Community and Connections

Since the Michigan Cottage Food Law was passed in 2010, it has helped hundreds of residents launch food businesses from their home kitchens. Here’s how it helped change the paths of three local producers.

HAVE YOU EVER walked by a certain stall at the local farmers market or noticed something delectable on a craft fair table and felt inspired to create your own food product?

You’re not alone. Since the passing of the Michigan Cottage Food Law in 2010, people across the state have been able to market and profit from their best breads, finest jams and other treasured recipes. These food entrepreneurs are staying connected to their roots, as well as to their neighbors and community.

According to Michigan State University Extension, more than 2,150 people have taken advantage of in-person and online cottage food classes since 2015.

The 2021 MI Farmers Markets Census reports that in 2019, nearly 120 farmers markets had almost 724 cottage food businesses selling at their markets. The same census said an average farmers market has six such businesses.

The Cottage Food Law allows individuals to make low-risk foods that do not require refrigeration after being made. Baked goods, jams, breads and spice mixes are all examples of foods allowed under the law as well as the most popular items found at local farmers markets, roadside stands or craft fairs. The products must be made in a home kitchen and labeled as such. There is an annual earning cap of $25,000, after which a maker would need to become certified and licensed.

For these cottage food producers, their experiences with the industry have taken them in different directions. Yet they all began their journey with a desire to forge a bond to the past and future and with their community, and the Michigan Cottage Food Law started them on their path.

Passion for Peanut Butter

Rachel Johnson’s first foray into creating food for the enjoyment of others was developing nearly two dozen homemade ice cream flavors for her soda fountain shop in Weldon, Pennsylvania. She and her partner owned the popular pop stand from 2019 to 2023.

“I had so much fun making ice cream flavors,” she says. Then her desire to develop a chocolate peanut butter flavor sparked her passion for craft peanut butter.

Johnson was stymied when she couldn’t find a peanut butter worthy of her vision or taste buds. She landed on the idea of investing in a peanut grinder and fell in love with making fresh peanut butter.

“I had no idea peanut butter could be like this,” she says. “When you take a more natural approach to peanut butter—like using real peanut oil as opposed to a cheaper ingredient like palm oil, and the freshest peanuts—it really lets the flavor come through.” Johnson gets her Virginian Grown peanuts (yes, that is their name), which make the best peanut butter, from a centennial farm in Ohio.

While she loved making ice cream and the community, in 2023 the couple decided to sell the ice cream business and make their way to the Northville area.

One of the first things she unpacked was the grinder. Johnson began to tinker with different ideas. She enjoyed making flavor combinations in her ice cream, so why not in peanut butter?

Fast forward a few months and her cottage food startup, The Mitten Peanut Butter Co., was changing the way people think about peanut butter, one unique flavor at a time: Dill pickle, s’mores and spicy habanero are just a few flavors she’s created.

“It makes you reimagine what a peanut can be,” she says.

During the season, it isn’t unusual for Johnson to be at six markets a week, including her favorite, the Ann Arbor farmers market.

The success of her peanut butter quickly propelled Johnson past the cottage food law profit limit, so she acquired a commercial food license. With this investment in time and money, Johnson plans on placing her peanut butters on larger store shelves, but not too large.

About the Cottage Food Law

Before you preheat the oven or get out the food processor, here are some basics to know about the Cottage Food Law:

• Cottage foods are low-risk foods made and stored in an unlicensed kitchen in a single-family residence that do not require refrigeration after preparation.

• The maximum amount you can make selling cottage foods is $25,000 per year. Beyond that, you need to operate out of a licensed kitchen.

• Fruit-based jellies and jams are OK, but not home-canned products, fruit butters, pickled foods, honey or maple syrup.

• Roasting and selling whole-bean coffee or ground coffees is allowed but you can’t sell ready-made coffee.

• Dried bread, soup and spice mixes can be sold, but not cooked vegetable products like salsa and pasta sauces.

“There has to be a reason for someone to choose one peanut butter over another,” she says. She believes her dedication to using quality peanuts and other ingredients and her unique flavors will resonate with customers looking for craft peanut butter.

With her experiences and success as a cottage food purveyor, Johnson advises people considering the idea to chat with as many people as they can to get perspectives and advice. Visiting different markets to see what is already selling is also helpful.

Food Opens Doors

For many of the bakers, jammers, confectioners and other craft food makers, their passions were nurtured watching and learning from family members.

