🍰 What is a Cottage Bakery (and Why It Matters)

A cottage bakery is a licensed home-based bakery that operates under state-specific Cottage Food Laws which allow people like me to bake and sell certain homemade goods directly to customers from their own kitchens.

It’s what makes Sage & Sweet Co. possible. I bake from home here in Thornton, Colorado, under the Colorado Cottage Food Act which means everything I make is prepared in a private kitchen (not a commercial one) and sold directly to you, my community.

The idea behind cottage baking is to keep things small, local, and transparent. You know exactly where your treats come from, a real kitchen, not a factory. Each cookie, muffin, or cakesicle is made by hand, packaged with care, and meant to bring a little sweetness to your day.

Cottage bakeries have a long history, long before storefronts or franchises, people baked from home and sold to their neighbors. It’s the oldest, most genuine kind of small business there is: baking as an act of community.

For me, it’s about more than convenience. Baking under the cottage model keeps me connected to what matters: creativity, authenticity, and relationships. It allows me to share something real and heartfelt, made right where life happens, in the home.

In case you’re curious, here’s my food handlers certificate :-)