Since the homemade food renaissance has taken root in California, there’s been no shortage of home picklers, jammers, and bakers. But under current state laws, it’s a misdemeanor for those home artisans to sell their goodies in the open marketplace. Case in point: Last June, Department of Public Health officials shut down ForageSF’s popular Underground Market, which featured mostly home producers, because its sellers were not compliant with local and state regulations.

But due to a campaign launched by the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), the laws might change this year. The Oakland-based SELC recently teamed up with Los Angeles Assemblymember Mike Gatto to introduce the California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616), a “cottage food” bill that would legalize the sale of certain foods produced in home kitchens.

“There are a lot of hoops to get a food business started. That’s what prompted the cottage food law campaign,” says SELC research associate and campaign coordinator Christina Oatfield. Founded in 2010 by attorneys Janelle Orsi and Jenny Kassan, the SELC provides legal research and assistance to foster local and sustainable economies and business ventures.

Currently, state law requires that any foods produced for sale be prepared in a certified kitchen or food facility using commercial-grade equipment that is inspected by the health department. For many startups, this means renting a commercial kitchen space, which costs upwards of $25 per hour or $1,500 per month—a large expenditure, particularly for hobby food producers who just want to make a bit of supplemental income. Additionally, shared kitchens are often not a practical option for producers who make specialty items such as gluten-free baked goods.

For entrepreneurs who want to open their own kitchen, the investment and risks are greater. In addition to the costs of buying or renting a brick-and-mortar space and furnishing it with commercial-grade equipment (often several times the cost of home kitchen appliances), there are other fixed expenditures, such as insurance and health department inspections. “It can easily exceed $100,000 with equipment and infrastructure work,” says Oatfield. “That’s a huge barrier to a startup entrepreneur, especially in these tough economic times.”

A Growing Movement

To date, more than 30 states have cottage food laws on the books, many of which have been passed in the last couple of years. Oatfield sees this trend as a response to both the economic downturn of 2008 and the surge of interest in local food over the last few years. “There’s a growing awareness among consumers about food systems issues and enthusiasm for buying local and knowing the person who made your food,” she says.

Cottage food law advocates argue that loosening the regulations for small, home-based businesses fosters growth in the local economy, while giving startups the opportunity to test their products, establish a customer base, and incubate their business before investing in commercial kitchen space. “Very often laws and regulations are written to keep large corporations in check, and they’re not scale-appropriate for small, community-based businesses or other informal activities,” says Oatfield.

For consumers and public health officials, the safety of foods produced in home kitchens has been the greatest concern, so many cottage food laws limit the products that can be sold. Under the California Homemade Food Act, cottage food operations would be allowed to prepare and sell “nonpotentially hazardous” items such as dry-storage baked goods, jams, preserves, nut mixes, dried fruit, roasted coffees, honey, pickles with a pH level of 4.6 or below, and other items with low risk for supporting toxic microorganisms.

The proposed bill also states that home producers must register their business and follow the same sanitation, packaging, and labeling procedures that are expected of commercial kitchens, though it does not require inspections unless complaints are made. While such details may be revised in the legislative process, the SELC is working closely with the state public health department to ensure that health measures are followed while keeping the entrepreneur’s costs as low as possible.

Healthy Competition

In addition to the health concerns, cottage food bills have created a bit of controversy among small-scale food producers. Some argue that home-based producers, who have less overhead, could place extra stress on fledgling business owners who have followed the letter of the law and taken on the costs and risks of starting their own kitchen.

Others welcome the competition, opportunity, and diversity that this proposed legislation could bring to the world of small-scale food production. “I’m delighted by it,” says June Taylor, who started making artisan preserves in her home kitchen before launching her business in 1990. “The more people can vote with their dollars in a smaller-scale system, the more we don’t have to acquiesce to the industrial system, and we can create an alternative way of doing business, feeding ourselves, and challenging that system.”

Santa Cruz-based sauerkraut maker Kathryn Lukas, who launched Farmhouse Culture in 2008, agrees. “I think it’s long overdue. The fewer barriers to entry into farmers markets, the better for the consumer. I would love the diversity it would spawn. You’re going to see a real flourish of creativity and interesting new recipes. It’s a win-win for the consumer who’s brave enough to trust the relationship that he or she develops with the food artisan.”

