Learn how to start a food business from your home kitchen by hearing stories from cottage food entrepreneurs about how they grew their businesses from the ground up. Does everyone ask for your recipes, or say "You should sell that"? Have you dreamed of starting a brick-and-mortar bakery, or simply want a fun hobby that brings in some extra dough? On this podcast, David interviews a wide range of entrepreneurs across America who legally sell their homemade food via their state's cottage food ...
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Alexis Kron lives in Bullhead City, AZ and sells luxury cakes and baked treats with her cottage food business, Bakednaz. Alexis started her business right at the beginning of the pandemic, and initially she actually faced quite a bit of resistance from other bakers in her area. But by focusing on serving customers and producing excellent products, …
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Tyler & Angie Worthey with Worthey Peppers
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Tyler & Angie Worthey live in Neoga, IL and sell hot sauces and other spicy foods with their cottage food business, Worthey Peppers. Although Angie and Tyler now operate the business as a mother-son team, it was Tyler who originally started it as a freshman in high school. In this episode, Tyler shares how he grew the business throughout his high s…
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Ka’Terra Dettbarn lives in Ocean City, MD, and she and her sister Chakirah sell cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and other baked goods with their cottage food business, Sweet Addiction. Ka’Terra and her sister started the bakery in 2018 and initially thought that they would focus on custom orders of gourmet cupcakes. However, their business had other plan…
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Valerie Allensworth of Sitka, AK sells donuts and other baked goods with her cottage food business, The Donut Lady. Valerie used to work at her mom’s commercial food business, but when she had her son a few years ago, she decided to become a stay-at-home mom. However, after a few months she started feeling the itch to bake more, so she started a co…
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Marci Larson lives in Sioux Falls, SD and sells baked goods, canned goods, and other items with her cottage food business, Kahler’s Cakes. For many years, Marci thought about selling her baked goods, and she finally took the leap in 2019 and started selling to family and friends. But things really took off when she sold out at her first event a cou…
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Jenifer & Tristan Hoke with The Drunken Chef
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Jenifer & Tristan Hoke of Tecumseh, OK sell baked goods, smoked spices, and other items with their cottage food business, The Drunken Chef. In their first year of business, they struggled to find consistent sales, despite trying many marketing avenues, including starting their own farmers market. But finally, they found a sales venue that turned ev…
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Rob Sanz lives in Rockville, MD, and sells sourdough bread with his cottage food business, Rise Artisan Sourdough. Although Rob is a longtime fan of the podcast, he doesn’t always resonate with guests because many of them have gone full-time with their businesses, whereas Rob prefers to keep his bakery intentionally small. In this episode, Rob shar…
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Elisa Marie Lords with Elisa Marie Baking
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Elisa Marie Lords lives in Placentia, CA and sells southern-inspired baked goods with her cottage food business, Elisa Marie Baking. Elisa spent many years as a professional pastry chef, and when the pandemic hit in 2020, she finally took the leap into starting her own bakery from home. Although her sales were slow at first, she didn’t give up and …
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This is Part 2 of the interview with Tiffany Hill. You can listen to Episode 113 to listen to Part 1. In the last episode, Tiffany shared how she started and grew her cottage food business, The Pink Crumbb. In this episode, she shares how she built off of that success by starting an online course business, called Think Pink Bakers, as well as a pac…
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Tiffany Hill of Apple Valley, CA runs three businesses: her cottage food business called The Pink Crumbb, a paid membership community called Think Pink Bakers, and a bakery packaging business called Pink Design Co. Tiffany’s growth trajectory as a cottage food entrepreneur is simply remarkable! With 300,000+ Instagram followers, it’s hard to believ…
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Mark Elvidge with Vermont Nut Free Chocolates
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Mark Elvidge and his wife Gail started their business, Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, back in 1998. At the time, they were the very first U.S. chocolate company to be completely nut-free. They also chose to focus solely on e-commerce at a time when selling food online was very uncommon. Back then, Vermont was one of the only states that had a cottage…
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Monique Germaine of Nashville, TN sells par-baked pizza doughs, cinnamon rolls, shortbreads, and other baked and confectionary goods with her cottage food business, Kneading To Bake. Monique is unique in that she has run her cottage food business in 3 different states so far: Colorado, Georgia, & Tennessee. Plus, before starting Kneading To Bake, s…
