Florida Cottage Laws paying off
The sign at the Simply Baked by Ronda booth read SOLD OUT! -SVT Photo
Ronda Hersch, owner of the Live Oak based business called Simply Baked by Ronda is the perfect example of how anyone in Florida that loves to bake and has the knowledge and fortitude, can create a successful home-based business by taking advantage of the Florida Cottage Food Law that was established in 2011. The law allows certain types of “cottage food” products to be baked/created in an unlicensed home kitchen and sold to the public.
Hersch had a booth set up at the All Aboard Festival in Live Oak last Saturday. She brought 44 loaves of her delicious homemade sourdough bread, and sold out by 1:30. Vendors applaud anyone that sells out of their product that early.
She started selling as a vendor at local events last November, and this was only her sixth event, although she has been baking bread for years and has a regular client base.
When the Cottage Food Law first came into effect in 2011 it had many restrictions. In 2021, however, the law was amended to allow owners to make $250,000 a year instead of the previous $50,000. It now also allows business owners to have two employees that are not residents of the home and since 2021, they can now ship their products through the mail.
Previously, they could sell and accept payments online but had to deliver the goods physically. With the ability now to mail their products to customers directly, business owners have been able to widen their client base to the entire state.
Although Hersch had baked other homemade breads for years, mastering sourdough bread turned out to be much more difficult.
It is virtually an art. She said it took her a total of two years to finally get it right.
Sourdough bread has been touted for years by many health experts as the healthiest, most digestible bread on the planet.
“My first sourdough bread turned out like hockey pucks,” Hersch laughed. But during that second year, with determination and perseverance, she was able to master the art of getting that sourdough starter and her recipe just right and today, it’s paying off.
She has one conventional oven so can only bake four loaves at a time, which takes an hour for each batch. So that’s 11 hours of baking time for 44 loaves, not to mention the three days of preparation for the sourdough levain.
Although she only sells fresh-baked bread, she says anyone can freeze it for up to three months. “If you freeze it right away, it will come out just like the day it was baked,” said Hersch.
Her sourdough loaves sell for $12 for plain and up to $16 with the inclusions, which are garlic/parmesan, cheddar/herb, blueberry/lemon zest and others.
She uses strictly unbleached and unbromated bread flour or organic bread flour, which is also unbromated, whichever the customer prefers.
*Health note, ‘unbromated’ means without potassium bromate, which is a toxic chemical that has been banned in other countries like Canada and the United Kingdom since the 1990’s, but is commonly used in the USA in enriched flour, fast foods and other foods. RFK Jr. will be a true hero if he can get rid of the devastating chemicals in America’s food.
Hersch said whether it’s one loaf or ten loaves or more it doesn’t matter, it takes three days to make sourdough bread. From the start of mixing to bulk fermentation, to a cold retard, to baking, is a three day process. “You can’t make it sooner, there’s no rushing it.”
Readers that prefer not to wait to get her bread until they happen upon her booth at another event, give her a call, she takes phone orders and is based in Live Oak. Call Simply Baked by Ronda at 954-636-9958.
If you have a recipe that everyone likes, have always loved to cook/bake and are willing to work for it, you could be the next successful entrepreneur with a home-based business, thanks to the Florida Cottage Law.
For more information about what foods are approved, labeling and more, visit fdacs.gov and search Florida Cottage Food Law.
Simply Baked by Ronda booth, before she ran out of bread. -Photo Ronda Hersch
