The Forrager Podcast for Cottage Food Businesses

The Forrager Podcast for Cottage Food Businesses

Learn how to start a food business from your home kitchen by hearing stories from cottage food entrepreneurs about how they grew their businesses from the ground up. Does everyone ask for your recipes, or say "You should sell that"? Have you dreamed of starting a brick-and-mortar bakery, or simply want a fun hobby that brings in some extra dough? On this podcast, David interviews a wide range of entrepreneurs across America who legally sell their homemade food via their state's cottage food law. Each episode reveals strategies for marketing and selling your food products successfully from home, online, at farmers markets/events, and in stores. Learn what steps you should (or shouldn't) take, and get your cottage food business off to the right start!

Episodes

October 7, 2025 55 mins
Lisa He of Orlando, FL shares how she built a thriving cottage food bakery, won a Food Network competition, and leveraged that success by creating a popular cookie decorating supply business

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/151

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In this special 150th episode, many cottage food industry influencers share some of their best business advice for cottage food entrepreneurs on the topics of mindset, marketing, management, and money

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/150

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September 9, 2025 59 mins
Alanna T'ia of Columbia, MO shares how she became a 6-figure baker by creating a professional setup with streamlined systems, exceptional customer service, and consistent high-quality products

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/149

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Lauri Lee & Bob Stafford of Surprise, AZ share the strategies they’ve used to scale their business by becoming a major presence at markets, adding wholesale accounts, switching to a copacker, and more

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/148

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Soralla Gonzalez of Tampa Bay, FL shares how she has overcome struggles to find customers by being resilient, implementing marketing strategies, failing fast, and staying focused on her true passion

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/147

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Stacey Kimball of Caldwell, ID shares how she went from cottage food to commercial kitchen to her own storefront by building relationships with her community and focusing on slow and consistent growth

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/146

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July 15, 2025 58 mins
Amanda Sharp of McCalla, AL shares how she fulfilled her lifelong dream of building a successful bakery, despite overcoming health challenges and facing a curveball that almost wiped out her sales

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/145

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Annie Wang of Oakland, CA shares how she turned multiple passions into a very successful hyper-niched and eco-friendly bakery by starting small, scaling up, and completing a massive rebrand

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/144

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June 17, 2025 59 mins
Ana Delgado of Wingdale, NY shares her incredible cottage food business journey that includes starting over twice, overcoming a midlife crisis, and dealing with burnout on her unlikely path to success

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/143

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Georgi DeCosta of Kaneohe, HI shares how she used baking to help overcome depression, and turned her baking therapy into a legitimate cottage food business that has given her a new purpose in life

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/142

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May 20, 2025 59 mins
Rita Magalde runs Sheer Ambrosia in Salt Lake City, UT and shares her roller coaster baking business journey of 17 years that includes big risks, life changes, surprises, failures and successes

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/141

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Michelle Chesser of Millersville, MO started her home bakery 16 years ago from humble beginnings and built it into a "monster" that changed her family's life and led her to become an online influencer

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/140

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April 22, 2025 58 mins
Chris Martin of Charlottesville, VA shares how she used her experience working at 3-star Michelin restaurants to build a successful cottage food bakery, and then reinvented it despite its popularity

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/139

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April 8, 2025 59 mins
Davia Delgado of Trenton, NJ has experienced incredibly fast growth in her cottage food bakery, and shares how she achieved many $2k and $3k sales days within her first year of business

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/138

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Elena-Maria Hert of Billings, MT shares how she persisted to create a successful cottage food bakery, despite struggling to acquire customers, source ingredients, and achieve work/life balance

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/137

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Allyson Grant of Baldwin City, KS shares her wild journey from starting a home bakery to growing a chain of cupcake stores, appearing on the Food Network, and coaching cottage food entrepreneurs

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/136

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February 25, 2025 59 mins
Rachel Laukala of Ravensdale, WA shares how she built a very successful cottage food bakery selling only cake pops, amassed over 100k followers on Instagram, and started an online cake pop school

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/135

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February 11, 2025 59 mins
Meggen Wilson of Whitefish, MT shares how she converted her cottage food business into an ecommerce brand, and covers many topics including licensing, branding, copacking, ecommerce, SEO, email & more

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/134

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January 28, 2025 59 mins
Matt Rosen of Eden Prairie, MN shares his unlikely journey from non-baker to bakery owner, including a major rebrand, a fortuitous commercial facility, and a business decision that tripled his sales

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/133

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January 14, 2025 59 mins
Delaney Peters of Wasilla, AK shares how her cottage food bakery became a massive success within its first year, despite having modest business ambitions and also being a stay-at-home mom of an infant

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/132

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