I'm meeting with the decons of the church Wed. night to ask about using the church kitchen to hopefully start a small business. I'm in Michigan and it is hard to become legal here, the church is in Ohio (and only 7 minutes from my house). Ohio is easier to get licensed in, but I'm not sure about for a church kitchen as compaired to the cottage license you can get in the state of Ohio. oh well, if it's ment to be............

Good luck. I'm in Michigan too and have been reading up on the licensing rules.

I wish you well!

Best of Luck. I am trying to find out info on lisc. in NC here. Hope there is not too much. Although I do have a friend with an ice cream shop and they have a kitchen they bake in. Last resort I am going to talk to her about renting her kitchen on a cake to cake basis.

i'll tell you what my DH always tells me... "luck has nothing to do with it!"
Go into your meeting knowing that you kick butt at what you do!
... that being said... good luck all the same!

thanks everyone, I vollunteer enough at church (up till recently) so I'm hoping this will work in my favor. I plan on talking to them as if it were a friendly interview so I don't sound like a weirdo begging to use their kitchen.

They said I can use the kitchen, now comes trying to figure out all of what I have to do for the state of OHIO. The deacons couldn't believe how tough it is in Michigan to get licensed when I told them, they asked what MI's problem was with people trying to start out a small business with food! how funny is that!

THat's great that they'll let you use the kitchen!

Here's a link to the Ohio Cottage food laws information page, but you can only use the cottage food designation for things sold in Ohio, and they have to be baked in your home kitchen, not a commercial kitchen. I don't know how this will apply to your new business, but I hope it gives you some information you can use!

http://www.ohioagriculture.gov/pubs/divs/food/curr/cottage/food-cottageindex.stm

Good luck!
Laura.

thanks slejdick for all the info, I'm going to call tomarro to see if the cottage food law applies or not since it's in a church kitchen.

the cottage law does not apply for me but the wholesale bakery does, it's only $30 for the license and I'll be able to sell off site with proper labelling. I have to get inpected for sanitation only sometime in the next few weeks. Now I have to clean like I have never cleaned before!

That's great- I'm so happy for you!!

As a fellow Michigander, I know how hard it is to get started with a food business. I live across the street from a church that I do not attend or volunteer at, so I am getting up the nerve to be the "weirdo begging to use their kitchen" !

Congratulations on your new venture!

Amber

sweetamber, girl get up the nerve and go over there and ask, what will it hurt? go amber, go amber! (imagine my old annoying cheerleading voice inserted there!) Best of Luck, you never know till you try!

pattiscakesnc, here is the link for the NC Dept of Agriculture website:

http://www.agr.state.nc.us./fooddrug/homebiz.htm

Hope this helps.
Leslie

Congratulations!! That is fantastic - so exciting...once the cleaning is done, let the baking begin!

It will be a few weeks before the inspector comes out, so I'm holding off on the cleaning till a few days before and again the day of. Don't want to clean everything and have it all get screwed up again. I should get a call the beginning of next week to set up a time for the sanitary inspection to happen. thanks for the kind words everyone!