Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential and here's your host, Jeff Krank. Alright. When you hear the words home baked cookies, it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling because you know it's gonna be good. There's a home baker in Oklahoma who feels very blessed to be able to offer home baked decorative iced sugar cookies to people in his community.
Doug Eckert is a youtube self taught home baker that learned how to make delicious amazing sugar cookies by testing different recipes until he found the perfect combination. Now because he was using a home kitchen. When Doug started selling his cookies, he was limited to only selling them out of his home or at farmers markets because of a law in the state of Oklahoma. And instead of just blessing Oklahoma with cookies, Doug decided to Sprinkle in a little bit of freedom as well.
He began to work to expand freedom and opportunity not only for his business but other home bakers as well. It took about a year and a half, but Doug was able to work with lawmakers to pass the Homemade Food Freedom Act, which allowed him to sell his cookies in more locations including online. And it also increased the gross amount home baker could make From $20,000 to $75,000, which means Doug now doesn't have to worry about hitting the maximum amount.
And even though Doug is running his home baking business part time, his actions have helped other home bakers in his state by allowing them to have more opportunities. So on today's podcast, we have Doug Eckert, owner of Grandma Duck drugs cookies to talk about his amazing cookie business as well as why it was important to work on the homemade Food Freedom Act and to expand freedom, not just for himself, but for all the citizens of the sooner state. Doug, thanks for being with us.
Thank you so much, Jeff. I love hearing that story. That was kind of neat. Yeah. Well, listen, first of all, I have to ask you grandma Doug's now I have to know how the name came about. Well, that's probably the most common question I received. Um, you know, back before the bakery was a thing and I was just doing this for fun making stuff and taking into the work and things like that.
I like to preface it by saying that, um you know, the PC culture wasn't quite as strong back then because the, the comments I would get was something to the effect of man. This is great. You're gonna make a great wife someday. My, my reply was always that no, I'm gonna make a good grandma someday because for me, grandma was the baker. I grew up in Oklahoma, my family was all in Pennsylvania.
So those, those days that I got to live for the package arriving where my grandma made some cookies and other baked goods baking was always synonymous with grandma to me. So, uh it quickly went into a nickname of just grandma Doug. And when it came time to open the bakery as a, as a full fledged side hustle that, that was an obvious choice for the name Grandma Doug's bakery. Well, there you go. I mean, I love that story. That's a great one.
Now, I was told that you'd like to say that you spend a lot of time in prison. I need to hear this story to you. Spend a lot of time in prison. Do you Doug? I love to spend time in prison.
Yes. Um Yeah, about five or six years ago, I started doing Kairos Prison Ministry, which is a worldwide organization and we go in and do several things in prisons that people kind of get their start on a weekend that goes Thursday through Sunday where it's just amazing journey of forgiveness and, and watching the walls come down on these men and women that are participating in the programs and then we go back for continuing ministry and it's just uh, it's an amazing thing.
My, my wife is in it now. She actually works for another prison ministry. So we got to double up on our time in prison now. And, uh, just for my wife and me there, there's no better place for us to find Jesus and behind those bars. So that is absolutely a passion of mine. And in some place I get to take my cookies too. So that's fun too. Well, that's amazing. And you know, I've been as I do this show and I help tell these stories, I help folks tell these great stories.
There's a common thread to me in them in that people who want to help other people with regard to getting a law changed because they find something as maybe an injustice or a barrier for them. And they do it not just for themselves, but they do it, you know, for everybody in their community, right? So that there can be some, a little bit more liberty, a little bit more freedom.
Those people are often also running or working in five oh one c three organizations doing things like this prison ministry. I find that fascinating that, you know, there's that correlation between people who are willing to take action in this area to make the world a better place and people who go in and do things like this like a prison ministry. So thank you for the great work that you do there now. You didn't go to pastry school? Um, you went to school the school of youtube.