While enthusiastic about the possibilities, Lukas also emphasizes the need for clear safety regulations. “Not everyone coming into the food business knows the basics about sanitation,” said Lukas. She recommends that food handler certification, such as ServSafe, be a requirement for all home-based food businesses. (The Golden Gate Restaurant Association in collaboration with the Small Business Association offers free training for food safety certification.)

While the current bill language does not place a limit on the volume or income of a cottage food operation, the SELC believes that the logistical constraints of doing business out of a home kitchen will be the self-regulating factor. “The very nature of cottage food operations is that they’re very small-scale and neighborhood-based,” said Oatfield. “With the enthusiasm for local foods and homemade foods, I think consumers really want to be able to access this food.”

If you’re interested in supporting the California Homemade Food Act, contact your state Assemblymember and Senator and ask them to become a co-sponsor. Visit the SELC website to learn more. You can also join the discussion on cartage food law at Kitchen Table Talks on March 27th in San Francisco. More information here, and more to come on Civil Eats. 

Originally published by CUESA

Last year we built a fortress, created to deter deer, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, and wild pigs from our own little slice of edible possibility. Today we are in the middle of planting our spring garden in this enclosure, now just a blank, dark dirt slate of bumpy rows and discarded piles of weeds. Shaping the earth is like frosting a chocolate cake, at least to this baker’s mind, and has inspired my next birthday party creation. Right now, though, it is time to focus on what plants will grow. 

Dave spent at least the last month researching, sorting, and picking out seeds, some from his own collection and some from rare seed catalogues and websites. So far, we have some old standbys such as carrots, beets, lettuces, radishes, turnips and an unintended sugar-snap pea hybrid from saved seed; and some new editions like asparagus, fenugreek, cumin, and a cilantro from Oaxaca. Dave enjoys the excitement of the seed selection process in much the same way some of us might find joy in the finest Parisian patisserie (there I go again with the baked goods). To say the least, we now have a ridiculously large stock of potential food, awaiting the elements to bring life. No matter what we actually choose though, it is always a wild card what will actually grow, flourish, and become. Some winter squash seeds from a few years ago became a hybrid this last season, morphing from a basic butternut (or what we thought was basic) to an interesting and delicious mystery.

The newness of spring also brings new ideas of what we will soon eat, and projects of how to make these gems last as long as they can. Will we finally start our homemade grapefruit bitters for cocktails? How about more preserved Meyer lemons with some interesting herbs? Or maybe just classic pickled beets with a touch of clove? But right there lays the nexus of a problem I find myself grappling with time and again. After the harvest, the glean, the washing and prep, the brining and boiling and sealing and storing, I can’t bring myself to actually EAT what I have made. It is too special. I find myself saving it for the ultimate occasion and then before I know it, another season has arrived along with another cratefull of the very same produce that is caged within my mason jars. Some could compare this self-inflicted issue to saving a nice bottle of wine too long, year after year for that one perfect moment, instead of enjoying it at its recommended prime. Fellow Civil Eats contributor and environment editor Aaron French recently touched upon this issue, citing a Harvard Business Review article about “how people place an unreasonably high value on products they made or assembled themselves” via “The IKEA Effect”. The lesson for me is to start treating every day like it’s worthy of jam, no matter how rare or involved or alone or hurried things may be.

So here is a recipe for preserves that I am entitling “Jam for NOW”. Write that in thick black Sharpie on the top of your canning lids and follow the command. Use the finest fruit you can get your hands on, and even if you only get enough to make a couple of jars, listen to your deepest inner voice when it declares, “I want blackberry jam on my toast today!”

Jam for NOW

(Makes about 4 pints)

9 cups fresh blackberries (or any other berry or combination)
6 cups sugar
Juice of 2 lemons

Wash the berries, making sure to remove any with signs of mold, and place in a large, non-aluminum saucepan. Crush the berries (or blend with an immersion blender). Add sugar and lemon juice. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Cook until desired thickness is achieved, stirring to prevent burning. Remove from heat and fill hot jam into hot, sterile jars, leaving ¼-inch space from the top. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean towel before securing each with a two-piece canning lid. Process the jars for about 10 minutes in boiling water to seal. Remove from water with tongs and let sit on a countertop to cool before storing.

Nothing could be simpler (or more affordable) than making apple butter for friends and family this holiday season.  I had thirty apples of varying sizes and types on hand from my CSA, and needed to make space in my crisper for Thanksgiving vegetables.  This led me to thinking about what I wanted to do with all of that fruit.  Indeed, making use of so much fruit for preserves means a lot of preserves, and a lot of preserves means having a great personalized gift. Many people are surprised when they taste homemade goods, and give the cook a lot of credit for her labors (little do they know, its not that hard!).

