Since a statewide cottage food law was passed in 2013, home cooks and bakers have had an easier time selling their goods at farmer’s markets, from their home and at festivals. The law doesn’t require cooks to invest as much money and effort into their home kitchens as a more traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant might, but the law also limits the home cook’s income to $20,000 per year. After that, the home kitchen is supposed to be treated as a commercial kitchen.

But Sherry Thigpen, the owner of Paul’s Pastry Shop, said her business—and other brick and mortar bakeries across the US—are being hurt by these laws. Thigpen said she was on the board of directors for The Retail Bakers of America for six years, and home bakers are a real problem for the industry.

“Yes, the cottage laws have been a topic of discussion for the last three years,” she said. “It’s all states. We have friends in California, Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey and all over the country, it’s affecting everyone.”

Thigpen points out that while there are certain regulations—by law, home cooks can’t advertise on social media and they’re supposed to individually package and label all of the products they sell—she suspects many home cooks skirt these rules. With fewer rules and less overhead, Thigpen said they can usually undercut brick and mortar businesses and hurt local economies. 

“It’s hard for us to compete at these same prices and we’re finding that home bakers contact us, and come in and look at our prices, and base their prices off of ours, but our prices include a lot expense,” Thigpen said.

But that extra expense goes back into the community, she says. Thigpen has 37 employees, she pays for a retail space, she said she gives money and donations to local charity groups nearly daily. Since 1970, she said her bakery has done a lot of good in Picayune.

“We pay taxes and sales taxes and property taxes to this community for all these years, and we pay for advertising and not just social media,” she said.

The Mississippi State Department of Health is supposed to regulate the home cooks, but Thigpen said just a single monitor has been assigned to cover Pearl River and five other counties. All she wants, she says, is fairness.

A spokesperson for the health department confirmed some of Thigpen’s concerns. 

Elizabeth Swayze, the director of food protection with the state department of health, said her office has received dozens of complaints about home bakers illegally advertising on social media.

“MSDH has issued numerous enforcement notices for cottage food operators advertising online (approximately 25 in the past year),” Swayze wrote in an email.

But the notices are nothing more than a copy of the law, some frequently asked questions and the threat of a fine, she explained.

“When MSDH becomes aware of a non-compliant cottage food producer, we issue an enforcement notice signed by an MSDH health officer compelling their compliance. Producers are subject to a fine if they are found to be out of compliance with the law,” she wrote.

Melissa Buras is the owner of Cakes, Etc., a home-based baking business. Hers is one of the businesses that advertise through social media. 

But Buras said if she is successful, it’s because she works hard at her job and she hustles. She admitted she’s on social media, but she also never leaves the house without a stack of business cards. She said she goes by salons with free cupcakes and a stack of cards, when she eats out, she leaves a stack of cards—all of which is legal under the law.

“I’ll go around to relators and business and hair salons and I will bring them this (a box of cookies) with several cards, just to say, ‘hey, I am in town,’” said Buras. “My friends on Facebook call me the hustler because I am always out hustling. I am telling you.”

But for all her hustle, Buras said she’s not trying to compete with any brick and mortar businesses. In fact, she hopes to join their ranks next year.

“My thing is, yes I am starting out as a home baker, but very soon I hope to be in a storefront,” she said. 

Specifically, she said has no desire to compete with Paul’s Pastry Shop, a venerable Picayune establishment that’s also a restaurant and coffee shop. 

“I don’t want to compete with Paul’s Pastry, and I don’t feel like I’m a threat to Paul’s Pastry,” she said. “Seventy percent of my business is still in New Orleans. I drive to New Orleans at least two or three times per month with cakes. And most of my business is repeat customers. That’s why I do the street fair, that’s why I donate with the Animal Association, so they can sell them and do whatever they want with them.”

But for all her hustle, Buras said she’s still not making much money. Certainly not enough to threaten Paul’s, she said. 

In a good week, she said she’ll have six orders.

“Six cakes a week and that’s a good week,” she said. “I’m like woo! That’s $300 dollars.”

Buras and her husband used to live in the New Orleans area, and when the moved to Carriere in January this year. The week they moved into their new home, Buras said she was laid off. Since then, she’s thrown herself into her baking.

“I don’t do it to make a fortune, I do it because I have a gift and this is what I love to do,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Thigpen said she’s talked to legislators about toughening up the cottage food laws, but she also believes she sees a solution besides tougher laws or better enforcement. The solution is, teamwork.

“We are looking for two experienced home bakers to work for Paul’s Pastry,” she said. “We’d like to have them on our team.”

“They’re good at what they do,” Buras said of Paul’s Pastry. “I am not saying they’re not good at what they do. And no one wants to take their business from them. I don’t want to get that big. I just want to sell cakes, that’s it.”