Homemade Texas

While they may look like easy gifts to give, you don't want to give the gift of foodborne illness! Bread or cakes baked in canning jars, then applying the lid, can create a low-oxygen environment. This, combined with baked goods high in moisture and low in acid, can support the growth of C. botulinum. Canning jars are not designed to be used in the oven per manufacturer recommendations. Dry heat puts stress on the jars and can cause them to break. The best options? Use oven-safe baking pans for baked goods. Freeze baked goods for later use. Learn more at https://extension.psu.edu/food-preservation-setting-the-record-straight-on-canning-breads-and-cakes and https://www.clemson.edu/extension/food/canning/canning-tips/36cakes-breads.html

Jeff started his professional barbecue journey back in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic closed down the VFW that he was a member of in Austin. Krenzer started making barbecue rub and barbecue sauce based of his mother’s barbecue sauce recipe to bottle and sell as a fundraiser to help keep the VFW afloat.

The sauce sold out quickly at farmer’s markets, and customers raved about the sauce to Krenzer and encouraged him to turn it into a business, he said.

“I started under the Cottage Food laws in Texas and doing markets like Krist Kindl Markt and the Rabbit Fest and all that sort of stuff,” Jeff said. “Eventually, we made an LLC out of it, started making it bulk to try to get into stores and everything, and then we decided the best way to push it is on food. So when the opportunity came up for the restaurant and we jumped on it.”

New barbecue restaurant opens in downtown Copperas Cove | Copperas Cove Leader Press New barbecue restaurant opens in downtown Copperas Cove Fri, 2023-12-15 12:35 david_morris By BRITTANY FHOLERCove Leader-Press Saturday marked the soft opening for a new spot in town that is filling the craving for barbecue, located on S. 1st Street. Grill Country Texas BBQ occupies the space former...

Sunday Cookers' Anna Oliinyk paints new life in America with royal icing After bombs started falling near their home in Ukraine, cookie decorator Anna Oliinyk and her family moved 14 times in six months before landing in San Antonio.

That's a new twist on a cottage-friendly snack board! ☃️🍪

Sugar High A great local bakery featuring fantastic desserts, coffee, breakfast, wraps and sandwiches. Come in

Check out It's a Cakewalk in Farmersville on an upcoming episode of The Big Bake on Food Network.

The Big Bake: Coshocton native takes crazy cake creations to Food Network Amanda Fox Walker appearing at 11 p.m. Monday on "The Big Bake." The show will be aired again at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

Welcome to our newest business member, Heartland, a brand new cottage food business that specializes in handcrafted micro-batch hot sauces, each infused with the rich essence of the Lone Star State, creating a symphony of complex and tantalizing flavors. Check out unique flavors like Cinnamon Whiskey Habanero, or the flagship Chile de Arbol. There's something for everyone, with flavors spanning the range from mild to wild. Be sure to follow them for updates on what local fairs around Houston you can find them at this fall!

Homemade Texas memberships support local businesses like this! https://www.homemadetexas.org/join

Austin is getting a new year-round farmers market!

Year-round farmers market to open in The Domain The Domain is set to open a year-round farmers market in November.

Great news for Austin and surrounding area bakers and decorators. Make It Sweet is now Over the Top Cake Supplies.

How sweet it is... we're (back) open for business!! Come on in, we'd love to see you!

This is a huge loss for the Texas baking community. 😢

Store Closing Announcement   Dear Valued Customers – It is with very heavy hearts and a mix of emotions that Randy and we write to inform you that we have made the difficult decision to close Make It Sweet. After much contempla

Another Cottage Food Law success story. Congratulations Woods Cakery Bakery LLC!

Woods Cakery Bakery to open a storefront for custom cookies, cakes in Conroe Woods Cakery Bakery, 17099 Walden Road, Ste. 110, will open in September in Montgomery.

The following is a modified version of a letter sent to Homemade Texas members earlier this week.

Dear Friends:

What started as a promising legislative session in which 13 bills of interest to Homemade Texas were filed, ended with a disappointing whimper. Not a single one of our priority bills passed, but it wasn’t for lack of effort by Homemade Texas or our supporters.

Home Food Security, aka “Chicken Bills”

The House sent THREE backyard chicken bills to the Senate, and every single one died in Senator Bettencourt’s Local Government Committee without a hearing. Clearly the strategy for next session must be to write the bill in a way that has nothing to do with local governments.

