Well, yes...if I was going to earn a living doing an illegal activity there are lots of choices, I suppose? rofl

Remember the days when lots of grandma's had a roadside stand selling pies, bread, cookies, etc. Long gone. Sorta too bad. You have to wonder how many people actually got sick from eating grandma's food? In the food preservation part of my cooperative extension classes our instructors told us that, yes, people did get sick. Still...it's a shame. Here, kids can't even have a lemonade stand. We were at the garden center last weekend. There was a lemonade stand with a sign reading, "Lemonade - $.5". The $.05 was crossed out & replaced with, "Free". They can give it away but can't sell it for a nickle. Oh well...

/t

I've thought of doing something like that, only supplying good, nutritious, tasty vegetarian meals to students at the local University, but there's no way I can with 7 cats in the house.

I hope that lady doesn't get busted.

Sally

Sally, you simply give people the option: 'With' or 'Without' cat hair! :-)

Duane...who has 2 cats myself

Eileen, are you rethinking your Sandwich shoppe?

Ann

Well one could certainly still do this through legal channels. It's a wonderful idea..but certainly ones over head(if doing it legally with a license, insurance and a test kitchen) would cut into the profits a bit more.

That's how Paula Dean started..selling lunch and desserts from her kitchen...

Different states have different rules about cooking in a home kitchen. Here in California, it's just too darn difficult to fulfill all the regulations in a home kitchen. Which is a shame, because I can tell you that most people I know keep their kitchens far cleaner than many restaurant kitchens I've been in over the years.

This might be helpful for you.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Star A Catering Business Mini-Course

Not exactly the same, but on a similar note, for a few family friends who are graduating, I am enclosing a promise of a care package in the fall (along with a gift card). The idea did cross my mind that I could actually package the idea (pardon the pun).

Jo

It's not illegal here either. I know people who do it. I also know a grandma that has a small stand outside her home and sells breads, muffins, jams, jellies, and baked beans from it. They all do a great business. You just have to follow the rules and have the permits and inspections. It's not that hard according to them. NancyLouise

Here, home businesses are regulated by towns...not county or state. In my town, you can have a home business such as being an accountant, lawyer, seamstress, artist, teaching (but not music), or professional office. You can't have more than 5 clients per hour.

You cannot have any type of restaurant or food facility, barber, beautician, veterinary, animal boarding, music, tavern, or massage parlor (lol). To even sell eggs, I'd have to be within an agricultural zoned area...not residential because the zoning would prohibit my having chickens to lay the eggs.

At one point, I'd considered making brown-bag lunches for the many fisherman that drive past our house on their way to their boats (there are 3 marinas on our penninsula). I figured I could provide a great sandwich on homemade bread, chips, & homemade cookies. Nope...town wouldn't allow it.

When I lived in New Hampshire my town allowed home kitchens but the requirements were so onerous that it effectively elliminated anyone from trying.

Nancy Louise, are home kitchens controlled by the town in Maine or does the state regulate the requirements?

/tricia

In my state you have to have a commerical kitchen to cook out of. I can't do it in my own kitchen. I've looked into it as far as cooking dinners, etc. and described above.

Terri, Paula did start that way but she openly admits now that she was breaking the law by doing it in her own kitchen but said "she had to in order to support herself and boys." She eventually was able to cook out of a hotel commerical kitchen at night after she finished working there during the day. Boy, she ended up making out well in the long run.

There are regulations both with the town and the state, triciae. They have to go before the town selectmen to get a victulers(sp?) license. As long as the code enforcement officer gives the home business the official okie dokie,(after his inspection and meeting the requirements) the selectmen usually grant the license. NancyLouise

Here in Michgian the state would be involved too, and you'd have to have a separate, inspected, commercial kitchen. Still, I think it's a good idea whose time has come.

Elery and I are considering building a separate kitchen in the basement when we get one house together, so I can use it for canning and perhaps some catering or other commercial venture.

Annie

No way is this allowed on Long Island. Still considering the sandwich shop but the funds are really the problem and I must admit im very leary with this economy!

Eileen, I agree. Any startup business would really be a struggle and risk right now, especially for what our parents and grandparents would consider extravagent like take out meals.

I think there's going to be a growing trend of people staying at home and cooking and bringing their lunch. I've already witnessed a big change at where I work in how many people are bringing their lunch instead of going out.

Sit tight and wait it out. DH and I have thought about starting a B&B, but not for some time and when we know what's going on with the economy.

Still, one can dream.

You cannot have a business here in a housing development even if you put in a commercial kitchen. Well, perhaps you could, but you could never put up any kind of sign. There are people in some developments that have beauty salons in their homes. They are not allowed to put up any kind of sign and I don't know if they are legal or not. I don't know all the regulations about it. I have considered selling illegaly from my kitchen also. DH didn't want me to do it. I hope no one turns that lady in.

Beverly

As long as we're talking about regulations, those of you frustrated by the restrictions that our benevolent society places on us might reflect on this:

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

Lest you think that's from some wild-eyed subversive libertarian geek, those words were written in 1840 by Alexis de Tocqueville, in "Democracy in America".