Latest / Two Tools, No Clue / E2 Cottage Food Laws
Transcript
- Jey & Anna: Hey everyone, welcome to the Two Tools No Clue podcast. I'm Anna. And I'm Jayden. And today we have no clue about cottage food laws. What are they? What can we actually sell and where? But first, what's going on on the homestead? Well, two days before Christmas, we caught a stray cat. Little stray kitten. Little ragdoll kitten. She's so cute. She is literally Jams Mini-Me. Complete doppelganger. Yep. Just a few small differences. They're definitely sisters, definitely related. Yeah, for sure. And I'm just glad we got them in out of the cold before. The snowstorm hit which is another thing that's happening on the homestead Snowbaggedon. Yeah, we're get it right now 18 inches currently it yeah, I was you know per usual you never really It's going to be so it's going to be so much snow and then nothing ever happens. But today it happened. Yes, there is a lot of snow. It has not stopped. It started like ⁓ probably around like nine a.m. And it's it's hasn't stopped since 6 p.m. And yeah, it has not stopped. think there's at least eight inches out there already. Yeah, we'll see. And then ⁓ we're germinating seeds in freezer bags as an experiment. Yeah, those are out on our porch. went with some hardier seeds, obviously, but I am very excited to see if that got going on there? I've got a cabbage going. I've got some lettuce going, kale, spinach. What else did I put out there? I can't honestly, the rest of them I can't quite remember what else I put out there. broccoli. Oh yeah. Broccoli. Bunch of cold weather stuff. Bok choy, right? Oh yeah. Bok choy. Oh yeah. I did, guess, two, technically two cabbages. Um, yeah, I'm excited to see how that works out. Um, I saw, what was that? Tik Tok. It was on Facebook because I don't, I don't, I'm not actually, I don't watch Tik Jey doesn't do the Tik Toks. Yeah, I don't do the Tik Toks. I thought it was cool. So I set it up similar. I put it on our porch so that it can still kind of get, you know, the right the elements on it. ⁓ Well, got like a little greenhouse effect going on out there. I saw it the other day. It's like, you know, got all the mist and everything going on. So I think it will work. Yeah, we'll see. That'd be cool. All right. Just bag of dirt. Let's get into the cottage food. Yes. ⁓ So I just want to start off with a disclaimer. Cottage food laws are constantly being updated. I believe that. Yeah. I was given a lot of different answers depending on where I was looking. So just make sure you do your own research for your specific state that you live in and make sure you're not just taking the word of just one source because I would go on one website and then go on another one and it would say two different things. And then I go on a third. It was a mess. Honestly, that was probably the most challenging part about starting, you know, making our stuff for the farmers market. Yeah. I was like trying to figure out like what we were allowed to do and how we were allowed to do it. And then halfway through, it took the fun out of everything for a second. Yeah. Halfway through, we realized we weren't even doing things correctly. Yeah. It was even more strict than we realized. Yeah. And yeah, that's the part that took the fun out of it. It so un-fun. So. I'm just gonna reiterate, I have no clue what I'm talking about. So if I get something wrong, if you have a correction, please, please, please email us at twotoolsnocluepodcast@gmail.com. I would love your criticism, your constructive criticism. Yeah, same. Criticize me. Yes. Constructively. Constructively only. ⁓ Please. All right. So. Cottage food laws, what are they? They are laws that allow entrepreneurs to make food in their homes or cottage and sell it to the public with little to no regulations or oversight. The National Agricultural Law Center says, quote, these state cottage food laws aim to recognize that foods such as baked goods, jams, dry mixes and candies are not potentially hazardous and pose a low risk of food contamination. End quote. So basically foods that are shelf stable and don't need to be refrigerated. Every state in the United States has their own version of cottage food laws. Every single one. No. Yeah. And some states are very strict. Yes. I'll get into that. This is because every state's government has a different definition of what makes a food potentially hazardous. So the requirements for handling food in the home differ. For instance, New Hampshire, where we're from, New Hampshire's cottage food law is two tiered, licensed and unlicensed. So unlicensed, which is what we are, what Watson Acres Homestead is, means that your homemade food can only be sold out of the home, at a farm stand, or at a farmer's market. There are no registrations or inspections required. But. We can't sell more than 35,000 every year. It used to be 20,000, but apparently it was raised. That's pretty cool. Good to know. We are only allowed to sell baked goods, candies, dry mixes, spices, honey, cracked nuts, fruit butters, but they require a process review and jams and jellies, but they have to be recipes approved by the National Center for Home Food Preservation. And that's the part that we didn't realize. And it got like not very fun. Spices in there. weren't being too crazy, but it was so kind of just like, mean, we were just making a blueberry jam based on a blueberry