Home baking and food preservation have seen a resurgence in recent years. Aspiring business owners often research the steps for taking their enjoyable hobby to the next level. Learn more about the rules and regulations behind certified home kitchens and cottage foods, and meet two entrepreneurs whose version of “working from home” involves cooking, preserving and baking.
Kathy’s Kitchen
Daryl and Kathy Keylor are celebrating 30 years making and selling pickles and salsas, as well as jams and jellies through their business, Kathy’s Kitchen. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspects their certified kitchen, and they can sell their products wholesale.
“As our business grew, we discovered there really are only 24 hours in a day,” Kathy says. “We grow as much of our produce as we can. We have about 10 acres, and I pick between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds of cucumbers every year.”
Daryl raises the fruits and vegetables they need on their property in Cass County while handling the warehouse and deliveries. What the Keylors don’t grow, they source from other local farmers. Kathy says she’s been preserving food for 60 years, and feedback from customers still makes it worthwhile.
“People will say: ‘These are the best pickles I’ve eaten since my grandma made them!’ And I tell them ‘I probably use her recipe,’” she says. “Many of the original pickle recipes we started with haven’t changed one bit. They really are ‘old-fashioned’ good.”
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Commercial Home Kitchens vs. Cottage Foods
When the Keylors started Kathy’s Kitchen in 1994, they would have been the perfect candidates for a cottage foods business, but that designation didn’t exist at the time. Instead, farmer entrepreneurs were required to license their business as a commercial kitchen and faced expensive costs. However, since 2012, Illinois has protected these entrepreneurs and their customers under the Illinois Cottage Food Operation Law and other regulations.
The law, which has been amended and expanded in recent years, provides guidelines for food prepared in a home without inspection for sale to the public, for products not listed as prohibited.
“This allows people to start a small business that could grow into a commercial operation or stay in the cottage food realm and not have that obligation of a big debt,” explains Mary Liz Wright, nutrition and wellness educator with the University of Illinois Extension in Clark, Crawford and Edgar counties.
Wright says becoming a certified commercial kitchen, such as Kathy’s, often requires expensive remodeling, including sinks for food preparation and cleanup as well as stainless steel appliances.
Cottage foods operators are exempt from many of these regulations, but they do have to register in the county where they live. The first cottage foods businesses could only sell at farmers markets. Now the only requirement is direct sales to consumers. Online sales are permitted but only within Illinois.
“There can’t be any other stop along the way. That’s a traceability thing from a food safety standpoint,” says Wright, who notes there are strict labeling requirements for home kitchen businesses.
The Illinois Department of Public Health’s Farmers Market Food Safety Guide and Illinois Cottage Food Training, offered online by the University of Illinois Extension, are valuable resources for Illinois vendors, both for home kitchen and cottage food owners.
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Gather Bakery
Eric and Deanna Keilty began their bakery business about eight years ago in Arizona. In 2021, they relocated to Illinois and started Gather Bakery out of their home in Rockford.
Because regulations vary from state to state, Deanna Keilty notes they were able to sell wholesale to coffee shops and food trucks in Arizona, but not in Illinois without a commercial kitchen.
Still, they’ve found a growing customer base through farmers markets in Rockford and Chicago’s western suburbs.
The Keiltys source ingredients like fruits for pastries, jams and marmalades as locally as possible. A short-term goal is a brick-and-mortar store where people can gather while enjoying baked goods in a local space.
“We’re lucky enough to bring a smile to other people’s faces,” Keilty says, adding it is rewarding to bake things for others to enjoy.
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