On the side of the road, a stand holds rows of locally made products sitting on wooden shelves. On first impression, customers see a chocolate chip cookie through the clear wrapping. But on the back is a label with in-depth ingredients, melting chocolate and a label that says “Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations.”
Farm stands have become a unique way for consumers to buy homemade baked goods, fresh eggs and handcrafted items. But behind the curated display, owners must adapt to Florida’s Cottage Food laws and summer heat which influence what products they can sell, how they have to present them and keep products fresh.
“Cottage food in general came from the desire for local people to access and supplement their, you know, intake of food with local products,” said Jennifer Hagan, a family and consumer sciences agent.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services oversees the Florida Statutes of cottage food operations. They allow unlicensed individuals to use their home kitchens to produce and sell certain foods that present a low risk for foodborne illness.
“It's very similar to some of those things you would get at like a charity event or a church bake off,” Hagan said.
Stand owners can only produce products that do not require refrigeration. This has created constraints for farm owners as they have had to change out ingredients in their traditional recipes for a shelf stable alternative.
“So for instance, my buttercream frosting now, I have to make it with shortening instead of butter,” said Jennifer Bolte, of Bolte Bakes. “So it does give it a little bit of a different taste.”
For Bolte and other stand owners, it also limits the types of products they would want to sell.
“People were wanting the cinnamon rolls, but we couldn't even do the frosting we wanted to do,” said Jennifer Richardson, of Your Baked Dealer. “It does require, like, a little bit of milk and in cottage law you can't put that in there.”
In addition to the food restrictions, the Florida cottage food law also requires food labels to have the name and address of the stand, a very specific ingredient list in descending order of weight, allergen information and “Made in a cottage food operation that is not subject to Florida's food safety regulations” on the label in at least 10-point font.
“Your labels have to list absolutely everything. So if you're using chocolate chips, you have to list the ingredients of that chocolate chip itself too,” Bolte said.
The Florida cottage food laws are learnable, but stand owners face a more unpredictable challenge: Florida’s heat.
“A limited amount of products are allowable under cottage food, it becomes more of a quality issue than a safety issue because Florida is hot and humid,” said Stephanie Brown, food science agent.
When products are left out in the sun and humidity, it can cause them to spoil faster, create a funky taste or reduce its quality.
Several stand owners have had to pull products like bread or cake off the shelves in the hotter months because of this.
“When you first pull out bread, it's, like, super crunchy, and then you cut it and it's got that softness inside,” said Richardson. “But when it's sitting outside, the condensation, everything, it just moistens it, and then it doesn't have a good shelf life.”
They have had to get creative with how they display products, where they place their stand and how to keep it out of the sun.
Some stand owners have combated the Florida heat by putting a tent over their stand or having a built in cooler.
Whitney Mulqueen, whose biggest seller is eggs, got creative by installing a wine chiller in her stand. While it is not essential for her products to be temperature controlled, they will last longer.
“I figure when it's 100 out, I know those eggs are gonna be 48. You know, like, they're not gonna go bad or get raunchy,” she said.
In addition, she understands the effects of the heat and how to make her product last as long as possible by feeding her chickens organic herbs and not washing the eggs.
One ingredient in the herb mix she adds to the chicken’s diet is garlic, which is an anti-parasitic and will help their immune system.
“And my feeling is, if their immune system is tip top, the eggs are gonna be tip top,” she said.
Fresh eggs have a natural coating known as cuticle. This coating protects them from bacteria like salmonella. If you don’t wash their coating off they will last weeks longer than grocery store eggs.
A customer may only see a carton of eggs on a roadside stand. But behind each product is intention to stick to a careful set of rules, preparation and adjustments made for Florida’s climate.
“So it's it's a win-win for everybody. They get nice fresh eggs and products. And then I like to make stuff,” Mulqueen said.