For Jenn Tilton, it was her grandmother’s German soft pretzels that set her upon her cottage food path, even if she didn’t realize it.

First made to sober up guests after an exceptionally raucous wedding, the treats became a family favorite. Tilton remembers the yearly tradition of spending an entire day as a child in the kitchen with various aunts and cousins making them together.

“You could only take what you rolled, and no one wanted just one or two,” she says.

After starting on a small business management degree from Baker College in 2004, Tilton decided to take a detour and began taking pastry and culinary classes through the college. She earned a culinary pastry degree and then finished up her associate degree in management in 2007.

She decided to get into the wedding cake business and was soon making hundreds of wedding cakes, enjoying the process and the happiness her talent brought people.

In 2020, Tilton decided to veer course again. She wanted to share her family’s favorite recipe—those golden-crusted German soft pretzels. Tilton also expanded her offerings to include other pastries and her cottage food business—Indulge by Jenn—took off.

“My experience with the cottage food industry has been positive, over all. People appreciate the authenticity and personal touch that comes with small-batch homemade goods,” she says.

Little did she know her involvement as a cottage law producer was just a stepping stone for the next phase: Sunday Suppers.

Once a month, she opens her house in Whitmore Lake and hosts a dozen clients for an evening of food and connecting.

“Food carries a lot of spiritual properties and opens a lot of doors for people to grow and develop,” she says.

Tilton has cut back on the amount of farmers market booths since beginning her Sunday Suppers. She and her family pretzels, cinnamon rolls and the popular gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookies are usually at Detroit Central Market in Greenfield Village, a few craft shows and at private events.

“If it’s in your heart, pick it up and give it a try,” she advises people considering starting a cottage food business. “You never know where it will take you.”

Leveling Up

Kristina Conger of Death by Pastry grew up in a family of bakers. One favorite aunt’s lemon meringue pie was legendary for its tartness, but it was her Aunt Ann’s M & M cookies that set Conger on a career in pastries.

After her aunt passed and her beloved recipe went with her, Conger spent seven years trying to re-create the much-loved cookies. She had watched her aunt make them so often but couldn’t quite get them right on her own.

“It was a strong nostalgic memory,” she remembers. “I knew something was missing and I was going to figure it out.”

“I was using food science to figure it out before I knew what food science was,” she continues. Once she figured out the exact combination (hint: almond extract), she began paying for her criminal justice degree by baking wedding cakes and pastries.

She never used her degree. Instead, she became a professional baker and began making culinary works of art for Mabel Gray, Doug’s Delight and Bobcat Bonnie’s. She developed a chronic condition that caused her to take a step back from the hustle and stress of a commercial kitchen, but she never gave up her love of baking.

Conger jokes she joined the cottage food industry, and subsequently the farmers market circuit, to get herself and confectionery indulgences out of the house.

“I love being face to face with people and explaining to them why they should buy my sourdough bread,” she says.

Conger spends her farmers market weekends in Birmingham while her partner, Jeremy Salinaz, tends booths in Farmington and St. Clair Shores. She often runs into former regulars from her Mabel Gray days, who ask about a certain dessert they enjoyed, not knowing that she never repeated a dessert in the three years she was head pastry chef at the Hazel Park restaurant.

With her premier chocolate chip cookies, pies, sourdough breads and other pastries selling out at farmers markets, and partnerships with places like Urbanrest Brewing Company, it didn’t take long before Conger and Salinaz exceeded the maximum set by the Cottage Food Law.

They are looking for a commercial space so they can expand their offerings. “It is a big step for us, but we’re excited by the challenges and opportunities,” she says.

Challenges for Producers

Michigan’s Cottage Food Law is a great way to test the waters of getting into the food industry, but the low annual profit limit can be a challenge for entrepreneurs wanting to grow a business, some say.

For many craft or cottage food producers, the annual gross sales profit of $25,000 is not enough to expand.

Jeremy Salinaz, of Death by Pastry, says $40,000 should be the minimum revenue allowed. “The $25,000 cap doesn’t let you move into a commercial kitchen, much less all the other items a certified food producer needs to operate.”

“The money is nice, but it’s not enough to get a loan to open a business in a building,” agrees Johnson.

From a humble Coney Island to the Top of the Pontch, writer Gretchen Van-Monette has yet to have a meal in the Motor City she hasn’t enjoyed.