Cottage Foods

Multiple bills were filed to amend the cottage food law, but it became apparent early on that the only one that would move forward would be SB 829 by Senator Lois Kolkhorst, who is the Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

SB 829 was a broad omnibus reform bill that did several things:

- Doubled the current annual sales cap from $50,000 to $100,000
- Made home addresses on the food labels optional with DSHS registration
- Clarified that cottage food producers are not required to purchase permits to sell at events
- Added refrigerated baked goods like cheesecake and pumpkin pies to the list of cottage foods
- Added wholesale sales for cottage foods (excluding refrigerated baked goods) through a DSHS-registered wholesaler

Senator Kolkhorst passed SB 829 out of the Senate in short order on March 29, well-positioned to pass the House before the end-of-session deadlines start falling in mid-May.

It’s normal for the House to wait until the end of April to start hearing Senate bills; the House’s priority is House bills. We were told there would be a hearing the first week of May…. and then it didn’t happen. And then we were told it would be the second week… and it didn’t happen.

It became clear that the House and Senate were embroiled in the end-of-session civil war that seems to get worse every session. The Senate sends bills over to the House that the House doesn’t want to pass, so when those bills don’t move fast enough on the House side, the Senate starts retaliating against unrelated House bills. And then the House retaliates harder against other Senate bills that had nothing to do with why the fight started in the first place.

On May 15, the last possible date it could be heard with any chance of passing, the SB 829 was heard in House Public Health. The hearing was mostly predictable; the City of Houston Health Department testified against; the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance Executive Director, Judith McGeary, and Homemade Texas member and cottage food producer Jada Lucero of Jada’s Sweets testified in favor. The bill was voted out of committee with a unanimous vote and sent to the General Calendars Committee, which is always a nail-biting stage in the legislative process.

Thanks to our members and supporters answering the call to send emails to the Calendars committee, the bill did make it on to the General Calendar with a decent placement. It looked like the bill would probably pass. But by now you all know what happened on Tuesday, May 23. Tempers had reached a boiling point, and the House employed every delay tactic at its disposal to kill most of the Senate bills still waiting to be passed that night – including standing at ease for an hour at one point in the evening. SB 829 died with just 8 bills ahead of it on the calendar. It was a massacre. Over 70 other bills behind SB 829 also died when they had not been voted on by midnight that night (that’s the constitutional deadline for the House to hear Senate bills on second reading).

SB 829 contained many improvements that would have benefited many of our members and thousands of small businesses. I know its failure was bitterly disappointing to many who were counting on its passage.

What’s next?

Thank you all for your lobbying efforts in the form of calls, emails, comments, and visits to the Capitol. It was not in vain – Legislators remember these things across sessions. And thank you for your membership in Homemade Texas. Our inaugural legislative session didn’t end in the policy success we’d hoped for, but we gained important name recognition and made a huge impression when we generated more online comments (655) for the House committee hearing than anyone could remember seeing on one bill.

Every session is a new mix of people, personalities, and priorities. The Legislature has shown again and again that they support cottage food producers – the death of this bill had nothing to do with its merits. We’ll take some time to lick our wounds and then in less time than you think, it will be time to start all over again for 2025.

Please consider becoming a member of Homemade Texas to support our ongoing work to promote policies that empower people to be self-sufficient at home. Memberships are inexpensive, and every member receives a "Guide to the Cottage Food Law" and 2023 Member sticker in the mail. We have no funding other than membership and donations - this is a true grassroots organization. https://homemadetexas.org/join

SB 829 has died on the calendar, 8 bills away from being voted on.

Today is the day we will know the fate of SB 829.

The House finished its daily business late last night, so not much will be carried over from yesterday's calendar. Barring a total meltdown (never out of the question), they will vote today on SB 829, which is placed at the top of page 8 out of a total of 13.https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/calendars/pdf/H220230523.pdf

Any bill on today's Supplemental Calendar that is not voted on will die.

Watch the Texas House live starting at 10:00: https://house.texas.gov/video-audio/

Follow along on today's Calendar (click Supplemental Calendar): https://capitol.texas.gov/Calendars/CalendarsByDate.aspx?Chbr=H

SB 829 is on Tuesday's General Calendar (not published yet, so not sure about position). Going live at 7:00 tonight to discuss! (Zoom link in comment, this will NOT be a Facebook Live)

UPDATE: SB 829 made it on to Tuesday's calendar! No more emails please!

ACTION: I've received an indication that it would be helpful for everyone to EMAIL the members of the Calendars committee. Please leave a comment to tell us it's done -- it will help more people see this post!

Emails:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Suggested Subject: Support Cottage Foods! Please place SB 829 HIGH on Tuesday's calendar!

