What is a cottage bakery?

A cottage bakery is a home kitchen that sells baked goods under your state's cottage food law. That's really it! The law is what makes it a cottage bakery: it lets you bake at home and sell to your neighbors without a commercial kitchen, an inspection or (in a lot of states) any paperwork at all.

Most of the bakers on Coop run exactly this kind of bakery, so here's how it works in practice.

What you can sell

Every state draws the line around food safety. Shelf-stable baked goods are almost always allowed: bread, sourdough, cookies, most cakes, muffins and pies that don't need the fridge. Foods that need refrigeration are where states split.

• Missouri and Florida stick to shelf-stable foods (Missouri's law covers baked goods, canned jam or jelly, and dried herbs).
• Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma now allow some refrigerated foods like cheesecake, with extra steps such as registration, training or in-person delivery.
• Colorado allows shelf-stable foods today and adds some refrigerated foods (tamales, burritos) on January 1, 2027.

Meat, seafood and raw milk are left out almost everywhere, and eggs usually fall under a separate egg law rather than the cottage food law.

How much you can sell

Where you can sell

Cottage bakeries sell directly to the people who eat the food. That usually means pickup from your home, your own delivery, farmers markets, and online orders, with a few catches:

• Online orders are fine in most of these states, but Missouri, Arizona and Colorado keep sales inside the state, and Texas requires you (or someone in your household) to hand the order over personally.
• Shipping is allowed in Florida, and in Oklahoma for shelf-stable foods. It's off the table in Texas.
• Wholesale to stores and restaurants is generally not allowed.

Cottage bakery vs micro bakery

"Micro bakery" isn't a legal term. People use it for any small, often weekly bread operation, whether it runs out of a home kitchen under the cottage food law or out of a rented, licensed commercial kitchen. If you bake at home and sell under your state's cottage food rules, you're a cottage bakery, whatever you call it on your sign. If you outgrow the cap or want to sell wholesale, a licensed kitchen is the usual next step.

How to start one

1. Read your state's rules on what you can sell (our state guides cover Missouri, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Oklahoma).
2. Take the food handler or food safety course if your state needs one.
3. Register if your state needs it (Arizona today, Colorado from 2027).
4. Get your labels right. Most states fix at least one required sentence.
5. Decide how people will order and pick up.

That last step is where Coop comes in. Open a storefront, post your bake for the week, and people nearby can reserve it before you even preheat the oven. You can set a weekly pickup rhythm, take made-to-order requests for custom cakes, and get paid in the app or in cash at pickup.

If you want to see what cottage bakers near you are already selling, take a look at sourdough in St. Louis or cookies in Dallas.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm the rules with your state and city before you sell.

Cole Coleman, founder of Coop