Give it a try, I promise, its difficult for even the most unskilled cook to mess up.  It takes a bit of time on the stove, but it will fill your home with alluring spice smells and make use of this season’s abundant orchard fruit.  For other versions, try making it with pears or quince.

Apple Butter

8-10 medium apples, peeled, quartered and cored
2-3 cups apple cider (enough almost to cover apples)
1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (more to taste)
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves

Place the apples and the cider in a pot and bring to a boil. Place a lid on the pot and simmer until apples are soft (about 20 minutes). Set aside to cool. Use a hand blender or regular blender to puree the cooked apples. Now, you have made apple sauce. Put the pot of apple sauce back on a medium flame, and add the sugar and spices (taste and adjust the flavor), stirring. The mixture should gradually darken as it cooks on low for 2-3 hours. Stir often. When finished, you should be able to place a dollop on a plate and it remain solid, without forming a ring of liquid around itself. Place in sterilized jars. It is delicious on bread, yogurt, ice cream, even sandwiches.

Pickling is one of the ancient arts of preservation. It is known in the United States largely for the eponymously named pickles, or pickled cucumbers. Pickling remains a high art in much of Asia, however, with many regional variations for every kind of pickled food you could imagine.

When I lived on the Big Island of Hawaii I learned to pickle from some Hawaiian families who had been pickling for generations, and who had originally learned the method from the early Japanese settlers to the Islands. We pickled a number of Hawaiian specialties like taro root, wild ginger and the stalks of the giant Hopu’u tree fern. But I also learned how to pickle “regular” foods – modulating the recipe for variations in the foods texture, water content, and thickness.

In the simplest terms, pickling is just preserving foods with vinegar and salt. The acid in the vinegar preserves the food by preventing the growth of common bacteria. There are many complicated pickle recipes out there, where you have to be concerned with the proper acid percentages and salt ratios, but for the beginner the basic “refrigerator pickles” are fun and easy.

Post Thanksgiving, pickling is a great way to preserve food you might have bought too much of – green beans, broccoli, cabbage, etc. Use the guidelines below more as a template for experimentation than as a recipe that is set in stone.

Easy Refrigerator Pickled Vegetables

What to pickle: Green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, pearl onions, carrots, etc. Use what you have.

For the broccoli and cauliflower, separate into small one-inch florets. Remove the ends of the green beans and cut into 3-4 inch pieces. For cabbage, slice in half and remove the stem, then cut into ¼ inch wedges. Make thin angled slices with the carrots.

Prepare a large pot of salted water (about 2 Tbs salt per quart) and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, create an ice bath, with ice cubes and cold water, in a bowl deep enough to hold all the vegetables.

Blanch the vegetables in the boiling water. Blanch the cabbage and pearl onions for 20 seconds, and all the other vegetables for about 40 seconds. Pour quickly into a strainer and dump into the ice water to cool.

Gather clean wide-mouth jars and fill losely with the cooled vegetables. In the beginning, you might want to keep each vegetable separate so you can learn their individual characteristics, but the brave at heart can mix them with little fear. Adjust to recipe below to make enough liquid to fill all your jars:

2 cups brown rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup raw sugar or brown sugar
1 Tbs salt

Bring the mixture to a simmer and pour into the jars, being careful to cover the vegetables completely. For more interesting flavors, incorporate one of the variations listed below as you heat the vinegar. Be sure to add all the addition ingredients evenly between the jars you are pickling.

Allow to cool on your counter, then cover and place in the refrigerator. The pickled vegetables should be ready in several days, but will stay good for at least two months.

Additions and Variations:

For each volume of vinegar above, add:

Hot Pepper Pickles

1 jalapeno – quartered lengthwise, seeds removed
1 Tbs peppercorns
1 tsp red chili flakes

Sweet Sesame Pickles

1 Tbs sesame oil
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger
2 Tbs additional sugar

Herb Pickles

1 sprig rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
1 Tbs mustard seeds
1 tsp dry crushed oregano leaves

Once you know the basics, the sky’s the limit with what you can do. In the spring, try pickling wild ramps and fidlehead ferns. In the summer, cucumbers and grapes, and in the early fall experiment with pickled sour plums.

Photo: rachel is coconut&lime