So tell me about that a little bit. Yes, sir. My wife youtube University. Okay. Just kind of adopted that phrase. Yeah. You know, when it came to cookies, I had just with chocolate chip cookies. I kind of was trying to figure out my grandma's recipe and I thought I had it until a couple of years ago that my cousin informed me, hey, I actually have grandma's recipe and I was like, why didn't you give me that years ago?
But when it came to the sugar cookies, I love seeing what people were providing. Um And, and to just be real honest, I, as much as I love seeing them, I wasn't real impressed with the taste. Like I don't like really crunchy sugar cookies, which a lot of them are. So it kind of led me down this journey of, well, what, you know, how, how do I make a better cookie? And, you know, even if I did make the cookie, I would have no idea how to decorate them.
So when I want to try to figure something out, I like going on youtube. That's just my go to learning channel. Uh whether it's trying to figure out how to take the washing machine apart or change the will in my car or decorated cookie, there's just so many resources there. And so that's exactly what I did. I I looked at a few people on there as far as recipes and kind of worked and figured out my own recipe that I liked recipe that kept the cookies soft for a longer period of time.
And then just started learning how people make that royal icing, which is the type of icing used on the sugar cookies that allows you to decorate and create those amazing designs. And it's funny, I, you give me a piece of paper and a pencil. You think a third grader drew picture, I am not an artist at all. But for some reason, one of the things God blessed me with is you give me a bag of icing and a picture and Nine times out of 10, I can recreate that with the icing.
So it was just a learning uh journey that really truly was YouTube university trying to figure out how to make the icing, how to get the right consistency, how to um go through the proper steps to, to get the best possible cookie. Now this, this isn't your full time job. So this clearly is a passion for you. I think both uh the figuring out the recipe and all of this seems like it's a passion of yours.
But also this, this prison ministry and some of the good things, good things you do with regard to this. So why is it so special to you? Well, you know, if the camera was on, I'd say, look at me, does it look like I don't like eating cookies? Um, you know, I think really part of it just goes back to that grandma connection. Right.
It's, you know, when, when we would be able to go up to Pennsylvania, you know, maybe once a year, um, you know, she'd always have those chocolate chip cookies were just amazing and I loved him, but when I was up there she would, before I had ever been to a state fair and knew what a funnel cake was at a state fair. My grandma was making funnel cakes in her kitchen and they were just, it was so cool.
The pancakes were her big thing to, um, the big plate sized pancakes that had a little hole poked in the middle because that's how she figured out whether or not it was done and she knew me and she made sure it wasn't done. She know I liked it still a little gooey in the middle. And, um, it, that is a, that is a special feeling and a connection that you have with, with a grandma, with a mom, with whoever it is that provides those baked goods to you.
And when I started doing this just, you know, like I talked about before you were doing a food day at the, at the office. Bring in your favorite dessert or bring in this, bring in that the, the response I was getting was enough to make me think. Maybe I've got something here. But also these people are really enjoying something that I took the effort to make and create. That was a fulfilling feeling. But it was also neat just being able to bless others.
And that's what's happened now that the bakery started is just that opportunity to bless others. I told you, there's a lot of my cookies are going into prison now and that is a neat thing. There's, there's a lot of people at Mabel Bassett prison out MacLeod that know who grandma Doug is and what, what an honor. Um, I'm just now taking a break to, to do this podcast. I'm making a cookie cake and making some yeast rolls that were taking my men's accountability group.
We're going to a home in Bethany Oklahoma today that helps women that are transitioning out of difficult situations and they need people to come cook dinner for him once a week. And so we're taking on this week and somebody else is making the lasagna, somebody else is getting a salad together. And here I am having the opportunity to make a cookie cake and some peanut butter cookies and some rolls and just being able to bless others.
And that's just, I don't know that that feeds me and, and that rewards me and more than anything else. Yeah. I mean, obviously that's where you get your satisfaction and, and that, this is what you used to bless other people. So I think that's, that's incredible Doug, that's, that's such a great, such a great story. I'm trying to figure out now why you were talking. I was thinking, I wonder how far of a drive it is down there to get some, some of Doug's cookies.
