The Forrager Podcast for Cottage Food Businesses

Learn how to start a food business from your home kitchen by hearing stories from cottage food entrepreneurs about how they grew their businesses from the ground up. Does everyone ask for your recipes, or say "You should sell that"? Have you dreamed of starting a brick-and-mortar bakery, or simply want a fun hobby that brings in some extra dough? On this podcast, David interviews a wide range of entrepreneurs across America who legally sell their homemade food via their state's cottage food law. Each episode reveals strategies for marketing and selling your food products successfully from home, online, at farmers markets/events, and in stores. Learn what steps you should (or shouldn't) take, and get your cottage food business off to the right start!

Alecia Ryan with Lee Cee Pie

Alecia Ryan of Ardmore, PA shares how she built her cottage food business into a success by focusing on branding and customer relationships, despite facing many unpredictable changes along the wayGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/155

11-25
52:37

Katie Sacoman with Sweet Pea Bakery

Katie Sacoman of Albuquerque, NM shares how she transitioned from custom orders to markets to wholesale by remaining adaptable and embracing the messiness that comes with growing your own businessGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/154

11-11
59:58

Alina Eisenhauer with Cottage Baking Success Academy

Alina Eisenhauer of Worcester, MA shares the lessons learned from growing her small bakery into a major restaurant, including avoiding burnout, becoming profitable, and leveraging productive systemsGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/153

10-28
59:58

Lisa He with My Custom Bakes

Lisa He of Orlando, FL shares how she built on her success as a cottage food baker by creating a popular online course business and a thriving software business for cottage food entrepreneursGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/152

10-14
59:58

Lisa He with Borderlands Bakery

Lisa He of Orlando, FL shares how she built a thriving cottage food bakery, won a Food Network competition, and leveraged that success by creating a popular cookie decorating supply businessGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/151

10-07
55:21

Cottage Food Influencers

In this special 150th episode, many cottage food industry influencers share some of their best business advice for cottage food entrepreneurs on the topics of mindset, marketing, management, and moneyGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/150

09-23
01:08:08

Alanna Ti’a with Sugar, Butter, & Flour

Alanna T'ia of Columbia, MO shares how she became a 6-figure baker by creating a professional setup with streamlined systems, exceptional customer service, and consistent high-quality productsGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/149

09-09
59:57

Lauri Lee & Bob Stafford with Lauri Lee’s

Lauri Lee & Bob Stafford of Surprise, AZ share the strategies they’ve used to scale their business by becoming a major presence at markets, adding wholesale accounts, switching to a copacker, and moreGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/148

08-26
59:59

Soralla Gonzalez with Delicious Healthy Bakes

Soralla Gonzalez of Tampa Bay, FL shares how she has overcome struggles to find customers by being resilient, implementing marketing strategies, failing fast, and staying focused on her true passionGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/147

08-12
59:57

Stacey Kimball with Bluebird Confections

Stacey Kimball of Caldwell, ID shares how she went from cottage food to commercial kitchen to her own storefront by building relationships with her community and focusing on slow and consistent growthGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/146

07-29
59:30

Amanda Sharp with The Little Bakery

Amanda Sharp of McCalla, AL shares how she fulfilled her lifelong dream of building a successful bakery, despite overcoming health challenges and facing a curveball that almost wiped out her salesGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/145

07-15
58:54

Annie Wang with Little Moon Bakehouse

Annie Wang of Oakland, CA shares how she turned multiple passions into a very successful hyper-niched and eco-friendly bakery by starting small, scaling up, and completing a massive rebrandGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/144

07-01
57:19

Ana Delgado with Apple & Jars

Ana Delgado of Wingdale, NY shares her incredible cottage food business journey that includes starting over twice, overcoming a midlife crisis, and dealing with burnout on her unlikely path to successGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/143

06-17
59:27

Georgi DeCosta with Georgi’s Goodies

Georgi DeCosta of Kaneohe, HI shares how she used baking to help overcome depression, and turned her baking therapy into a legitimate cottage food business that has given her a new purpose in lifeGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/142

06-03
54:17

Rita Magalde with Sheer Ambrosia

Rita Magalde runs Sheer Ambrosia in Salt Lake City, UT and shares her roller coaster baking business journey of 17 years that includes big risks, life changes, surprises, failures and successesGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/141

05-20
59:58

Michelle Chesser with Home Sweet Home Bakery

Michelle Chesser of Millersville, MO started her home bakery 16 years ago from humble beginnings and built it into a "monster" that changed her family's life and led her to become an online influencerGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/140

05-06
59:59

Chris Martin with bakernobakery

Chris Martin of Charlottesville, VA shares how she used her experience working at 3-star Michelin restaurants to build a successful cottage food bakery, and then reinvented it despite its popularityGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/139

04-22
58:50

Davia Delgado with Raven Cakes Bakery

Davia Delgado of Trenton, NJ has experienced incredibly fast growth in her cottage food bakery, and shares how she achieved many $2k and $3k sales days within her first year of businessGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/138

04-08
59:38

Elena-Maria Hert with European Baked Delights

Elena-Maria Hert of Billings, MT shares how she persisted to create a successful cottage food bakery, despite struggling to acquire customers, source ingredients, and achieve work/life balanceGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/137

03-25
54:50

Allyson Grant with The Better Baker Club

Allyson Grant of Baldwin City, KS shares her wild journey from starting a home bakery to growing a chain of cupcake stores, appearing on the Food Network, and coaching cottage food entrepreneursGet full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/136

03-11
59:58

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