Today I'm talking with Matt at The Cottage Foodie. You can also follow on Facebook.

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00:00
listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Matt, at The Cottage Foodie in Minnesota. I think it's Eden Prairie. Good morning, Matt. How are you? I'm fantastic, Mary. Fantastic. How are you? I'm good. Are you in Eden Prairie? Yes. Yeah, you got that right. Good. I've talked to a lot of people in Minnesota lately and I was like, I...

00:27
Don't remember where the heck he is. know the conference wasn't even very so. All right. So Matt's been on the podcast, I think three times already. Might only be two. This might be the third. I'm not sure. And typically I would ask how the weather is, but I'm guessing you have the same kind of overcast gray, drizzly day we've got going in Lasur. Yep. Exact same thing. I think the rain has passed over us and, but yeah, it's,

00:55
It's just kind of a dreary, dreary day so far. So hopefully the sun can break through by this afternoon. Yeah, we got 1.8 tenths of an inch, 1.8 inches of rain yesterday between 2.30 and 5 o'clock. Oh wow. That's more than we got here. I looked at the rain gauge and from uh my front window, I can't see that anything is in there. So I know I did not get an inch. Yeah.

01:22
It was sheets of rain coming down yesterday at about 2 40. Um, my husband had gone to have lunch with his dad for his birthday and he drove in just as it started raining sheets of rain. came and he was soaked and we need the rain. You know, I hate to sound like a typical homesteader, but as a homesteader, we need the rain. Yeah, but that's a lot in just a few hours. That is, yeah.

01:51
That is a lot. Luckily, the ground is probably dry enough that it soaked it all up. if that would have been where even the ground was partially wet, could have been, eh you know, that could cause flooding and things like that. So it's good that we needed it and we got it. Yeah, we have a useless garage and there's a cement pad in front of it. Like we don't use the garage because the doors are broken. It was that way when we moved in and we were told that it's not even worth fixing it. And it's a low spot.

02:21
And every time it rains like that, we say, oh, Lake Lewis is back because that's our last name. So anyhow, that's the weather report from Minnesota today. Yes. And it's going to be super freaking hot tomorrow and Wednesday. So for those of our friends who live in Minnesota, definitely stay hydrated because otherwise you're going to feel like crap tomorrow and Wednesday.

02:49
Yeah. And what are they describing the humidity level? They call it, it's going to be tropical. So yeah, that with the heat, you're absolutely right. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. In the second week of June, it's not supposed to do this until at least the last week of July, as far as I'm concerned. I don't love this at all. This is not my favorite weather. oh So, um, you, I met you because of your Facebook page, Sergeant Shortbread.

03:19
Yes. Are you still doing shortbread? Yes. Yes, I am. um Sergeant shortbread, much like Matt Rosine, is he's not completely retired like Matt Rosine is. yeah, just slowly. I don't do a whole lot of posting on my Sergeant shortbread social media accounts anymore, a little bit here and there. But uh and I do some uh some some events, farmers markets and things like that here and there. But

03:48
For the most part, my focus is mainly turned towards um what can I do for the cottage food industry as a whole. So that's kind where my focus has turned, but I do still take orders. I just did an order in February, which is my largest order ever. A company in Chaska, Minnesota ordered 187 dozen cookies and they wanted them packaged in packs of three cookies per pack.

04:17
Oh my god. So yeah, that was a big order. So yep, still doing it, but I think most of the people either know me or they find me through Google now because I just don't do a whole lot on my certain short put social media like I mentioned. Okay, I gotta know. 187 dozen. How do you do that? Do you make a few batches and freeze them and then you'll just keep adding or how do you get that done?

04:48
So the nice thing with shortbread, course, you can make the dough ahead of time. um You know, they're icebox cookies. So I made the dough the week before and it just sat in my fridge. And then when it was time to bake, I baked, think for three days, three days straight. It was just nothing but baking and packaging and then delivered them on day four. Cause shortbread cookies, you know, they stay good for, you know, two, three, four weeks. um

05:17
So yeah, it, yeah, I baked, literally did nothing but baked and packaged for, I think it was two, three days, three days straight, and then delivered them on that fourth day. You must have been so happy to be done with it and have them off your plate. Yes. Yes. And to be honest, one of the worst things, and I've said this from the beginning, one of the worst things that I hate the most about the, I don't want to say,

05:45
you know, doing the shortbread cookies. It's the packaging, putting all the stickers on. You got to put a sticker on the front. You got to put an ingredient label on the back. And so it just seems like it takes forever. And if I was to ever hire somebody, it would be to put the stickers on my packaging and do my dishes. Those would be the two people. So if anybody out there is looking for a job to put stickers on and wash dishes in my home, just let me know. Right there with you. I had to label some soaps last week at the farmers market for this weekend.

06:15
And it was only a few. And the thing that I hate about putting stickers on is I have this thing where I want the stickers to look perfect. And they're round. They're like one and a half inch diameter stickers. And I want them to be centered and I want them to be straight. And it's really hard to do that by hand. And I was like, nevermind. We are a rustic homestead. They don't have to be perfect. I agree.

06:42
It sounds like I have the exact same sticker. I think it's a one and a half or between one and a half and two inch round sticker. Oh I gave up on that a long time ago. I'm like, can't. These just have to get on there, make them at least 90 % straight and we're good. Yeah, having OCD with stickering is not a good plan and I don't have it. So that's good. But I do definitely lean toward perfectionism. And if it isn't perfect, it drives me a little nutty.

07:08
So yeah, I get it. Stickering things and not only the process of doing that but the cost of labeling things is just ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I order all my, I order my, my, I do my own ingredient labels. I print those myself, but the, the logo sticker that goes on the front that um I just order that pre-printed and yeah, that, that adds up quickly.

07:33
but you can't not do it because that's how you have marketing right on your product. you've got to do it. It's so frustrating and so important at the same time. It's just the way it is. okay, now we've got all that. don't think I ever asked you what prompted your interest in furthering the cottage food registration or law.

08:02
thing. Yeah. So mean, when as I was doing Sergeant Shortbread and this, I believe we talked about this last time maybe, but I'll just kind of, this is kind of how part of the whole story, guess, went from Sergeant Shortbread to the directory, the Cottage Foodie directory, which then of course, led to Cottage Foodie Con, the conference. um So the directory, I mean, that's, I thought I saw a need or I found a need. um

08:32
where people were cottage food producers were looking for uh visibility. And so I thought, well, I'm going to create a directory. They can put a profile on there and then I will just do paid Facebook ads for them driving customers to the directory, not necessarily to individual cottage ...