You're making my mouth water while we're sitting here recording this podcast. Um, that's such a great, okay. Well, I'll make sure that I do that, but only if I can give a contribution, that's the only way I would ever do that. So that's great. You talked a little bit about the homemade Food Freedom Act and how you were involved in getting it passed. But before we get to that, um, it, you know, government has a way of sometimes ruining a lot of things, right?
And so tell me about that journey, like, were you just baking these cookies and then you discovered that you couldn't do more or, I mean, how did that come about? You know, I'm, I'm always a little bit of a rule follower. And so when I, I thought about doing this as a, as a full side hustle and I knew that there had to be some rules out there, some laws.
And so I started doing some research and uh found them and, you know, initially I didn't think they were all that restrictive, especially compared to what I've heard in other states. But, uh, as I started getting into it and starting to make a little bit of profit from it. I realized that there were some limitations and some places that I might like to expand.
But also friends of mine that were bakers that were also limited, especially on the location part, you know, the idea that you can only sell out of your house and that, that weird provision that you could sell at a farmers market. It really stuck out in the previous law. But, you know, just the, the restrictions on, you know, well, well, technically, if I were to go meet somebody to drop this off, I would be breaking the law, you know, they have to come to my house.
And that just didn't seem to make a lot of sense. And uh had the opportunity to uh to meet Adam Maxi with Americans for prosperity and actually met him because I made cookies for my local state representatives uh campaign rally some logo cookies and Adam had the chance to sample and then, and so was able to make that connection. And when the time came, he, he was absolutely instrumental and leading what this looks like.
You can have an idea, but to understand what it means to actually get that in front of the lawmakers to actually put it in the right language and, and take the proper steps. Uh that was, that was a huge deal. And what's also cool is going through that experience has now allowed me to advocate and do some work and other things. So I do that for prison ministry. I've, I've done that for some other topics as well. So it's learning that process of, you know, first of all, a lawmaker is your friend.
No. Really? Truly. He's your friend. She's your friend. That's, that's not something to be afraid of. And they really do want to hear from you. They really do want to know if there's something that is affecting you, whether it's your personal life, your business, anything like that, they want to hear from you. And they wanna, they want to see if they can make things right.
And on a topic like this where so many people are making out of their homes and, and, you know, to be quite honest, a lot of people are doing it incorrectly because either they didn't want to look up the laws or they just chose to ignore them and figure out nobody will catch me.
Um, this ended up being able to affect and, and help a lot of people that I've met throughout the years doing so as you, as you were doing this, I mean, I know the government would say, you know, we have reasons for these things but I mean, you, you clearly convinced some of these lawmakers that their reasons that, that you had better reasons for why this law should pass than, than the government had reasons for all this regulation. Uh, tell me about that.
I mean, what, what was the government's reasoning? And how did you overcome sort of the bureaucracy and the regulators in that, in that area? Yeah. There's, you know, there's, there's some reasoning that makes sense.
I mean, there's obvious food safety issues that, that you want to address and you want to make sure that, that anybody that would be selling items out of their home, especially if we're able to take them into, you know, a grocery store or a boutique or something like that, there's, there's absolutely necessity there to make sure that what's, what's happening is healthy and then it's safe for the consumer.
So, you know, it was even better in the fact that we, we got to really firm up some what was really some loose interpretations or some loose descriptions of food safety. So there was actually a good point there of, of, you know, strengthening what was already in the law there. But, you know, for me, this is a side hustle, for me, this is, this is something I really, truly, what it allows me to do is buy more toys for the kitchen.
You know, I've got the big professional mixer now, I've got, you know, I buy the £50 bags of flour instead of the £5 bags of flour. You know, I'm able to do that. But there are a lot of people out there that um this is a, this is a full source of their income, whether it's them trying to stay home and raise their Children while another spouse works. And this gives them an opportunity to, um, to earn a living while still staying in the home.
