Body:

1. It’s a Wrap: The Beauty of Proper Packaging

Like a knight donning his shining armor, your baked goods need a protective barrier to face the world. Under cottage food laws, packaging should be clean, sturdy, and impermeable. Think of it as a fortress for your delicious delights, guarding against contaminants and preserving freshness. Whether you’re using plastic clamshells or cellophane bags, make sure they’re as reliable as a valiant steed.

2. The Art of Labeling: A Tale of Information and Allure

Labeling your home-baked products is where the magic truly lies. It’s where you can weave a story that whisks customers away to a land of indulgence. But remember, even the most enchanting tales must adhere to the rules of the realm. Your label needs to include:

– The name of your product (let your creativity soar like a phoenix, but be clear and concise)
– The ingredients (a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to the source)
– The weight or quantity (a measure of your boundless generosity)
– Your name and address (the humble abode of the creator)
– A disclaimer stating that the product was made in a home kitchen (an honest proclamation to your loyal subjects)

3. Allergen Alerts: Guardian Angels of the Ingredient Kingdom

In the land of culinary delights, allergens can be mischievous tricksters. Unmask them by clearly listing common allergens (such as nuts, dairy, and gluten) on your label. By doing so, you’ll provide a beacon of safety to those navigating the treacherous waters of food allergies.

4. Sealing Your Fate: The Royal Decree of Compliance

Once you’ve adorned your creations with captivating labels and sturdy armor, it’s time to ensure they meet the requirements of your kingdom’s cottage food laws. Reach out to your local health department or regulatory agency for guidance and approval. With their blessing, you’ll be ready to unleash your culinary masterpieces upon the world.

Conclusion:

In the realm of home baking, packaging and labeling are the gatekeepers to success. By following cottage food laws and embracing the art of storytelling, you’ll transform your scrumptious creations into a symphony of compliance and allure. Now, go forth and conquer the world, one tantalizing treat at a time!

The post Title: Baking Your Way to Success: The Art of Packaging and Labeling under Cottage Food Laws appeared first on Dough Raising Mom.

But for one husband and wife team in Michigan, they coupled their love of baking with their passion to help other people. Meet Lisa and Jim Tubergan. They own a small cottage food business called “The Shed”. I have told you about many other cottage food bakers, but what is different about Lisa and Jim is the fact that helping others is the primary focus of their business.

This menu board tells the story. When Lisa hears of a family or community need, she takes action. She posts it on their Facebook page to let the community know that they will take orders for their delicious baked goods that are in high demand. Then, they donate all the proceeds to pay for the need.

At first they paid for all the ingredients out of their own pockets. They worked seven days a week to meet the need. It has grown a lot as have the expenses. Now they pay for the ingredients out of what is raised. They don’t hand cash to others, instead they pay the bill. They have raised money to pay for funerals, medical bills and are there to help when disaster strikes. 

When they launch a new “relief effort” Lisa posts it on Facebook and the orders start flowing in. It is truly a community helping each other with Jim and Lisa leading by example.

I don’t know about you, but just hearing about this amazing couple humbles me and has me thinking about what we home bakers can do to make the world a sweeter place for everyone to live……

The post Quincy Michigan Has a Real Live Super Hero. appeared first on Dough Raising Mom.

That is what is known as marketing. In the good old days that would require expensive advertising, you know, late night tv ads, yellow pages ads etc. (I realize many of you might not even know what yellow pages are, after all, it was ages ago when we bought one.) Anyway, the great news is that now, social media is the game changer.

As a matter of fact, cottage bakers have turned to Instagram and are having a lot of success. That makes sense because we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. All you need is to do is snap pictures the next time you whip up a batch of your favorite pastry, and then upload them to your Instagram account, and don’t forget Facebook. 

The thing is, you still need to let folks know how and where they can get the goods. Don’t forget that every state has it own laws and regulations and it is important that you follow them. 