jam recipe we found online. But they want it to be, they want it to be specifically their recipe so that they know what is going into every single bottle of jam being sold in New Hampshire. ⁓ But if if anyone ⁓ From New Hampshire is looking to sell their cottage food out of their home I will link the National Center for home preservation in the show notes. Yeah We appreciate that so otherwise you need a homestead license to sell food online to ship food and to sell it wholesale or at event The license has an annual cost of $150 requires a water test and a process review of jarred items Also a sample of your labels Anna makes some pretty dope label I try Could be better Thank ⁓ Delaware here we go. Are they fancy folks? no, it's quite the opposite I wasn't expecting that out of Delaware. Good job, Delaware. No, no. ⁓ I guess. What do you I guess I don't know what you're considering fancy folk. Let me just say, let me just tell you. Delaware is one of the states that has the most strict cottage food laws. Fancy folk. Yeah. OK. So why are you saying good on? Because I when you said the opposite, I was like, ⁓ never mind. ⁓ I see. I see. I see. I see. was wrong. Registration and inspections are required. You need to complete food handler training and after all that you're only allowed to make baked goods, jams and jellies and candy. You're not allowed to sell anything online to retail outlets or wholesale and there's no option of getting any kind of license. What? How do you become, how do entrepreneurs entrepreneur? don't, you don't. Boo Delaware. It's okay. We're living free in New Hampshire. It sucks to suck for you Delawareans, but us here in New Hampshire, we're living free. Come on up to New Hampshire folks. ⁓ I was trying to figure out which state passed the first cottage food law, but depending on how I phrased the question, Google kept. spitting out a few different answers. Okay. I think it's because a few states already had broad version of what they called food freedom laws. Okay. So it's just like a different wording around it. But the first quote comprehensive modern cottage food law unquote was passed by California in 2013. So let's get into it. That was recent. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, let's get into it. Advocacy for the law was sparked when a beloved home baker named Mark Stambler had his bread featured in the Los Angeles Times. Wow. Cool. Good for him. Yeah, right. It's always the bread people. telling you. It all started because he had built a small brick oven in his backyard and was baking batches of bread from his outdoor bakery and selling them to his friends and neighbors. Obviously he was growing in popularity to get the attention of the LA Times and I'll put a link in a link to that article in the show notes if anyone is interested in reading Mark's Article that was written about him back in the day. I think you might have to pay a subscription to read it though But if you have a subscription to the LA Times go on and read that article Alright so he gets this this article in the LA Times and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health sees the article and says, excuse me, outdoor, outdoor bakery selling to check it out, selling to friends and family. Absolutely not. So they swoop in and shut him down the very next day, the very next day. Did they try the bread? I don't think so. Maybe that would have changed their minds. I bet it would have. Wow. This natural air is really enhancing the flavor of this bread. So Stambler got the help of the sustainable economies law center in Oakland and the 300 member deep Los Angeles bread bakers group and began to write the first cottage food law for California. Yeah. All right, Callie. I see you. Assemblyman and supporter of micro enterprise, Mike Goddow got involved. completely on his own accord when he read the article in the newspaper about Stambler and his struggles as a home baker. He personally called Stambler up and offered to help. That's incredible. Right? Yeah. He was like not on my watch, not in my county. Absolutely not. My bakers will be able to sell their bread. So he introduced the law to the assembly where it passed with a 60 to 16 vote and then passed unanimously in the Senate. Power of the people, folks. I'm curious why those 16 people didn't want it to pass. Yeah, me too. What's your beef with bread, people? I can't think, like maybe, I don't know. Mean that I'll get to it there are maybe there's fancy folk Yeah, there's one guy who's like a hater so like I sell bread in it from a factory Yeah, the commercial guys. Yeah Stambler was one of the first in Los Angeles County to receive a cottage food operator permit rightfully so And in 2015, he was named one of the top 10 best bakers in the U.S. Oh, my gosh. Now, as far as I can tell, baking that he did. Yeah, trying to keep me away from my friend. I'm going to be the best baker in the U.S. God damn baker So now, as far as I can tell, he continues to bake for his bakeries. I'm pretty sure he's still alive. I didn't see anything saying he wasn't. So he's still out there. He better be. was only 2013. Well, he was an older man in 2013. Oh, OK. You better still be out there baking your bread. You better still be out there, Mark. Thank you, Mark, for leading the way. You know, I make sweet breads. very afraid of regular breads. Yeast. Yeast. So his, his bakery is called, his first one was called Peignol Boulanger. We need to go there. He seems really fancy too. Kind of fancy. Sorry. And his second bakery is called Penniola on third street. Sorry, Penniola at third street. do you want to guess when the last state to enact a cottage food law was and which state it was? I'm gonna go with Florida. I don't know. In 2018. OK, that's a good guess. I do have something about Florida in here. OK, OK, it's not this though. It was New Jersey in 20. 