Suggested Body: SB 829 will help thousands of small businesses. Thank you for your favorable consideration!

UPDATE - the bill is on Tuesday's General Calendar!

Dear Friends,

Our most important bill of the session, SB 829, hangs in the balance right now. It is caught in the somehow worse than usual end-of-session feud that predictably breaks out between the House and Senate.

SB 829 passed out of the House Public Health Committee unanimously on Thursday 5/18. The next step is that the bill "goes" to the Calendars Committee (which presents its own legendary challenges). But procedurally, there are actually a few steps in between a bill being voted out of committee and arriving in Calendars. The committee report must be completed, filed, distributed, and then actually taken to Calendars.

For reasons that have not been discussed but can surely be traced back to the House-Senate feud, this process is taking longer than we would have expected. As of this writing (11:30 p.m. on Saturday night 5/20/2023) the committee report was filed, but it has not been distributed or sent to Calendars.
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=SB829

This is all important because today (Sunday 5/21) is the last day that the House can set a General Calendar. So, when or if the Calendars Committee meets today (given the current state of things, this is NOT guaranteed), any bill that is not placed on the Calendar will die.

The Calendars Committee obviously can't place a bill on the General Calendar that hasn't been received yet. That means THREE things have to happen today for SB 829 to stay alive:

1. The Committee Report must be distributed.
2. The Committee Report must be sent to Calendars.
3. Calendars must meet and place the bill on Tuesday's calendar.

If all three of these things happen, the bill will be alive for the time being. It would then come down to how many bills are on Tuesday's calendar, where on the Calendar SB 829 is placed, and how many Senate Bills the House feels inclined to pass. Tuesday is the final deadline, and any General Calendar bills not passed by this date will die.

You have all done a tremendous job of showing your support. 655 comments were received by the Public Health committee, the vast majority of them positive. We already have a few Joint Authors. And there are more people than you know, legislators and staffers alike, working behind the scenes to try to pass this bill.

Can you call your State Representative one more time today? (Sunday, May 21). Urge them to do whatever they can to make sure the bill actually gets sent to Calendars, and then gets a good placement ON the Calendar. Many will be working, even on a Sunday.

Visit https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home and enter your address to find your State Representative, and call their office that number begins with 512-463- # # .

This is the last chance until 2025. We will know the final fate of the bill very soon.

Thank you for everything you've done this session.

Kelley Masters
President, Homemade Texas

Thank you to everyone who went to the Capitol to "walk the offices" yesterday, and any who may be able today -- the House will likely work at least a full day. The committee report for SB 829 hasn't been distributed yet, which is a necessary procedural step before it can actually even be sent to Calendars. I spoke to the Committee Coordinator yesterday (and gave her cookies) and she was very positive about the bill and said she was only waiting on the Fiscal Note (again, procedural). Hopefully that will happen today.

Here are the deadlines:
Senate Bills must be placed on the General Calendar by tomorrow (Sunday 5/21).
Senate Bills must be voted on by Tuesday 5/23.

KEEP THE CALLS GOING - they are working!
https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home find your State Representative, call their office that number begins with 512-463- # # . Say "Hi, I'm a constituent. I support SB 829 and I'd like Representative # # to vote yes and become a co-author."

SB 829, a major cottage food reform bill is out of committee and headed for Calendars - but it MUST be placed on the General Calendar by Sunday 5/21, or it will die. WE NEED YOU to visit the Capitol on Friday 5/19 or Saturday 5/20 and fill out support cards in the 11 offices of the Calendars committee. This takes about an hour, it's not a huge commitment!

I'm going to post detailed instructions here for visiting the Capitol tomorrow, for those who may want to but need more information.

If you’ve never been before, it can be a bit intimidating, a little preparation goes a long way! It's not that bad, I promise.

There is inexpensive close-by parking in the Visitors Garage at 12th and San Jacinto. https://tspb.texas.gov/plan/parking/parking.html

The Capitol is just a short walk to the west of the garage.

Here are the office numbers of the 11 members of the committee. Because Dustin Burrows is the chair, he actually has two offices where green cards can be left – you can visit both or just one, it’s up to you! The committee offices are kind of buried away in a little rabbit warren of offices that can be a bit confusing.

Charlie Geren GW.15
Ana Hernandez 1W.11
Toni Rose 4N.5
Ed Thompson 4S.3
Jared Patterson E1.310
David Cook E1.402
Ann Johnson E2.412
Dustin Burrows E2.610 or E2.148 (committee office) Calendars - Chair
Cole Hefner E2.718
Shelby Slawson E2.804
James Talarico E2.902

The first four offices are in the big main capitol building that we all know and recognize. “GW” stands for “Ground West” – in other words, the ground floor (down the stairs or elevator from the entrance on 1) and in the west wing. 1W is the first floor, west wing. 4N is the 4th floor (elevators recommended), north wing. And 4S is the 4th floor, south wing.