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Michelle Dukes lives in Penfield, NY, and sells jumbo muffins and cookies with her cottage food business, The Cookie Cutters. Although Michelle has thousands of Facebook followers and has sold many thousands of baked goods over the past 13 years, she doesn’t run her business to make a large profit or to become a brick-and-mortar someday. Rather, he…
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Shupan Abraham of Lawrenceville, GA sells custom cakes, cupcakes, and other treats with her cottage food business, Cakes By Shupan. Shupan has been selling her cakes since 2006, but her business didn’t truly take off until a decade later when she invested in a coach, which changed everything! Her business is now thriving, and in this episode, she s…
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David Bock lives in Altadena, California, and sells honey with his cottage food business, Buzzed Honeys. David was one of the very first people to sell honey under California’s cottage food law. He’s been running his business for over a decade now and he now does beekeeping full-time. David has a multifaceted business. He specializes in rescuing ho…
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Jessi Deily of Helena, MT sells macarons and custom-decorated meringue cookies with her cottage food business, Colby Jack Rabbit. After struggling for years to make significant money selling her artwork, she started putting her artistic creativity into baked goods which sold like crazy! Once you see her custom meringue cookies, you’ll understand wh…
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Eric & Denise Steilberger with Fudge De Fûge
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Eric & Denise Steilberger of Ocala, FL sell fudge with their cottage food business, Fudge de Fûge. I’m excited to finally have a fudge business on the show! I’ve always thought that fudge only sells well during the holidays, but Eric and Denise have proven me wrong. They sell fudge all year long, and they sell a LOT of fudge to their loyal customer…
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Kristyn Suemnick lives in Murrieta, CA and sells organic sourdough bread with her cottage food bakery, Old Oak Sourdough. Kristyn had long struggled with gluten intolerance and had not eaten gluten for many years, but once she discovered authentic sourdough bread in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, everything changed. She made sourdough bread…
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Megan Shonka lives in Papillion, NE and sells baked goods with her cottage food business, Happy Mango Bakery. Megan has always been an entrepreneur at heart, but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit in 2020 that she finally decided to start her own business. Although she sells baked goods from her home, her real focus is on building community, and that…
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Angela Awunor of Glenn Dale, MD sells high-end custom-decorated cakes with her cottage food business, Angyono Cakes. Most people start their food business from home and eventually move into a commercial kitchen as they grow, but Angela did the exact opposite. When she started her business back in 2016, she chose to rent a commercial kitchen because…
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Denae Spiering lives in Bridgeville, DE and sells baked goods with her cottage food business, The Sugar Shack. Denae started her bakery almost a decade ago, and she has now grown it to the point where she has an impressive storefront on her property and has many regular customers. But it wasn’t a smooth ride to get to this point. In 2016, she stopp…
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Deanna Martinez-Bey with The Fiery Whisk Bakery
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Deanna Martinez-Bey lives in Wake Forest, NC and sells sweet breads and other baked goods with her cottage food business, The Fiery Whisk Bakery. Deanna shares her journey about running a bakery from home, her experiences in getting certified, rebranding, maneuvering around physical challenges that stalled her business, and balancing multiple roles…
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In this very special 100th episode, previous guests come back on to share an update of what’s changed since they were last on the show, if the changes surprised them, and what they’ve learned along the way! You will hear from 50 past guests in this episode, and as you’ll see, their updates are often surprising, which serves as a reminder of just ho…
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Starting A Mission-Driven Business with Nancy Chang
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Nancy Chang of Oakland, CA sells healthy soups with her micro-restaurant, Purpose & Hope. When Alameda County started allowing micro-restaurants (MEHKOs) in 2021, Nancy was among the first to get licensed. However, her business idea had been brewing long before that. It started with her mom’s battle with cancer in 2006, where Nancy saw the benefits…
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Stephanie Wiley of Whitefish, MT sells cookie brittle with her business, Fat Kid Cookie Company. For many years, family and friends raved about Stephanie’s unique cookies and told her, “You should sell these,” but it wasn’t until she tragically lost her 18-year-old son that she decided to completely change careers. Out of that loss came a very stro…
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Healthy Grains, Wealthy Gains with Tamara Ketchian