21. Jersey what the fuck? 2021. 2021. 2021. After the pandemic. They were so bored at home. were like, Hey, you know, you know what? We're really good at. We can bake some really good bread. if that had something to do with it. I bet it didn't say it in my notes, but I wonder. So before October, 2021, New Jersey. What have you been doing this entire time in your homes? So before October 2021, bakers in New Jersey were completely banned from selling their cookies, brownies, cakes, foods even the government had stated were not potentially hazardous. They were only allowed to sell their baked goods at bake sales or for charity. In May of 2017, Wisconsin was the second to last state to enact a cottage food law stating it was unconstitutional. to ban the ability for everyone to sell, for anyone to sell homemade goods. Before any of that, all the way back in 2011, an advocacy effort was started by three New Jersey moms, Heather Rosinco, Martha Rubello, and this last one always gets me, bear with me here, Liz Chubatariu. Final answer. Sorry if I got that wrong, Liz. So these women got together and formed the New Jersey Home Baking Association. Using the momentum from the Wisconsin win and with the representation of the Institute of Justice, they brought forth a lawsuit in December 2017. Rosinko versus New Jersey Department of Health. This is seven months after the Wisconsin win. At the end of the day, New Jersey's cottage food ban seemed to be nothing but politics. Not surprising. ⁓ yeah. mean, I think it's. I think it's crazy that they weren't selling these things all along. Yeah. Under the table. Yeah. Like you're telling me all those Italian grandmas weren't selling their Christmas cookies? Yeah, I was just about to cottage food mafia. Yeah. All right, where was it? Not surprising. That's where I was. Three similar bills to remove the ban were all unanimously passed, but were continuously blocked by Senator Joseph Vitale. I think it's Vitale. I forgot to look up how to say his last name. We're going with Vitaly. It might be Vital. Vitaly. V-I-T-A-L-E. Who serves as, currently, still serves as chairman of the Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee. So glad he's looking after those senior citizens. Why are those two things put together? I don't know. Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens. I guess it makes sense In 2016 Senator Vitale told the Associated Press that commercial bakers were concerned about being undermined by home bakers When a bill approved of a $50,000 revenue cap saying quote If the cap is $50,000, that's potentially $50,000 or some portion that's out of the bottom line of a small baker. What? He's so concerned about small bakers, yet he's literally blocking the smallest bakers from any chance of becoming competition. Yeah. Friendly competition shouldn't hurt your big bakers. Yeah. If you're making $50,000 a year out of your home, like you're doing something right and you deserve the chance to be competition for these commercial bakers. I'm sorry. I agree. Four years later, four years in October, 2021. the court finally ruled to lift the homemade food ban and allow homemakers to sell their non-hazardous foods to the public. Hooray! I just can't get over the fact that it was 2021. Yeah, crazy. Especially when the first was in 2013. Yeah. And there were already freedom food laws before that. New Jersey's so small. Do think that's why? I don't know. New Jersey is so surprising to me too. You think it'd be like Alabama or like more conservative. Yeah, I really thought. I blame everything on Florida. I'm sorry Florida, but it's your fault. It's your fault. Whatever it is, it's your fault. Sorry Florida. Sorry Florida. So if you're from New Jersey, and you'd like to sell baked goods from your home. Now all you need to do is register on the New Jersey Health Department's website, pay for a cottage food operator permit and follow quote, common sense sanitation requirements. Thanks to advocacy work of New Jersey moms. So we'll go moms in New Jersey. Go moms, go New Jersey moms. Because of them, you guys can sell your baked Good. Yeah. So we'll put the website for the operator's permit in the show notes in case any New Jerseyans are listening and interested in starting a home bakery. Sorry I made fun of your accent. Did you? missed that. So like I said at the top of the episode, cottage food laws are constantly being updated. In 2022, Indiana revised their cottage food law to include more potentially non-hazardous food. More of them. So remember, remember what you can sell in Delaware? Yeah. Well, now in Indiana, you can sell baked goods, jams and jellies, candy. That's it for Delaware right there. Yep. But Indiana goes on to let you sell produce, tree nuts, legumes, pickled cucumbers. honey, molasses, maple syrup, cereals, herbs, dry mixes, pasta, spices, coffee, tea, in-shell eggs, get this, some rabbit, fish and poultry, some dehydrated fruits and vegetables and cultivated mushrooms. Okay, Indiana. So as you can see, Indiana is one of the states with the most lenient cottage food laws. