
Elena-Maria Hert of Billings, MT shares how she persisted to create a successful cottage food bakery, despite struggling to acquire customers, source ingredients, and achieve work/life balance
Maci Reed with Bake-a-Reed
Maci Reed of Dover, NH shares how she rapidly built a successful cottage food bakery by focusing on helping others and fostering community, and eventually sold over 1,000 baked goods in a single day
Jenn Bowersock with Jenn’s Backstube
Jenn Bowersock of Sidney, OH runs an authentic German bakery from her home, and shares how she went from struggling as an entrepreneur to experiencing rapid success by finding product/market fit
Alexis Kron with Bakednaz
Alexis Kron of Bullhead City, AZ shares how she built a successful cottage food bakery selling luxury custom cakes, despite overcoming personal challenges and facing resistance from her community
Ka’Terra Dettbarn with Sweet Addiction
Ka’Terra Dettbarn of Ocean City, MD endured lots of trial and error when starting a cottage bakery with her sister, but by persisting and listening for guidance, they transformed it into a success
Valerie Allensworth with The Donut Lady
Valerie Allensworth of Sitka, AK shares how she built a very successful cottage food business by focusing on consistency, despite living on a remote island in Alaska and facing many unique challenges
Marci Larson with Kahler’s Cakes
Marci Larson of Sioux Falls, SD shares how she turned her longtime dream of selling baked goods into a reality and built a successful cottage food business by selling wholesale and at many events
Jenifer & Tristan Hoke with The Drunken Chef
Jenifer & Tristan Hoke of Tecumseh, OK share how they used sheer persistence to overcome early sales struggles, and found a business model that works so well that they now can’t keep up with demand
Megan Shonka with Happy Mango Bakery
Megan Shonka of Papillion, NE shares the highs and lows of her home-based bakery journey, the importance of being involved in her community, and her plans to expand into a brick-and-mortar storefront
Deanna Martinez-Bey with The Fiery Whisk Bakery
Deanna Martinez-Bey of Wake Forest, NC is a multi-faceted food entrepreneur and shares her experience in building a cottage food bakery, writing books, managing social media, and running pop-up events
Anything Is Possible with Emily Vanlandingham
Emily Vanlandingham of New Orleans, LA runs a home bakery that focuses on school celebrations, and shares the triumphs, lessons, and challenges that have come from creating her very unique business
Two Cultures In One with Fawzeya Owda
Fawzeya Owda of Norwood, OH shares her unique journey from home bakery to commercial kitchen when her Palestinian-inspired cheesecake allowed her to build her own American Dream to support her family
Don’t Let Life Crush Your Dreams with Carla Jones-Harris
Carla Jones-Harris of Pennsauken, NJ shares her 30-year journey of starting a successful gluten-free and vegan bakery after facing many painful setbacks that tried to get in her way
Launching A Keto Bakery From Home with Sari Stevenson
Sari Stevenson of Costa Mesa, CA shares how she started a keto bakery and sold over $50,000 of homemade baked goods within the first year, leading her to move into a commercial kitchen to keep growing.
How The Coronavirus Pandemic Impacted The Cottage Food Industry in 2020
Recently I was asked to briefly describe how COVID-19 has impacted the cottage food industry this year. Here’s what I wrote:
“The pandemic has impacted everyone differently, but it has impacted everyone. Some cottage food businesses have shut down temporarily or permanently, while just as many others have seen their sales skyrocket. More cottage food businesses started this year than any other by far, and overall, the pandemic has caused a huge surge of interest in this industry.”
That’s a very simplified view of what has been a crazy and complex year.
In this post, I’ll dig into some of the major trends and story lines that impacted the cottage food industry in 2020.
13 Years Old and Already In Business with Lauren Inazu
Lauren Inazu of St. Louis, MO shares what she’s learned about legally starting her cottage food business as a 13-year-old, in hopes of inspiring other young entrepreneurs to try it out as well.
Launch your home bakery business in Wisconsin, legally!
Is the aroma of sweet victory coming from the ovens of Wisconsin wafting your way? Here in our state we can finally – legally – sell homemade, non-hazardous baked goods. Or more specifically, it took over five years, three cottage food bills that never passed and a successful lawsuit so that here in Wisconsin we… [read more]
Starting A Cottage Food Operation – Allowed Foods
In most states, you can only sell certain types of homemade food. Most cottage food laws only allow nonperishable food items, but some states allow almost all types of food, while other states are very restrictive. Learn about what types of homemade food products you can sell under your cottage food law.
Lobbying for or Amending a Cottage Food Law
Live in a state with no cottage food law? Get one passed. If your state law is limited, you’ll need to amend an existing cottage food law. Here’s how.