Local food sales, which include those from cottage food operations and farmers’ markets, ​totaled ​$5 billion in 2008, according to a 2016 article by Tom Vilsack​, then the secretary of agriculture. The report projected they would reach $20 billion this year​.​

“When the recession hit, people were looking for side jobs, ways to make extra money,” said David Crabill, who runs Forrager, a blog about cottage food that tracks state laws. “It’s a very natural thing to share food within your own community and to sell it.”

For almost a decade, the New Jersey Home Bakers Association, which has more than 350 members including Ms. Russinko, has been lobbying elected officials for the right to sell homemade goods. A bill that would allow such sales has passed in the State Assembly three times, most recently by a unanimous vote in 2016.

But the legislation has stalled in the State Senate. Senator Joseph F. Vitale, the chairman of the Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, has never put it up for a vote or a hearing in committee, so the entire Senate cannot vote on it.

Image Senator Joe Vitale, the chairman of the Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, has never put the home bakers' bill up for a vote in committee. Credit... Mel Evans/Associated Press

“Our office is consumed with issues that are, I’m sorry to say, more important,” Mr. Vitale, a Democrat from Woodbridge, said in a phone interview. “I support the fact that they want to pursue this type of entrepreneurship, but it has to be done in a manner that is safe.”

In 2017, the association bypassed the legislature and sued the state health d epartment , which is responsible for enforcing the ban, saying the ban violates the equal protection clause in the New Jersey Constitution.