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Tamara Ketchian lives in Orange, CT and sells gluten-free vegan granola with her cottage food business, Wildwood Granola. Tamara started her granola business in 2021 after years of making healthier granola for her family. After being a long-time stay-at-home mom, she was finally ready to do something for herself. In the past two and a half years, h…
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Don’t Be Afraid Of Failure with Jana LaViolette
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Jana LaViolette lives in Clovis, NM, and sells baked goods, ice cream, candy, and more with her dessert shop, Nanna’s Sweets. Jana’s business journey is simply incredible, but her path to success has not been easy. When she started selling baked goods back in 2014, her business did not take off like she hoped it would. But by persisting, listening …
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It’s A Marathon, Not A Sprint with Robert & Paula Grosz
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Robert and Paula Grosz live in Murray, KY and sell jams and jellies with their cottage food business, Whisky Ridge Farm. When they started their farm in 2015, they planned to sell microgreens and other produce, but after a couple of years, they learned that their value-added products (like jams, jellies, and pickled items) were both more popular an…
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From Corporate Burnout to Cottage Food with Susan Ting
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Susan Ting lives in Needham, MA and sells gluten-free mochi baked goods with her cottage food business, Everyday Bakeshop. During the pandemic, Susan was feeling burnt out from her corporate job, and finally decided to quit. She had no intention to start a business of her own, but after doing more baking at home, along with encouragement from frien…
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The Freeze Dried Trend with Janna Newcomb Walworth
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Janna Newcomb Walworth of Choctaw, OK sells freeze-dried foods with her cottage food business, Janna’s Freeze Dried. Since the pandemic, freeze-dried foods (especially freeze-dried candy) have become a big cottage food trend. Janna bought her first freeze dryer in 2020 to help preserve her family’s food, but little did she know that it would turn i…
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Alisa Woods of Des Moines, IA sells macarons, custom cakes, dessert trays and other baked goods with her home bakery, Sift n Sprinkle. For many years, Alisa followed in her grandmother’s footsteps by competing in dozens of baking competitions at the state fair. And for awhile she dabbled with starting a home baking business, but it wasn’t until she…
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Lora Friemel of Scranton, AR sells jams, jellies, and other canned goods with her business, The Frayed Knot Homestead. Her cottage food business is quite small, but it’s not small because it’s unsuccessful… it’s small because that’s exactly what she wants it to be! Lora is an expert in homesteading, and she sells cottage food products simply to sup…
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Priorities, Passion, & Profits with Leah Livingston
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Leah Livingston lives in Kenosha, WI and sells custom-decorated cookies with her cottage food business, Yaya’s Sweet Treats. Unfortunately, Leah’s cookie business journey began with a miscarriage in 2019, which led her to do a lot of baking as a form of therapy. But as her decorating skills improved, more people started to notice and request cakes …
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Bless Yourself By Blessing Others with Barbara Williford
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Barbara Williford lives in DeBerry, TX, and sells custom cakes and cookies, and other baked goods with her cottage food business, Royalty Sweet Shoppe. Barbara’s business journey started quite by accident in 2010 when she and her daughter took a cake decorating class together, and they immediately got hooked. As they made more cakes and improved th…
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Chelsa Smith lives in Des Moines, IA, and sells sourdough bread, focaccia, and donuts with her cottage food bakery, Bread by Chelsa B. Chelsa never intended to start a bakery, but she discovered the world of sourdough in late 2019 and has been super passionate about it ever since. As she improved her bread-making skills during the pandemic, more an…
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Mike lives in South Lyon, MI, and sells gourmet cookies and custom-decorated sugar cookies with his cottage food business, Men Bake Cookies. Mike’s business started totally by accident in 2021. He was never a baker until he made some decorated cookies for his daughter’s birthday, and people started to take notice. For what Mike initially lacked in …
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Anything Is Possible with Emily Vanlandingham
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Emily Vanlandingham lives in New Orleans, LA and owns The School Bakery, a cottage food business that specifically focuses on school celebrations. She caters to busy parents by delivering cupcakes, cookie cakes, and other baked treats to their children’s class parties. It’s certainly a unique business model, and although she only started it a year …
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Jen Morris, along with her husband Rob, have had a crazy journey as entrepreneurs! They started their cupcake business, Cupcakeology, from their home over a decade ago in Collingdale, PA. Despite facing many challenges such as converting an office lunchroom into their commercial kitchen and filing for bankruptcy, they managed to appear on the Steve…