Sooooo, full disclosure here, I don’t even have an Instagram account myself, so I am not an expert on that. No worries though, when in doubt. do what I do, and hop on over to YouTube and you will be able to find out how to do whatever you are interested in learning. BTW, YouTube had not contacted me about advertising them!

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If you don’t have your grandma’s famous cookie or cake recipe, no worries, there are plenty of other products to choose from. For example, you might consider one of these: dry goods like baking mixes, soup mixes, dried herbs, coffee, tea, spices seasonings, pasta, or cereal.

But wait, there is more: granola, popcorn, trail mixes, pretzels, dried fruit, health bars, nuts/seeds, crackers. Maybe pastries are your specialty,  fruit pies, fruit tarts, fruit empanadas, or cones.

If none of the above falls in your niche, how about jams, jellies, fruit butters, marmalades, pickles or salsa? As you can see, as the cottage food laws (or even better the food freedom laws) expand, there are more opportunities opening up all the time, you just need to keep in touch with your states laws as they evolve. 

Stay tuned and check back soon. I am going to tell you about some success stories of people who are doing well selling healthy delicious home made  family favorites.

The post Not a Baker? Cottage Food Laws Open the Door for Other Products from Your Kitchen to Grow Your Bank Account. appeared first on Dough Raising Mom.

Cheers have gone up throughout the country as almost all of the individual states have passed cottage food laws. But, and there always seems to be a “but” that lurks in the shadows, for many, although they are now legally able to sell their baked goods from home, have hit a wall at how to get the word out that they are open for business. There is good news , it is not as hard as it used to be to let people know you are ready and willing to make delicious baked goods for them.  You are now a click away from a sale if you set it up correctly.

Meet Megan

Megan Smith is an entrepreneur who has opened a bakery under the cottage food laws in her state. She loves to bake, and grew up learning how to make delicious baked goods from scratch. When the expansion of the laws made it feasible, she quit her retail job and got to work launching her new business, the “French Creek Cakery”

Like all business owners, she immediately had to figure out how to let potential customers know that she was open for business. Since cottage food bakers don’t have a storefront, one of the most effective methods is to market your business online. 

Megan put up a Facebook page for her business and one of the first things posted was her menu.

She posts an item on Facebook and people can call or message her on Facebook with their orders. 

“I usually ask for a three-day notice for an order, but if I have everything I need here, then I just can make it sooner,” Smith said. “They just place the order with me, and then I get back to them with the pick-up time and date, and they can just come pick it up.”

But there is more…

Megan has gone a step further and come up with some brilliant ideas. Each month she offers a DIY kit for the item of the month. In it she includes all the shelf staple ingredients along with special instructions on how to bake it yourself. That way the customer has the satisfaction of making it themself and the pleasure of filling their home with delicious smells. 

Here are some examples of her special monthly offerings.

“June was a Hot Fudge Cake kit, July was soft pretzels, August is movie theater-themed kit with edible cookie dough bites and popcorn,” Smith said. “I include all the dry shelf-stable ingredients, pre-measured so they are ready to go, and instructions to prepare or bake the item. Customers typically only need common kitchen staples such as oil, butter, or milk to complete them, although I try to limit how many extras they need.”

She sweetens the deal by offering a give away at the beginning of the month for one lucky customer when she announces the kit. By doing that, she has customers eagerly checking her Facebook page often to see what the next kit will be! My hat is off to Megan, I hope that she continues to grow her successful business. I also hope that she inspires some other home bakers to follow her lead. What are you waiting for, go BAKE SOME MONEY.

The post How to Get Orders for Your Home Baked Products Made Under Cottage Food Laws appeared first on Dough Raising Mom.

The common arguments include that public health needs protection. No one
disagrees with that premise, however there is no evidence since the inception of cottage food laws that anyone has been made ill by foods sold legally under those laws.

In the age of technology, the reality is businesses that do a bad job usually don’t survive. If a home baker has a great product partnered with equally good service, the word will spread and so will their income. Conversely , producing a bad product or service the word will spread and the demise of that business is inevitable.

