Jessica Bennett prepares bread in her home kitchen for Country Girl Kitchen.

Home cooking

Local food advocates won changes in Oklahoma’s cottage food laws. How have the new regulations impacted local markets and producers?

Jonnie Holmes was told she couldn’t sell her jams and jellies made in her home kitchen without having several of her products tested by the Oklahoma State Department of Health. 

Holmes, the owner of Jake’s Jams in Tulsa, was spending $225 per test for each flavor to have the Department of Health approve the products for sale. 

Discouraged by the barriers and costs of starting a small food based business, Holmes paused her dreams of manufacturing jams and jellies for eight months.  As she was about to start manufacturing the products in a commercial kitchen, the regulations for cottage food changed.

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Berlin Green
Flora Bodega sells a variety of cottage goods from local makers.

Jams and jellies are one of many goods — including breads, honey, popcorn, roasted coffee, and scones to name a few — Oklahoma co-ops and grocers are allowed to sell from local producers without access to a commercial kitchen space.

Thanks to the Homemade Food Freedom Act — an amendment of the 2017 Oklahoma Home Bakery Act that went into effect Nov. 1, 2021, Holmes can produce her “cottage food” wares from her home instead of a commercial kitchen. Cottage food products are usually sold at farmers markets, online, on-road markets, and roadside stands.

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A chocolate torte made by Angela Chase

As long as they’re shelf-stable and don’t contain any cannabis, meat, meat by-products, poultry, seafood, and unpasteurized milk, the regulations allow for earnings up to $75,000 each year in sales, according to the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.  The state previously capped earnings at $20,000. 

There are still restrictions in place despite the changes. Currently, homemade alcoholic beverages are not for sale and the state requires labeling restrictions vendors have to follow to be able to sell their goods in store. 

Food Revolution

The number of farmers markets doubled from 4,700 to 8,700 from decade to decade ending in 2018. Farmers markets, on-road markets, and roadside stands generated $2.2 billion worth of local food products sold by farms to consumers in 2015, according to the U.S Department of Agriculture.

Meagan Forbes, director of legislative council and senior legislative council for the Institute for Justice, was involved in changing cottage food laws not just in Oklahoma but nationwide. The Institute for Justice is a nonprofit advocacy group based in Virginia.

Forbes talked with Oklahomans interested in changing the law because of indoor farmers markets by the Oklahoma State Department of Health for violations of the existing cottage food law. Both they and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture had input.

“I think having this flexibility is good for everyone and benefits everyone to be able to sell these kinds of products,” Forbes said.

Angela Renee Chase, the co-owner and operator of Flora Bodega, a local cooperative grocery store in Oklahoma City, is one of the people who helped knock on the doors of legislators at the Oklahoma State Capitol to advocate for changes to the law.

Chase noted prior to the changes, selling dry goods or preserves made in a home kitchen was illegal. 

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Berlin Green
Jessica Bennett sells her sourdough bread at Paseo's First Friday Art Walk.

“Oklahoma refers to itself as a ‘farm state,’ but a lot of those basic foods people were buying or trading had no idea it was illegal,” she said.

Chase voiced frustration with the inconsistencies in requirements for both grocers and vendors.

While she is pleased with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and Oklahoma State Department of Health communicating more frequently, she believes further clarity is needed in regards to the regulations such as SafeServ, a food safety certification course.

“We try to be as ready as possible for inspection if they want people to get the ServSafe license at all to sell goods,” she said. “The accessibility of what they want people to get such as food handlers license, they might ditch. They have incomplete rules on how they want to handle this.”

SafeServ is a requirement in Cleveland County, Oklahoma County, and Tulsa County, and the City of Stillwater, according to the Oklahoma Restaurant Association. 

Erica Rankin-Riley, Public Information Officer at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, said grocers and vendors need to be aware of the requirements for the act and to educate themselves.

“This will allow individuals to know what is in the law and what steps they need to take to ensure they are following it,” she said.

Recipe for success?

Chase pointed to inflation making everything more expensive for small business owners.  She added people can’t afford to travel or rent a commercial kitchen space all the time thus making the cottage food industry a necessity for those wanting to start their own business. 

“This in-between step that can be leveraged to get there, to grow bigger. I think people miss that point,” she said. “If they want to argue about whether that’s less people that are going to be in these commercial kitchens, there could have been more people with these amazing skills if the resource gap wasn’t so big the entire time.”

Katherine Whalen, Managing Director of Gardens & Outreach at St. Francis of the Woods near Coyte, says the change in regulations has been beneficial in regards to eliminating waste and finding additional revenue due to being able to sell canned goods.

Whalen explained canning is a helpful way to preserve the harvest and sell excess food.

“We could only sell so many through our avenues, but we weren’t able to make the rest into pear butter to sell. We still could give it to friends, of course, but we weren’t able to include it in our finances.” she said.

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Berlin Green
Jessica Bennett bakes her own brand of bread labeled as Country Girl Kitchen.

Whalen says food safety is on the back of her mind when creating products to sell.

“I would never want someone to get sick from something I made. Not only would that be forever on my conscience, it’s also bad for business. I imagine most small-scale producers feel the same. We take pride in what we make and sell,” she said.

Holmes takes pride in the fact the regulations have been encouraging for both consumers and small food based producers.

“As a small, food-based business I can now introduce new products, allowing my business to grow. The new guidelines help to ensure food safety is a priority, and I’m sure to follow all of the rules and regulations,” she said.

Holmes’ ultimate dream is to move production of Jake’s Jams into a commercial kitchen. Until then, she isn’t dissuaded from enjoying the challenges of operating a small food based business.

“There is room for us all,” she said.

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