Um, you know, just, there's, there's a lot of people in different situations that, um, The restriction of the income limit was, was a huge thing, you know, that living on $20,000 versus living on $75,000. I don't think it takes a math whiz to understand. That's, that's a huge difference in, in living there. Um, having the opportunity to legally do things outside of the home to, to go down. So, you know, I live here in Mustang, Oklahoma.
There's three or four uh little boutique type places that, that, you know, have the different clothing and different candles and bath bombs and all those kinds of things and, and really a, a baked good fits in perfectly in those stores. But we weren't allowed to do that.
They had to go through commercial kitchens and, and that's a difficult thing for somebody to do, especially if it is, you know, somebody that has kids at home and they're doing what they can in the time that they have to go through commercial kitchen and get licensed and that kind of thing is, is a huge barrier.
And so telling those stories, you know, stories do so much more than, than data in fact, so telling those stories and showing where the limitations were, why it wasn't going to cause a problem to raise the income limit, to be able to um put things in stores to be able to sell over the internet also because we're going back and we're strengthening the food safety part of it to make sure that we are providing healthy, safe goods.
And we're doing it in a way that allows people to prosper to make money to, to, to be more productive citizens. And while this isn't something that you do now, full time, I mean, you're obviously doing it more now than you used to Before the change in the law. But there are some people who might choose this, right? And they may make their, their livelihood on this. They still have to stay under that $75,000 cap in Oklahoma.
But there, there, this is liberating for a whole group of people who maybe, you know, this is a way for them to make a living. Right. Absolute. Yes. You know, the I've been able to meet several different home bakers through different events that I've worked through different opportunities to meet other people doing these things. And yes, it's, it, the feedback when I talked to them was always positive, always immediate, always thankful in that it allows them to do more and to bank more money.
Um, you know, I just, I feel like the, the boundaries of, of being able to contribute to your family and, and to be able to make a living were really torn down with the passage of this law because it allowed people to have a more successful, to have a more prosperous business. Yeah, that, I mean, that's really what this is about.
I mean, I'm sure for you, you saw it and you got into it and it probably took a life of its own a little bit as you started realizing that this wasn't just going to transform the way you could do Grandma Doug's cookies, but it was going to transform a lot of other people's lives in the, in the state of Oklahoma in a way that you probably didn't really see when you went into this to begin with, right?
As the process went along and I was able to meet more people, I was able to see what, what could truly happen here. Um Yeah, it was like I said, the feedback really was, was what drove me was telling people, hey, uh right now these are what the rules are. You know, first of all, I may have been introducing that to them. They may not have known the rules but uh for them to see that there was an opportunity to make a living by doing this.
A lot of people that have home bakeries, I think in the back of their mind, I know I did for a long time, the idea of having a bakery, a storefront is kind of a dream like that. That'd be a neat thing. Or having a food truck or something like that. But when you start looking at what's required to have a storefront, The, the licenses, the, uh, the restrictions, the, all the different things that go into it.
I talked to somebody that had a home bakery and she transitioned into a storefront and she said I worked, worked probably 80, 90 hours a week. I slept in that bakery so many times. And at the end of a couple of years, I was maybe making what I could have made at home without doing any of this.
And so those that, that huge jump you have to take to go from just being in the home to having an actual commercial storefront bakery is such a large leap that the ability to increase the possibilities within the home bakery realm really opened up. What, what was a closed door to expansion for most people? Yeah, I mean, this is such a, such a story of empowerment and I, I do have to ask when you did this and you brought this to the led to the legislature and you brought this uh this law there?
I mean, was there a lot of opposition or did people just kind of see it and say, yeah, this makes sense. And it was, it wasn't that big of a fight once you showed them what the impact could be or was there was there a big fight, did you have to fight folks on the other side? Who, who maybe didn't want to lose business because they might have to compete with the little guy here. It wasn't so much about competition.
I would say that that there was some opposition from people that were in more of the food safety world. So they had this, this uh probably this image of people just, you know, doing whatever in their home and and not having a health inspection there like you would in a commercial kitchen. I think there were some people that had some doubts there. And so that maybe took some more convincing of look, we were not just um we're not just looking over food safety.