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but that's still pretty cool. Well, there's another one on here on this list that I'm like, what the heck? I'll tell you when we get to it. Nevada just voted in a new version of their cottage food law, but it won't go into effect until 2027 because they're currently creating programs and regulations around it. So that's just to show how long it takes for these laws to come into fruition. It's already passed, but two more years. It was passed in 2025. two more years just to get everything right. Just push the paper across folks. Yeah. Not that hard. Right? mean, I guess we don't know what is in the background of all this. So maybe it is. Yeah, probably. Probably is a little hard. Especially with, you know, whatever. Yeah. Texas increased the annual gross cap to $150,000. That one guy was griping about a $50,000 revenue cap. Texas is like, hold my beer. Hundred and fifty thousand dollars is what you can sell in Texas if you're doing that out of your home would send me some magic Yeah, like that's so easy So they they upped it to 150,000 and Expanded the list of non hazardous foods allowed to be sold the update also allows for online sales and sales through third-party vendors and give small home businesses the option to remove their address from the label ⁓ which I thought was pretty cool because having your address on a label that's in some random person's kitchen is a little sketchy, but we do what we got to do. ⁓ North Dakota passed an update that was put into effect in August 2025 that allows for sales over state lines. This is the one that I was like, well. ⁓ that's pretty cool. ⁓ Yeah, I think it's pretty impressive and I wonder. if and how that's being regulated in the state where the product is being shipped. That's interesting. Obviously, that state has their own cottage food law. So does that apply to North Dakota and their shipments? Yeah. Maybe that's why this takes so long for them to figure it out. Yeah, maybe. Like, the limit does not ⁓ Nebraska now allows refrigerated and time temperature controlled foods to be sold. That's pretty cool. Florida, here we go with Florida. Florida, what you ol' Florida raised their annual revenue cap to, you wanna guess? I'll give you a hint. It's more than Texas. $250,000. you making at the farmer's market? Girl, come on. These baked goods also have meth. This is the highest in the US. Only two other states also have $250,000 revenue caps. Do you want to guess what those are? Indiana? No, surprisingly. That's a good guess though. California no, that's a good another good guess and get this Montana and Wyoming What are random? Okay, that is random So at the end of the day Cottage food laws enable small entrepreneurs to sell their homemade non-hazardous food without the costs and regulations that are baked into commercial business In all seriousness, home food makers would not have the ability to make and sell their non-hazardous edible items without the resilient advocacy efforts of those moms, bakers, and regular people who fought for the rights of the small businesses in their state. Go small people. Go underdogs. So that's all I got for cottage food laws. That's what's up. Yeah. Do you have any questions or concerns? I always have concerns. ⁓ You know, I guess I do have a lot of. question. So my first question would be. What do you think that they are producing? down in Texas. That's worth $150,000 a year? Yeah. What is it called like bread? I can't get the word out. you could. It seems like a lot of bread to be pumping out of your kitchen. I I guess I've seen those like micro baking like little houses that people have on their property. I figured it out. I mean. Actually, no, I didn't figure it out because I just looked up what is Texas's, that's a weird word, Texas's most sold crop and it's $1.22 billion industry. And you think that's what they're doing? No, not homesteaders. That's why I took back my answer. I'm like, I didn't actually answer it. Okay. If you guys have any questions, feel free to email us at tootoolsnoclupodcasts.gmail.com. And maybe we can, once we get enough, we can have a compiled episode of all the questions and we can go through and answer them. And they can be questions about homesteading. can be questions about us. They can questions about anything and everything in between. Yes. So I guess we'll do our farmer's almanac of the day to end our episode. And we're going to say it's the 26th because we are recording this right after our first episode. So we have the steam going. But we're going to pretend like it's the next day. So January 26 in the farmer's almanac, conversion of Paul. U.S. First Lady Julia Grant, born 1826. Happy birthday, birthday. Happy birthday, Julia Grant. Happy birthday to you. And just to reiterate those socials on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and threads, you can find us at two tools, no clue podcast on Tik TOK. You can find us. as at two tools, no clue. And on Patreon you can see us at patreon.com backslash two tools, no clue. And definitely email us your funny stories. Any questions you have at two tools, no clue podcast at gmail.com. Thanks for sticking with us, you guys. See you in episode three. Bye, everybody. Bye.