All the other offices on E1 or E2 are in what is known as the “Extension”, a vast underground building that sits just to the north of the Capitol and can be accessed via the elevators and walking down a tunnel. This is an excellent map:https://tspb.texas.gov/plan/maps/doc/capitol_visitors_guide.pdf

Once you’re in the Extension, it’s fairly easy to follow the signs to the office you’re looking for.

When you go into the office and are greeted by the staff, just say you’re there to fill out a green card, and they will give you one. 11 cards later and you’re done. 😊

It can’t hurt to visit the office of your State Rep while you’re there. Ask him or her to become a co-author and tell them how far you’ve traveled and what the bill means to you!

If you have any questions you can call or text me at 737-312-8444.

HUGE THANKS IN ADVANCE to those of you who make the trek. Bills don't pass themselves, and as I've said many times, my philosophy of a legislative session is to leave it all on the field -- there are no do-overs. I never want to wonder if things could have gone differently if I'd just done one more thing. I do everything.

SB 829 (cottage foods) has been sent to the General Calendars committee -- are you in Austin? Can you come to the Capitol tomorrow? We need supporters to walk to each of the 11 offices of the Calendars Committee and fill out a "green card" in support of SB 829! I will be there early, and Judith McGeary from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance will also be there if you are unsure what to do. This is easy work that can be done in less than an hour and will make a HUGE difference. A list of the Calendars Committee members and their offices is in the comments below. Questions, ask? The session is almost over and SB 829 must be placed on the General Calendar by SUNDAY or it dies.

SB 829 has been voted out of committee (this is good!) Next step: Calendars! Keep the calls going!

TEXANS - we need your help to pass a much-needed update to the Texas cottage food law! Time is of the essence - please call your State Representative and ask him/her to vote YES and become a Co-Author on SB 829! Find out who represents you here: https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home

Or, call 512-463-4630 and give the operator your address and ask to be connected to your State Representative. When you call, say, "Hi, I am a constituent and I would like to ask Representative ____ to become a Co-Author and vote YES on SB 829."
The clock is running out on this legislative session - if it doesn't pass this time, we will need to wait until 2025 to try again. Even if you have called before, it's time to call again.

Leave a comment below and tell us who your Rep is and who you talked to in their office! (your comments help make this post more interesting, therefore Facebook will show it to more people)

Excellent job on all the calls today. Keep it going through the week! In order to have a chance of passing, SB 829 must be voted out of committee by Saturday, and must be placed on the calendar by Monday - those are our two major deadlines.

We need more Joint or Co-Authors! We have two Joint Authors so far that I know of - that means there are two Joint Author slots available, and an unlimited number of Co-Author slots. Make it your personal mission to get your Rep to put their name on this bill that's so important for the cottage food community!

Do you like the new shareable images each day? Let me know!

TEXANS - we need your help to pass a badly needed update to the Texas cottage food law! Time is of the essence - please call your State Representative and ask him/her to vote YES on SB 829! Find out who represents you here: https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home

Or, call 512-463-4630 and give the operator your address and ask to be connected to your State Representative. When you call, say, "Hi, I am a constituent and I would like to ask Representative ____ to become a co-author and vote YES on SB 829."
The clock is running out on this legislative session - if it doesn't pass this time, we will need to wait until 2025 to try again. Even if you have called before, it's time to call again.
Leave a comment below and tell us who your Rep is and who you talked to in their office!

TEXANS - we need your help to pass a badly needed update to the Texas cottage food law! Time is of the essence - please call your State Representative and ask him/her to vote YES on SB 829! Find out who represents you here: https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home
Or, call 512-463-4630 and give the operator your address and ask to be connected to your State Representative. When you call, say, "Hi, I am a constituent and I would like to ask Representative ____ to become a co-author and vote YES on SB 829."

The clock is running out on this legislative session - if it doesn't pass this time, we will need to wait until 2025 to try again. Even if you have called before, it's time to call again.

Leave a comment below and tell us who your Rep is and who you talked to in their office!

The House hearing on SB 829 was held this morning. Lots of people are working very hard to pass this bill. You all did your part - 111 PAGES of comments were received. I will post an update later when I know more.https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/publiccomments/billhistory/SB00829H.pdf =0

capitol.texas.gov