In fact, we are strengthening food safety requirements and guidelines within this bill. Um Outside of people that deal with food safety, I think people that were more business minded that were more uh you know, freedom minded if you will, they saw this as a yeah, this makes total sense. We already have something that allows them to do this. This is going to allow them to expand their going to be able to build their business, they're going to, you know, gain extra income.
That was, that was a slam dunk with, with that side. I think more of the opposition had to do with making sure we were showing that we really do truly care about food safety and and we're addressing that and, you know, oftentimes you find in these situations, I think that the regulators themselves are the ones that sometimes have a concern about things like this because that's, I mean, I get it that that's their job.
But if, you know, less regulation sometimes means a little less job security for, for someone who is regulating those sorts of things. So oftentimes that's where the, where the resistance comes from And, but, but it sounds like this was something that, I mean, it wasn't a gigantic heavy lift. It was like somebody had to come up with the idea to make this change and then take it to fruition.
It sounds like you and, and Adam Maxi and, and the good folks at A F P Oklahoma kind of came together and figured out a way to, to get this passed and to break this barrier, not just for you, but for all the other people of Oklahoma. Absolutely. Adam was instrumental and uh FP and their folks, none of this would have happened without them for the relationships that they have for the experience and the guidance that they give.
Um you know, when, if I were to face another issue, whether it be in home baking or something else, I would, I would absolutely uh not pause to reach out to Adam and, and explain my situation and, and find out what they could do to help because while, while I always encourage people to, to reach out and to try to make changes in the law and you know how things are working. Um, it can still be a very confusing landscape.
It can, you don't know where to start, you don't know what the next steps are. And so for somebody to have that experience and be able to apply it to your situation is always a benefit. So if people wanted to taste grandma Doug's cookies, how can they do that? Can they do that? Absolutely. So, um, you know, I, I always do custom orders. I like said, without a storefront, it's not like I just have inventory on hand for people to stop by and grab some cookies.
So, um, you know, grandma Doug dot com is my website looking up Grandma Doug on Facebook will take you right to me, my phone number and contact information on there. But, you know, I just, I keep calendar and, and have jobs and when my calendar gets full, I sometimes I have to start turning them down.
But, uh, you know, I've got some Valentine's Day things coming up and I've got, you know, some people on the calendar already for graduation time in May and, uh, you know, just reach out and, and let me know what you need and we figure out a way to do it. Well, that's, that's amazing. And grandma Doug dot com is, is probably the best site it sounds like to go to.
And, um, so if I were like, I mean, I'm looking here at all the people involved in this podcast and they're looking back at me like right now saying Jeff, you gotta get us some of these cookies. So how about if I did this, if I were to give a contribution, well, in excess of what the value of the cookies would be. Could you maybe send us some cookies? Oh, absolutely. Well, I, I, I love what you do and I love the prison Ministry and I love obviously listening to your passion about this issue.
And again, this is, this was, it's as you tell your story, I'm really struck by the fact that it was never about you. This was always about others. It was always a way of figuring out how you can empower others to be able to do this as well. But also a way to magnify what you do through that prison ministry. And so that's, that's really amazing. Doug, what, what a great story this has been. So I really want to thank you for, for joining us today. Well, I appreciate that.
It's, it's absolutely not what you get. It's what you give and that applies to so many situations. This being one of them. Well, thank you for joining us, Doug Eckert of grandma Doug's cookies.
You can go to grandma Doug dot com if you want to learn more and if you see a government imposed barrier to freedom, like Doug saw and you want to work to remove that barrier or if you want to get connected with an Americans For Prosperity State chapter, be sure to send me an email at Jeff at American Potential dot com. And the American Potential podcast is always working on stories to help keep you informed as well as inspired.
We'd love for you to stay connected by liking and subscribing to our podcast. And you can follow us on Facebook on Twitter and on youtube. And if you have a good story of someone to working to expand freedom and opportunities, a story like Doug's story, be sure to go to our website American potential dot com to submit it. Thank you for joining us on American Potential. Thank you for listening to American Potential.
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