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Baking Saved My Life with Christina Marquez
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Christina Marquez of Antioch, IL sells cakes, cookies, breads, and other baked goods with her cottage food bakery, Twisted Sifter’s Baked Goods. Christina never expected to dedicate her life to baking, but multiple life setbacks led her to find work that she is truly passionate about. She has now run her business for over a decade, and despite many…
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Stop Letting Fear Run Your Business with Brette Hawks
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Brette Hawks lives near Provo, UT and specializes in selling custom-decorated wedding cakes with her cottage food business, Hobble Creek Cake Co. Despite starting her business just a few years ago, Brette has become one of Utah’s top wedding cake artists. She has over 14k Instagram followers and has been featured by Wilton, Martha Stewart, American…
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Lee Thomas lives in San Leandro, CA and is the first owner of a micro-enterprise home kitchen operation (MEHKO) to come on the podcast. California’s new MEHKO law allows people to start micro restaurants from their home kitchen, but only if their county allows it. Lee recently ran for mayor of the city of San Leandro, and he used his political know…
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It’s been three years since Lisa’s last episode (Episode #5), and much has changed! Lisa Kivirist and her husband (John Ivanko), who live in Browntown, WI, continue to be some of the biggest supporters of the cottage food industry, both in their state and nationally. Here’s what they’ve been up to since the beginning of the pandemic: They spearhead…
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Get Passionate About Sales with Amanda Schonberg
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Amanda Schonberg unloads an incredible wealth of knowledge in this episode! She lives in Baton Rouge, LA and started her journey by building her cottage bakery, Chef Schonberg’s Sweets, into a very successful business. But then Amanda took that knowledge and started sharing it with others, and she has now coached hundreds of other entrepreneurs to …
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Fawzeya Owda lives in Norwood, OH and sells cheesecake and other baked goods with her bakery, Foz Bakery. Fawzeya grew up in Palestine and has always loved baking desserts from her home country, but when she moved to the United States 10 years ago, she started experimenting with American baked goods as well. After lots of encouragement from family …
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Don’t Let Life Crush Your Dreams with Carla Jones-Harris
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Carla Jones-Harris is the owner of Flour-ish, a cottage food business in Pennsauken, NJ that specializes in gluten-free baked goods. Carla’s journey as an entrepreneur started over 30 years ago when she first began creating a business plan for her bakery. However, life got in the way and she didn’t start selling her baked goods until 2009. After a …
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This is one of the most incredible cottage food stories you will ever hear! Juno was living in Metro Manila in the Philippines when the pandemic hit in 2020, and to find comfort during the COVID lockdown, she started experimenting with making desserts at night in her pajamas after her kids went to bed. One night, she made a frozen cake that she sha…
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How To Build A Customer Base of Raving Fans with Heather & Corrie Miracle
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Most people who sell custom decorated sugar cookies have at least heard of Heather & Corrie Miracle (AKA The Miracle Twins), who are best known for their extremely popular Facebook group, Sugar Cookie Marketing. They started that group only two years ago, and now it has over 36,000 members! But they didn’t stop there. Here are some of the other thi…
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The Power Of Two with Heather & Corrie Miracle
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Most people who sell custom decorated sugar cookies have at least heard of Heather & Corrie Miracle (AKA The Miracle Twins), who are best known for their extremely popular Facebook group, Sugar Cookie Marketing. They started that group only two years ago, and now it has over 36,000 members! But they didn’t stop there. Here are some of the other thi…
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Find Work That Fulfills You with Jenny Berg
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Jenny Berg lives in Bend, OR and sells sourdough bread with her cottage food business, Crumb Sourdough Microbakery. Jenny first started baking sourdough bread in 2020, shortly after the pandemic began. And so did many others. With people stuck at home, baking sourdough became an extremely popular hobby. But not many bakers turned their newfound hob…
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Struggling To Find Consistent Sales with Tiliwannia Ealey
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Tiliwannia Ealey lives in Lithia Springs, GA, and sells gourmet & alcohol-infused popcorn as well as other treats with her cottage food business, Sweet Caramel Desserts. Tiliwannia started making caramel apples and other treats many years ago, and finally started selling them in 2015. After a few years, she added a new product: popcorn. And that’s …
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