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New rules allow farmers to produce cakes, pies at home
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This page is sponsored by Atlantic Tractor
11 locations to serve all your agricultural needs! Click on the logo to visit their web-site. |
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New rules allow farmers to produce cakes, pies at home
12.07.04
By LINDA SIEMON
The state is making it easier for farmers to supplement their income by using their produce and grains to make homemade cakes and pies for sale straight from their kitchen ovens.
Last week the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene changed regulations that required farmers to use commercial equipment for baking pies and cakes and selling them.
Alan Taylor, director of the Office of Food Protection and Consumer Health Services within the DHMH said it’s something that’s been in the works for some time and a demand many farmers had.
“We’ve been working with people over the years. The big thing we’re trying to do is eliminate the commercial equipment requirements,” Taylor said, which he added can be quite expensive.
Taylor said right now there are not many farmers who produce baked goods for wholesale in the state but he hopes the new regulations will make it easier for them. It’s a way for the farmers to create value-added products and bring themselves higher up on the processing chain.
“One of the things the regs do is make it possible to sell interstate,” said Jane Stores, national marketing administrator for the Maryland Department of Agriculture. “If somebody is making a particular kind of sauce or bread, in previous years they could do some of that and sell it at farmer’s markets. But now they can sell it to restaurants in other states,” she said.
“There are a lot of farmers who are doing this now on a very small scale,” Stores said adding that it opens doors for more farmers to get into the business.
The regulations allow the farmers to only make cakes, fruit pies, muffins and cookies. They may also make herbs preserved in vinegar or dried fruits and vegetables.
However, there is a limit to those hoping to start a new business venture under these new regulations. Each farm is not allowed to sell more than $40,000 worth of homemade products annually.
“The whole purpose is so they don’t overwhelm their kitchen,” Taylor said.
In order to sell the homemade goods baked in their kitchen ovens, farmers will have to go through an eight-hour course and get licensed.
Taylor said he is working on organizing some courses in possibly three locations around the state after the first of the year which would either be free or at a minimal cost to farmers.
“What we’re trying to do is keep the cost very minimal and that depends on where we get the sites,” Taylor said. “We don’t really have a budget to do this.”