#13 Home-based food businesses
One area of food I’ve been thinking about during this holiday season are those who operate food businesses out of their house. These home processors (also known as cottage food businesses) are where many food brands started: out of their home, then to farmers markets, eventually shared commercial spaces, and if they are lucky, their own production facilities.
Sometimes though, it’s a way for someone who has been displaced from their jobs to use their skills to make money, especially when assistance is scarce.
I also think back to June, where we continue to see police enforcement of food vendors down in NYC, many of these POC and immigrant vendors who are often frightened and threatened with massive fines. While NYC police are no longer enforcing street vendor laws, the pandemic doesn’t make this job any easier.
Rules for these cottage food businesses vary from state by state, except for New Jersey, which is still the only state in the nation that you can’t sell food products that are baked at home. The organization Radical XChange has announced the theme for their 2021 (virtual) conference Resistance Served: Underground Economies, which I’m excited that the focus is food culture outside of bars and restaurants.
When we limit our view of hospitality to exist primarily in bars and restaurants, we leave so many people out of the story. This year, we take a look at the margins of the food and beverage industry, where Black folks have been forced throughout time to innovate as a means to survive.
Follow them on Instagram for when tickets will be available.
If you’re interested in learning more about how these business are regulated here are the regulations in Massachusetts and New York.
What I'm reading/thinking:
This powerful piece by Beth Demmon for Good Beer Hunting: Work, Worth, and Wreckage — When Your Job Is Your Life, What Happens When You Lose It?
Writer and content creator H.M. Messinger shared my partner Max’s recipe for Ranch dressing and mentioned my Instagram feed. Hannah does a weekly Pantry Raid on her Patreon where folks share what is in their pantries and offers tasty dishes to make from them.
For a moment where history and food come together check out this online course to create a Medieval Christmas Feast.
Were you someone who didn’t like Brussels Sprouts? Wonder how they got so tasty? Lots and lots of science.
I also encourage you to share what you’d like to see in this newsletter on the Newsletter Feedback Form. This has been a wonderful outlet, and I’d like to bring as much value as I can.
If you have a spot you think should be featured, food news to share, or great food in the Berkshires or Capital Region, please email me at thestephanita@gmail.com or message me on Instagram at StephanitaEats.