SOUTH HADLEY — In 2020, flour shortages, sourdough starter and terms like “pandemic baking” have underscored a surge in interest around homemade baked goods.
But for residential kitchens, baking isn’t just a hobby or a pandemic trend — it can be a full-time job.
For Melissa Pontbriant, baking from home is nothing new. For the past 12 or 13 years, she has sold cupcakes at craft fairs and other local events. But with a “cottage food operations” license, which she acquired in July, Pontbriant can now advertise and sell directly to customers as a licensed, residential kitchen.
Previously a dental assistant, Pontbriant now bakes full time for her business, NicNats Bakery & Custom Gifts.
Pontbriant began baking about 16 years ago, when her brother needed a cake for his daughter’s second birthday. In recognition of this beginning, the bakery itself now takes its name from two of her nieces, Nicole and Natalie.
While some may try to advertise home baking for sale without a license, these operations aren’t actually legal and can cause trouble for both sellers and consumers.
“There’s a lot of issues with that,” Pontbriant said. “If someone’s not food-safe and they’re not licensed, they can potentially cause damage to someone, get somebody ill.”
The licensure comes with some limitations. Residential kitchens can only sell “cottage food products,” or foods that can safely be kept at room temperature, such as baked goods, jams and jellies. The license also requires separate areas in the home for person baking and the bakery area, including separate refrigerators and storage areas. While regulated by state law, permits are issued by municipal governments.
But a home kitchen also comes with benefits, Pontbriant noted, such as savings and greater control over her work.
Rather than customers coming to her, as they would at a traditional brick and mortar location or craft fair, Pontbriant delivers her orders to them, either directly to their homes or at a pickup location.
For now, Pontbriant doesn’t have aspirations to open at a storefront location. While she planned to open her business as a residential kitchen prior to COVID-19, the pandemic has driven home this decision for her as she witnessed some smaller bakeries needing to close or become residential operations.
“With a home bakery, you don’t have that overhead, and you have a lot more freedom, in a sense, to do your own thing.
“I certainly can’t take as many orders as a bakery can, because I’m just one person,” she said. “But you can kind of set your own orders.”
Elsewhere in South Hadley, Tracie Rubeck opened her business, Beatrice Cottage Bakery. While Pontbriant focuses on sweets such as cakes, cookies, brownies and cupcakes, Rubeck’s business specializes in sourdough bread.
Rubeck began baking sourdough about two years ago. After reading a book on breadmaking, she “started making bread, and I pretty much didn’t stop,” she said. She soon had too much bread for her own family, and about a year into baking, began to seriously consider quitting her day job to pursue a sourdough operation full time.
Rubeck eventually went through with this plan, leaving behind her stable job of 11 years as a department coordinator at Amherst College.
“It was a big gulp when I turned in that resignation,” Rubeck said, “but it turned out to be very fortuitous.”
Rubeck first put the idea of a sourdough bakery to the community while enrolled in a program with EforAll, a Holyoke organization that offers entrepreneurship training. Rubeck spread surveys online asking if residents would be interested in a sourdough bakery in South Hadley, ultimately receiving over 230 responses expressing interest.
Like Pontbriant, Rubeck planned to start her business as a residential kitchen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But this decision now feels particularly cogent for the moment, she said.
But “when we’re on the other side of the pandemic, we’re definitely planning to move into a brick and mortar,” she said.
Like NicNats, Rubeck’s bakery takes its name from family. The bakery — and Rubeck’s sourdough starter —are named after Rubeck’s great-grandmother, who was herself a home-based small business owner.
Rubeck also remembers her grandmother as baking “vats and vats” of Christmas cookies to give out each year, and her mother continuing the tradition.
“Being part of food, to me, is about family and about love,” Rubeck said. It’s also what she believes draws many others to open residential bakeries.
“It tends to be folks who want more time with their family, which I wanted as well,” Rubeck said, “and a job that gives them more connection to their local community.”
