Homemade Texas

08/28/2026

There's no minimum age requirement in the Texas cottage food law. So yes, if your kid can pass a food handler's exam, they can sell cottage foods. There are some amazing young entrepreneurs out there doing just that. Tag them in the comments!

08/26/2026

The Waxahachie Cottage Food Law Seminar is officially FULL! 🎉 We have filled every seat for September 12, and registration has moved to a waitlist.

Sadly, Waxahachie Mayor Pro Tem Travis Smith did not secure his seat in time. 😢 Travis, if you want to email me, I might be able to pull some strings. I know people.

This event is educational, completely free to attend, and funded entirely by the Homemade Texas Verified Seller program. That matters because the work Homemade Texas does benefits every cottage food producer in Texas, whether they ever choose to become a Verified Seller or not.

We educate cottage food producers. We answer questions. We travel the state. We challenge local governments when they get the law wrong. We advocate for better laws at the state level. And our Verified Sellers make that work possible.

Join the waitlist: https://homemadetexas.org/waxahachie/

Find local cottage food: https://homemadetexas.org/verified-sellers/

Learn more about becoming a Homemade Texas Verified Seller: https://homemadetexas.org/become-a-verified-seller/

Thank you to our Verified Sellers for making it possible for us to offer events like this at no cost. Waxahachie, we'll see you September 12! 🎉

08/25/2026

Laredo and South Texas cottage foodies, mark your calendars! I can't wait to see this part of Texas and shop the local vendor market. 😍

Join us for the final event of the 2026 WERS series!

WERS: Made in Laredo will feature guest speaker Kelley Masters, President and Founder of Homemade Texas. Kelley will discuss Texas Cottage Food Laws and share helpful information on starting, growing, labeling, sampling, and selling from a home-based food business.

A local vendor market will be open throughout the event, so you can shop handmade products and support Laredo entrepreneurs while enjoying the session! 🛍️💕

📅 October 1
⏰ 5:00–9:00 PM
📍 MileOne | 1312 Houston St.

Come learn, shop local, and celebrate Laredo’s talented entrepreneurs with us! A special thank-you to PNC Bank for supporting and sponsoring the WERS series.

RSVP HERE! ---> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1998441967722?aff=oddtdtcreator

08/24/2026

I braved the HOT HOT HOT this weekend to drive 100 miles to and from the and it was . What markets were you shopping or selling at this weekend? And how did you cope with the heat?
Tuck & Ruby's Dough Co. Mike's Makes

08/22/2026

There has been a great deal of discussion, misinformation, and unfortunately, policing of other cottage food operators over unattended cottage food stands.

Texas law does not say what some people are claiming it says.

Here is Homemade Texas's full statement on the issue, including what the law actually says, what DSHS has determined, and where we go from here.

And please: stop policing one another based on rules that aren't actually written in the law. We are all in this together. Let's start acting like it.

There has been a great deal of discussion recently about unattended or self-service cottage food stands in Texas. Unfortunately, some of that discussion has crossed the line from explaining an unsettled issue into stating, as fact, requirements that simply do not appear anywhere in Texas law. Homema...

08/21/2026

What does "direct sale" mean? This is one of those phrases that sounds like it should be self-explanatory, but it has caused a surprising amount of confusion under the Texas cottage food law. Fortunately, it's actually pretty simple. A direct sale is a sale from the cottage food producer directly to the consumer. No middleman. No retailer buying the product for resale. In other words, it’s not wholesale. Direct is the opposite of wholesale.

What does “direct” not mean? It does not mean “personally delivered.” Those are two different concepts. “Direct” describes who is selling the food to whom, not how the food physically gets from the producer to the consumer.

How do we know? Because when the Legislature intends to require personal delivery, it says so. In fact, the cottage food law specifically requires cottage foods sold over the Internet to be personally delivered to the consumer by the cottage food producer, an employee of the producer, or a member of the producer’s household. If “direct” already meant “personally delivered,” there would be no reason for the law to separately impose a personal delivery requirement on Internet sales.

So let’s hopefully put this particular bugabear to bed. Direct means direct. It does not mean personally delivered.

08/20/2026

**UPDATE** THE EVENT IS FULL

ALMOST FULL - register now or forever hold your peace. Or at least until the next time I head north ;)

Join me Saturday, September 12, from 3:00–5:00 PM for a FREE seminar on the Texas Cottage Food Law. Whether you're just thinking about starting a home food business, or you've been selling for years, we'll cover what the law actually says, answer your questions, and clear up some of the confusion surrounding cottage foods in Texas.

