New Santa Cruz County ordinance will permit home kitchens for commercial use

Starting Jan. 1, local home cooks can turn their kitchens into mini-restaurants, thanks to a new ordinance that will allow residential kitchens in Santa Cruz County to be certified for commercial use. 

A California law allowing microenterprise home kitchen operations, or MEHKOs, was passed statewide in 2018, but requires approval by each county in order to be adopted locally. On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a local ordinance, joining 14 other jurisdictions, including neighboring Santa Clara, Monterey and San Benito counties. A two-year pilot program will go into effect on Jan. 1. 

The law allows residents to serve food commercially from their homes. Each MEHKO must first be certified by the health department, and cooks must obtain food-handler safety certifications. The category differs from cottage food operations that allow home kitchens to package and sell low-risk food products such as baked goods and preserves, and pop-ups, which must prepare food in certified commercial kitchens before serving it off-site, similar to a caterer. 

The new category comes with restrictions not faced by traditional restaurants. Income is capped at $100,000 annually, the number of meals a home kitchen can serve is limited to 30 meals per day and 90 meals per week, and each MEHKO can have no more than one full-time employee. They’re also prohibited from serving foods considered highly hazardous, such as raw oysters and raw milk products, among other restrictions. Any additional conditions specific to Santa Cruz County will be finalized by the end of the year. 

That still leaves plenty of room for creative business ideas, said Penny Ellis, who has championed enacting the legislation locally since it passed statewide in 2018 and manages the Facebook group Santa Cruz County MEHKO Coalition. She plans to certify the kitchen at her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains and create a supper club that serves community dinners in her small Boulder Creek neighborhood a couple of nights a week. 

She thinks it could make a big impact in Santa Cruz County, especially for women, immigrants and people who need a flexible work schedule. “I think it could have a big effect in our county, because it’s such a foodie place, with great farms and wonderful cooks throughout the area,” Ellis said. 

But she hopes that the costs to secure a permit will go down. Currently, it is set at $470 for an initial one-time home inspection and $530 for an annual permit. 

Césario Ruiz, the program manager at El Pajaro Community Development Corporation in Watsonville, said he plans to work with the Cook Alliance, a statewide organization that supports individuals who want to start MEHKOs, to create a training program specific to Santa Cruz County once local regulations are pinned down. It will launch early next year, he said.

El Pajaro CDC helps small business, and Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs in particular, and is an advocate for MEHKOs. “We believe it can be a really great steppingstone for someone to start a business without a big investment, and could be an opportunity for some really great projects in the future. We look forward to working with the community to help them get started,” said Ruiz. 

Susan Ortmeyer already runs a small business, Swedish-inspired bakery Fika Bakeshop, out of her home under a cottage food license, and plans to certify her kitchen to host dinners at her house in Ben Lomond. She’d like to sell homemade soup with baked treats during the cooler months, host Swedish-themed dinners, and create ready-to-eat meals that people could pick up. 

“It’s really helpful to be able to have a home business with flexible hours that works with my schedule as a busy mom and animal caretaker, and that will mesh with and supplement my Fika Bakeshop business,” said Ortmeyer. “It makes sense for different groups of people like immigrants and stay-at-home moms that need flexible hours, but still want to feed our community.”

Santa Cruz resident Hana Furuta makes vegan Japanese baked goods for her bakery, Furutaya Bakery, out of her home using a cottage food license, and sells them to local businesses, including Sushi Market Sprouts. But she feels that the rules are catered toward Western and American baked goods, and don’t allow her to make certain creams and pastes out of her home kitchen that she’d like to incorporate into her pastries. Renting a commercial kitchen to prepare these items is cost-prohibitive for her, she said. 

If she can certify her home kitchen on Beach Hill, Furuta will expand her pastry menu and create other vegan meals for the community and people visiting the beach and Boardwalk. 

As a single mom, she was drawn to a cottage food business because it gave her a flexible schedule, and looks forward to expanding her business. “It gives me an opportunity to take care of my family without leaving the house that much. I think other women will feel equally excited about MEHKOs,” said Furuta. 

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