Homemade For Sale: book giveaway

Disclosures: I received a complimentary copy of the book; the giveaway recipient’s copy is complementary from the authors or their publisher. If purchased via the links to the book below, your purchase magically deposits a tiny pittance in my bank account, which helps to support this blogging habit.

I’m excited to share this book with you because I know many of you out there are kicking ass in the kitchen and maybe considering taking the plunge into having your own cottage food business.

I met Lisa a few years ago when she interviewed me for an article on food swapping trends and foodswapnetwork.com. Her latest book, Homemade For Sale, which is her and her husband John’s collective 13th book, focuses on the in’s and out’s of starting a craft food business and how to navigate the permitting, regulations and red tape of cottage food laws.

I’ve had this book on my bedside stand and am getting a lot out of it as we prepare to launch our Texas-regional artisan bitters line this fall (!!!) and I highly recommend scoping it out for the trove of resources and knowledge Lisa and John share.

One lucky winner anywhere in the US or Canada will receive a copy of the book; enter by using the widget below.

About the book:

From pies to preserves, wedding cakes to granola, pickles to decorated cookies, fledgling food entrepreneurs now have the freedom to earn, producing non-hazardous foods in their home kitchen. Finally, “homemade” and “fresh from the oven” on the package means exactly what it reads. Homemade For Sale provides a clear roadmap as the first authoritative guide to go from idea and recipe to final product.

Widely known as “cottage food legislation,” over 42 states and various Canadian provinces currently have varying forms of laws that encourage home-cooks to create and sell to the public specific, “non-hazardous” food items, often defined as those that are high-acid, like pickles, or low moisture, like breads.

Key topics covered in Homemade for Sale include:

• Product development and testing

• Organizing your kitchen

• Marketing and developing your niche

• Packaging and labeling

• Advertising and public relations

• Structuring your business

• Bookkeeping for your enterprise

• Managing liability, risk and government regulations

• Scaling up or staying small

To make the book as accessible and inspirational as possible to the widest audience possible, Homemade for Sale features ten “story profiles” of cottage food start-ups addressing real life challenges while sharing practical advice and opportunities.  Every major cottage food category and direct sales channel is represented, including decorative cookies, wedding cakes, pickles, preserves, cookies and salsas.

From “Buy Local” to “Small Business Saturdays,” from slow food to fancy food, from farm-to-fork to hand-made artisan breads, more people than ever are demanding real food made with real ingredients by real people – not by machines in factories, the same way they make cars or computers. Homemade for Sale gets you started, organized and cooking for your customers, creating items that by their very nature are small batch, fresh, unique and specialized.

Finally, here’s the simple and encouraging fact for home-kitchen-based entrepreneurs: You can’t fail in the traditional business sense. Since most of these entrepreneurs avoid taking on debt to launch their home enterprise, start-up expenses are negligible. Most already own everything in their home kitchen that’s needed to bring their products to market.  Best of all, you can start tomorrow!

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Comments

[Cyndi]

I love making jellies & jams and baking. It would be wonderful to turn that into a business!

[Carissa]

Would love to have this book! Plus I can't wait to try your bitters.

[cat]

I'd love a copy! I neede a kick start!

[Mel]

I'm excited about this book & the reviews all sound great. I'd love selling pickles, salsas & tomato sauces locally, but my husband is always (and understandably) worried about liability. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this book so we can make an informed decision about whether selling homemade food items is a good idea for our homestead. Thanks for introducing me to the book here!!

[Lisa]

Would love to win this book, and I've toyed with the idea of selling my own food products. Probably, it would be cut comb honey from our beehives (if that counts as "food" from my kitchen!).

[Amber O.]

Great timing! My boyfriend and I were just talking about this over dinner. I have more and more requests from friends and friends of friends for things like salsa and duck sauce that I need a second job to purchase supplies! :)

[Julianne]

I would love to start a business baking simple celebration cakes for people in my community. I think it would be even more awesome to teach classes that take the mystery out of home-baked goods. I would love to help people ditch the boxed mixes!

[Wendy P]

I think about selling jams, fruit relishes/chutneys, and savory condiments.

[Lacey]

I have my own lil csa and would love to know more about expanding it.

[Mary Beth Hunt]

I'd like to sell some of my homemade soups and breads.

[Deanna]

I would love to make cakes and cookies.

[Hector]

Chocolates and other confections