Ohio has allowed certain homemade foods to be sold without licensing or inspection since 2001, giving rise to a cottage-food industry of small producers like Monica Coblentz.

Monica Coblentz thought for a few seconds and did the math. How many cinnamon rolls had she baked since opening her roadside stand last year?



Eight hundred fifty dozen, she estimated after she and husband, Timothy, did a few calculations.



Traffic on state Route 153 barely slows in the tiny crossroads of Freeburg, but every Friday and Saturday, cars and trucks pull over at the sign advertising “Monica’s Fresh Cinnamon Rolls.”



A half-dozen gooey rolls in a foil pan sell for $5. A dozen goes for $10.



On this cool Friday in July, the Coblentzes, 31-year-old parents of two young children, started mixing, cutting and baking rolls around 4:30 a.m. so that the first batch was ready when the stand opened two hours later.



“If you don’t let it rise, it’s just as hard as a brick,” Monica Coblentz said of the dough. “The waiting is key to a good cinnamon roll.”



The stand attracts customers from as far away as Lisbon, Akron and Salem, she said. Sometimes they ask how she is able to sell homemade food.



“We follow the cottage-food law,” she tells them.



COTTAGE FOOD



Ohio has allowed certain homemade foods to be sold without licensing or inspection since 2001, giving rise to a cottage-food industry of small producers like Coblentz.



“It’s becoming more common, definitely, as farmers’ markets grow in popularity,” said Ashley McDonald, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture. “We’ve got more people interested in starting side businesses or just getting into the locally produced, locally sourced food trend.”



That said, since the state doesn’t license these producers, no one can say how many cottage-food makers there are.



About 40 states have some kind of a cottage-food law, and Ohio’s was one of the first and most expansive, said Lisa Kivirist, a Wisconsin-based author who writes about the cottage-food movement.



“In a way, it’s almost going back to the way our commerce was historically, where we were buying from neighbors,” Kivirist said. “We were buying products and things that were made in each others’ homes and kitchens and farms.”



RULES OF THE GAME



Ohio’s cottage-food law originally allowed homemade candies, fruit butters, jams and jellies and baked items that didn’t need refrigeration. The state added popcorn, waffle cones, granola and dry herbs to the list in 2009.



“They are food items that wouldn’t need certain temperature requirements or wouldn’t involve meat or eggs,” McDonald said.



Home-produced foods need a label identifying them as such, along with the name of the product, its net weight or volume, a list of ingredients, particularly allergens, and the name and address of the producer.



The products can be sold from home, or at farmers’ markets, grocery stores, restaurants and other licensed venues, McDonald said.



All cottage-food products are subject to sampling by the state Department of Agriculture. If producers don’t list the product name or net weight on the label, the department typically asks them to correct the issue by the next time they come to market, McDonald said.



The department would require a producer to pull an item if it doesn’t clearly list an allergen, and individuals selling prohibited items would be shut down, she said.



TESTING THE WATERS



From a booth at the Hartville Marketplace & Flea Market, Barb Stuckey offered a taste of frothy pink sweetness.



Stuckey, 67, of Washington Township, sells pre-made tapioca deserts — buyers mix in their own whipped cream — and a wide range of jams and jellies, including plum, elderberry and corn cob. The latter is a sweet, yellowish spread that tastes faintly of, well, corn.



Stuckey is retired and said she started selling cottage-food products about five years ago, building on a lifetime of canning experience.



“Trouble is, it’s a business more than a hobby anymore,” she said.



Kivirist said cottage-food laws allow entrepreneurs, such as Stuckey, to make part-time income and test a product or a business idea before making a hefty investment.



The laws also create an economic niche for stay-at-home moms, retirees, farmers with excess produce or cooks who specialize in ethnic foods.



A few tables from Stuckey’s booth, Miladin Lekic, 54, hawked cookies, heavy poppyseed strudels, rolls and other baked goods.



“Easy to buy, easy to eat. If you buy, you’ll be back,” he called out in accented English. More than a few customers responded to the pitch.



Miladin and Aida Lekic emigrated from Bosnia in 1999 and settled in Barberton. When people tasted Aida’s food, they asked, “Why you not opening something?” he said.



They got a booth in Hartville twelve years ago and have been in the cottage-food business ever since. Miladin Lekic runs the booth four days a week, and works a night job, while Aida does the baking.



“For anybody harboring the dream of starting a food business, cottage-food laws really help support that,” Kivirist said.



But as with any business, cottage-food producers should make sure they have adequate insurance and think about how they structure their business, such as starting a corporation, she said.



It’s also a good to research food safety tips from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.



“The fact that you’re serving to the public only magnifies the fact that food safety needs to be a priority,” Kivirist said.



CONSUMER EDUCATION



If anyone has a concern about a cottage-food item or a producer, they should contact their local health department or the state department of agriculture, McDonald said.



The state doesn’t get many complaints, and typically the concern deals with a cottage-food seller who has a pet in the home, but that’s not considered a violation, she added.



The Stark County Health Department has worked with local farmers’ market organizers to educate them on what cottage foods are allowed, said Paul DePasquale, director of environmental health.



“For the most part, people try to do it the way the rules are set up,” he said.



The couple of times a year when the health department gets complaints, they often come from other cottage-food makers who notice a competitor possibly breaking the law, DePasquale said.



The health department also fields questions from consumers.



“People should know that these products are exempt under the law,” DePasquale said. “They should be educated in what they’re buying. That’s not to say that the cottage-food industry isn’t producing good quality, wholesome products. It’s just, they’re exempt from the law, so educate yourself on exactly how this all works.”



Shirley Marquis, of Louisville, said the outside appearance of the home, and the person selling the items matter, and there are some homemade products she wouldn’t buy.



But Marquis has become a regular customer of Monica Coblentz’s cinnamon rolls.



“I’m a baker,” Marquis confessed, “but she’s good.”







Reach Shane at 330-580-8338 or shane.hoover@cantonrep.com.



On Twitter: @shooverREP