It’s practical, accurate information from someone who has been fighting for Texas cottage food producers for more than 15 years. And yes, I’m doing it for free.
Registration is required because space is limited.

And if you're a cottage food producer planning to attend, we'd love your help! The registration form includes an option to donate refreshments for the seminar. What better refreshments for a cottage food seminar than actual cottage foods? 😊 It helps Homemade Texas keep the event free, and of course we'll recognize the businesses that contribute.

I genuinely can't think of a better place to hold our next seminar. ❤️
📍 Waxahachie Civic Center
🕒 3:00–5:00 PM
🎟️ Free to attend (but registration is required)
👉 Register here: https://homemadetexas.org/waxahachie/

08/19/2026

I was deep cleaning a dresser drawer the other day and ran across a blast from the past: two pink and purple buttons with a cupcake that say, “I Support The Baker’s Bill.”

See, back in 2009–2011, nobody had ever heard of a “cottage food law.” In the Legislature, our bill had picked up the nickname “The Baker’s Bill,” and we loved it. We adopted it. The Texas Baker’s Bill page was born, the predecessor to this one. I had a sticker on my minivan that said, “Ask Me About The Baker’s Bill.” I gave these buttons out at cake shows.

Because guys, at that time, a cottage food law was NOT inevitable.

There wasn’t just pushback. There was hysteria. Won’t someone please think of the children eating these homemade cakes?! So I, along with a little army of pink-and-purple-clad supporters, was out there every chance we could get, trying to make a difference.

Finding those buttons sent me looking for some other pictures from those days. There’s Lauren Kitchens wearing her “I Support The Baker’s Bill” button, with Lorraine McKay and Mike McCarey posing in front of our Come and Bake It booth. Me talking to Spectrum News 8 about this amazing, almost radical concept of people being allowed to sell food they made in their own kitchens.

We didn’t just slide into SB 541 in 2025, dewy-eyed and optimistic. We arrived time-tested and battle-scarred. This has been more than a journey. It’s been an odyssey.

We earned the ground we are standing on.

Homemade Texas stands for the future of the cottage food industry, but it also represents its past. The beginning. The years when we had to convince people that this could work at all, followed by all the years of coming back and asking for more freedom, more opportunities and fewer unnecessary restrictions.

That’s one of the reasons the Verified Seller program means so much to me. It isn’t just a directory listing or a badge. It’s a community built around continuing the work we started all those years ago: supporting cottage food producers, helping them understand the law, advocating for them when problems arise, and pushing this industry forward.

I’ve been supporting your business since before your business was legal. And I have no intention of stopping now.

But I didn’t do it alone then, and I can’t do it alone now. If you believe in what we’ve built, where we’ve come from and where we’re going, I’d be honored to have you join us as a Homemade Texas Verified Seller.

The Baker’s Bill grew up. So did we. 💗💜

https://homemadetexas.org/become-a-verified-seller/

08/18/2026

It's tonight! Verified Sellers, this is when we touch base, ask questions, celebrate the wins, and talk about Waxahachie. 😂 Check your emails for the link, or just use the link from last month; it's the same. See you tonight!

08/17/2026

Homemade Texas spends a lot of time helping cottage food producers to understand the law. But here's something you may not know: we help the people charged with enforcing it, too.

As much as I'd love to provide individual assistance to every cottage food producer in Texas, there are thousands of you and only one of me. The math doesn't math. So I've had to draw some boundaries around individualized help: there are two categories of people who get free consultations from Homemade Texas.

The first is Homemade Texas Verified Sellers, obviously. Unlimited emails and up to three phone calls per year.

The second? Local health departments.

See, Texas is big. Really big. There are a lot of local health departments that may be hundreds of miles from Austin, with resources and funding that vary considerably. Believe it or not, the job training isn't always the best. That can leave them in the unenviable position of trying to enforce the law without actually knowing the law. That's frustrating for cottage food producers, but it's frustrating for the health department, too. Nobody likes being asked a question they don't know how to answer, especially when it's their job to know.

They're the ones on the ground, dealing with all the weird situations that come up in the real world. Like, “Can this lady set up a lemonade stand and claim it's her child's?” Yes, that is an actual question I've helped a local health department with. 😂 The law can only anticipate so much, and they're the ones who have to figure out what to do when real life gets creative.

Sometimes, they call Homemade Texas. When they do, I help them. Always. For free.

Why? Because it makes Texas a better place for cottage food producers to do business. Local health departments aren't our enemy. In a perfect world, they should be our partners. Here at Homemade Texas, I'm trying my best to make that ideal a reality.

So local health departments, bring me your questions. I'll help you, always.