My Little Adventure

You've seen my cakes on here.  I'm not the best, but I feel like I hold my own.  A while back a friend asked why I did not sell them to the public.  I started to look into it and found that South Carolina did not allow home bakers to sell their goods and renting a kitchen would end up costing more than the cakes I hoped to sell.  For a while, that stopped me. I let that dream go and moved on. Or so I thought.  The desire was still lurking under the surface and when I found a site for the Texas Home Baker bill, my interest was renewed. I read most of the posts and then found out that many other states either had a cottage food law or had folks working toward that.

I decided that I wanted to be one of those "folks" working towards changing the law.  This would not only be for me, but it would be for all the people across South Carolina who had the skills to bake, can or do other things in their home kitchen but could not.  This would also be for my family. My skill has the ability to help support us financially and in the current economic climate, it would be a blessing. 

Not sure of where to start or even if I could do this, I emailed the lady behind the movement to enact a cottage food law in Georgia.  She was very encouraging and after talking with her, I started a facebook page called SC Cottage Food Law.  Go check it out!  We now have 69 members.  I also started an online petition that has over 400 signatures supporting a change to the law.

Things had started to slow down on the facebook page and I was not sure how to get momentum going.  So I turned it over to God.  And out of that, I met another woman who shared my passion to get the law passed.  She's been a breath of fresh air and because of her Senator Shane Massey agreed to sponsor the bill.  She also made a huge difference in spreading the word about our petition.  You can't tell me that God doesn't answer prayers!

I found out tonight that a second draft of the bill has been floating around.  I knew that it was being looked at, but to find out that there is actual legislation in the works blew my mind.  I hope to get a peak at it soon.   You hear every day how one person can change things.  It really is true. And I'm so blessed to be a part of it. Come January 2012, this legislation is set to hit the SC state house. I'm not 100 percent sure how the process goes here in South Carolina, but I'm praying we get it through on the first go.  So many home here would benefit from an additional source of revenue and it would allow many current home bakers to legally do something they love.

Next year, I hope to become a home baker in South Carolina.  I'll need a name for my new venture.  Feel free to leave me some ideas.  And then I'll get the hubby to make me a wonderful little website to start advertising my wares!  I can't wait.  Pray for all the people working to make this law happen.  Pray for favor with all the Senators and Representative that have not officially signed on to this and pray that Governor Nikki Haley will sign it into law when passed.