For a long time, Jovy Kurokawa sold her Puerto Rican confections under-the-table. But that’s common for some stay-at-home Puerto Rican moms raising their kids in American urban communities.
In the past 20 years while living in various major U.S. cities, Kurokawa used her home kitchen to produce Puerto Rican style sweets and sold or traded them to friends, neighbors, or close acquaintances. In Kurokawa’s world, her mantecaditos and tropical carrot cakes were tantamount to currency.
This practice is illegal in many places and could land Kurokawa a hefty fine. Luckily, she doesn’t have to operate under the table in Santa Barbara County, where people like her are allowed make and sell food at home with a cottage food operator license.
The cottage food industry in California is relatively new. It was made possible after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Homemade Food Act, or AB 1616, in 2012. It became effective in 2013. Not only does the law allow food entrepreneurs to sell their product from home, and it also allows certain operators to use their home kitchen, so they save the cost of having to rent, buy, or build a retail kitchen.
Tami Williams could be a cottage food operator, but obtained a license years ago to run a commercial kitchen before the law took effect. She said the law is beneficial for those who want to sell baked goods from their kitchen.
“If you make jams or cookies, you don’t have to go through all of the changes to your kitchen,” said Tami Williams, owner of Best Apple Company out of Nipomo. “It’s quite a big deal to get your kitchen certified.”
For her business, she needed a three-sink setup, extra sink and drain for hand washing, a drain in the middle of the floor, and dozens of other requirements. The kitchen had to be inspected by a worker from the county health department.
Anyone who wishes to make and sell food from their home can apply for a cottage food license through the county’s Environmental Health Services. There are two classes, A and B. There’s no cost to apply for a class A license, according to Kurokawa, but it costs $292 for a class B, which allows the operator to sell their product to retail stores. Class A only allows sales from person to person.
There’s more. Cottage food operators must also complete a kitchen inspection, a food safety-handling course, and just have a public source of water. Also, some foods cannot be produced or sold under a cottage food license, such as dairy and alcohol.
“They are very specific with what type of foods they want sold from cottage food operators because they don’t want any high-risk foods,” said Gloria Weeden, owner of Garden of Weeden out of Arroyo Grande.
Weeden bakes pies; cookies; sourdough breads; ethnic desserts called pandesals, which is a type of Spanish bread; and other baked goods. Like Weeden, many operators have cottage businesses as a side gig while having full-time jobs elsewhere. Weeden is a nurse manager at the Central Coast Kidney Disease Center in Santa Maria, but baking is her creative outlet.
Kurokawa’s business, Taino Sweets, can be found on a regular basis during the farmers’ market in the parking lot at the Santa Maria Town Center. Williams’ Best Apple Company can be found there, too. Weeden is at the farmers’ markets on Saturday, in San Luis Obispo in the morning and Arroyo Grande in the afternoon.
To learn more about obtaining a cottage food operator’s permit in Santa Barbara County, visit cosb.countyofsb.org/phd/.
Highlights
• Nonprofit Women’s Economic Ventures is hosting free Spanish language self-employment (SSET) training orientation on June 11 in Lompoc at the LAUNCHpad located at 1010 North H St. WEV’s Spanish language coordinator Guillermo Chavez is conducting the orientation from 6 to 7 p.m. Chavez will go over details of the advanced SSET training and determine readiness for those who wish to enroll. The new SSET class begins Aug. 18, and an orientation or meeting with Chavez is required to enroll. For more information about the orientation, contact Chavez at 456-2319.
• Want to know how to keep your business more secure? On June 17, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce is hosting a business development forum at the Santa Maria Fairpark with guest speaker Jim Zemaitis from Overland Security. The forum runs fro 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Zemaitis will talk about security issues related to commercial businesses and identity theft. The forum will be located in the Fountain Pavilion building at the Fairpark loated at 937 S. Thornburg in Santa Maria. Cost is $17 for chamber members and $22 for non-members.
Staff Writer David Minsky wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Jun 11-18, 2015.