In number of states to date, internet sales are prohibited. Mississippi Health Department took that even farther and sent cease and desist letters to home bakers who posted pictures of their products on their social media platforms. Fortunately they have stopped that.

Is it time to remove income caps?

Since the economy is a big concern for many states, allowing home bakers to maximize what they can earn by the effort that they are willing to invest only makes sense. The more the bakers are able to earn, the more they will contribute to the tax base. It enables the nome bakers to earn a living, provide alternative food choices for the public.

In Mississippi it seems that there may good news on the horizon. The legislature seems to be interested in expanding and updating the current laws. They are considering increasing the cap to $35,000. In addition the new bill will remove the internet prohibition.

The house passed this new bill unanimously and it is going to the Senate for a vote. There is no decision on that bill yet. Keep your fingers crossed and if you live in Mississippi now would be a great time to contact your representative.

 BRETT KITTREDGE is the Director of Marketing & Communications of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, the state’s non-partisan, free-market think tank. This is what he had to say:

By eliminating the current restrictions on the cottage food industry in Mississippi, we can give consumers new options, grow the economy, and encourage entrepreneurship. Barriers to economic liberty have long existed in Mississippi, but this is something we should be interested in removing, especially during the current times.
We need to embolden small business growth, even the smallest of businesses. Freeing home-based businesses like cottage food operators is the right thing to do.

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Okay, so if you have read anything about cottage food laws, you probably have seen that many states allow sales at Farmers Markets. The first piece of information you need to know is, does your state allow you to sell your products at local Farmers Markets? 

If the answer is yes, then it is time to start some boots on the ground research. Like many things in life, not all farmers markets are created equal. You are going to find out how much traffic they have, can you sell your cottage food products at their market. In addition, if they allow cottage bakers, how many other cottage bakers are selling there and what are they selling. Can you get a shaded spot? Do they have electricity?

Can You Compete?

You will have competition, and that is not necessarily a bad thing if the size of the market and their traffic justifies it. That is another piece of the information you need to know when you are researching. Do your math, how much foot traffic on a given day visits the markets. How many vendors sell the same products you make? When you are visiting, note how much business any competitor has. Perhaps visit at different times to see what the ebb and flow of the traffic. Noting how much product competitors have at the end of the day may give you some clues. Consider making purchases from your competition to see what you can improve on. 

Once you find a market that meets the criteria, you will need to contact them and check if they are accepting new vendors. If so, what are the requirements for renting booth space. For example, do they require you to attend all the days the market is open? Do they have a requirement on what hours you must sell.?  Will they allow you to only sell on a certain day of the week? In other words, can you pick your schedule. Do their fees fit your budget? 

It’s Showtime.

If you have found the answers to all of the above and decide that selling at a particular farmers market is going to work for your business, what next? Marketing is a huge subject, and I certainly can’t cover that in depth here, but I have a couple of suggestions for you to think about. Think about your customers, what will they see when they approach your booth. 

Are your products packaged attractively? How are they arranged? Face it, it your displays are a mess, it doesn’t speak well for your products. You may want to invest in display that can tier your products and appear professional. You may want your motif to give the “farmhouse ” feel. You can find inexpensive display pieces like metal trays, mason jars, you get the drift.

Is your booth or table attractive to kids? Do you have products individually packaged so that parents can purchase treats for their kids of themselves to munch on while they shop? 

The post Are Farmers Markets Great Venues for Cottage Food Bakers? appeared first on Dough Raising Mom.

Although decorated baked goods with popular well known images like Mickey Mouse are exceedingly popular, it is important to know that many images have the protection of a copyright. Using them without permission from the owner of the copyright is against the law and can get you in trouble.

It can also infringe on a trademark if the image represents a brand that has a trademark. To help explain it, here is what I found from an attorney.
“Trademark protection arises when someone uses a word or design as a brand name. When an ordinary consumer sees the image of Mickey Mouse, for example, he or she probably thinks of Walt Disney. A Mickey Mouse cake probably would lead an ordinary consumer to wonder if the cake was authorized by Walt Disney.”

I know that many of you have seen decorated cakes and cookies with popular images on them. Many bakers may be unaware that they are breaking any law. They might think that they are even helping advertise for the rights owner. In most cases, the rights owner does not see it that way. To them, it is other people profiting from their work without permission to do so.

The good news is it may be possible use copyrighted images. The reality of that is, it will probably come at a cost. You have to contact the rights owner or licensing agent to get details about use of their image. You do need to know that may be quite expensive.

If you absolutely want to use those images, but don’t have the budget to buy the license, you can consider purchasing an edible image, toy or topper. In that case, you might be protected by the first sale law. Here is what one attorney had to say about that: “Probably. In general, a rights owner’s rights end after the first sale is made. So, if you purchased a licensed topper or toy, the licensor generally would have no say in how you used that topper or toy including if you incorporated it in a cake. It would have already been compensated as part of your purchase of the licensed item.”

Since none of us want a lawsuit, it is really important to know the law. Don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright or patent. If you have questions, consult your attorney.

The post Is It Legal to Sell Cakes with Copyrighted Popular Characters? appeared first on Dough Raising Mom.

In 2017, the state legislature passed some of the most lenient cottage food laws allowing many homemade meals to be sold by home bakers. The passage of those laws have created many new jobs across the state. What is important to note is that there have been no food related illness complaints against the cottage food law producers.

Unelected Health Department Officials Oppose the Laws

Shortly after the cottage food laws were passed with a large majority, the health department began to greatly limit what cottage laws could permit. They tried for two consecutive years to get changes to the laws passed with no success.

Faced with those failures, the unelected and unrepresentative health department simply acted on its own to pass new regulations that went into effect on January 1, 2020. These regulations severely limit the freedom of the home food producers and failure to comply can result in fines and even jail time.

Determined North Dakotans Take Up a Fight

According to Forbes “The cottage food creators have teamed up with the Institute for Justice to sue the Department in court. Bureaucrats do not get to unilaterally rewrite the law. The role of those in the executive branch is to enforce the laws passed by the Legislature. When legislators refused to change the law to their liking, the Department may not simply go around them. Not only are the regulations illegal, but they are so poorly written that they violate the North Dakota state constitution; the regulators can’t, for example, treat similar foods differently. The cheesecake makers and the cheese pizza makers must be treated the same.”

This battle is one to watch. Cottage food bakers will want to pay attention to the what the courts decide about whether passing those regulations is legal.

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Meet Stephan, he is a cottage baker whose specialty is bread. He had signed up for a winter session of his local farmers market. He had baked his bread in anticipation of opening day . Unfortunately, the market had to close. He had a lot of hard work and ingredients ($$dough$$ in all those loaves.

Getting the word out

Stephan had a lot of bread so he decided that he needed to change his plan. In order to get the word out about how people could get his product, he turned to social media.

Since many potential customers had no knowledge of him or the wonderful bread he baked, he decided to first talk about his bread and tell his story so his customers could get to know him.

He let them know he sourced local wheat and milled it himself. He had a great variety of breads to choose from. He even decided to offer his wheat bread for exactly what his ingredient cost was to try and help out those who might be struggling financially. In addition to the above, he offered delivery or pickup.

It worked like a charm, he sold everything by the end of the weekend. Even better, he had expanded his list of customers and many of those have become repeat customers. He is tweaking his marketing materials and and expanding the selections.

By telling his story, as well as offering his homemade wheat bread at cost, he had people spreading the word about his great products. He built a reputation not only for a great product, but for supporting local farmers, and making his product available at an affordable price to those in need. We all know that word of mouth advertising is “gold”, and he can take that to the bank.

I would like to challenge you to look at your business, and figure out how to market your products in a new and different way. Who knows, maybe your local paper will feature a story about you.

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