Lomita family's home business, Little City Homestead, serves up baked goods

It started with a passion for baking sourdough bread, then her husband suggested that she sell a loaf, and now Melissa Davis and her family have their own business, making and selling baked goods from their Lomita kitchen.

While Melissa and her husband Ed both have demanding day jobs, they started the Little City Homestead baking business.  "Made with simple ingredients, time, and tradition," is their motto, and their storefront is a front-yard cart, stocked fresh.

Their daughter Stacy helps too, making sure her favorite sea salt, chocolate chip cookies are in the oven.

As neighborhood demand for the family's artisan goods grew, the Davises researched and applied for a Los Angeles County Cottage Food Operations permit.  The county adopted the program over a decade ago, allowing people to legally prepare and sell food from their home kitchens while ensuring compliance with California Health and Safety Code regulations. 

"It allows us to kind of do what we love out of our kitchen, but also makes us compliant, to make sure that we're sharing the ingredients that are on our labels and everything else," Melissa said.

Melissa is also a proud fourth-generation Lomita resident. So she says her mission is simple: to use quality ingredients, keep prices affordable, and bake "yumminess."

Ed contributes his skills to Little City Homestead, including his own kid-approved bread.  "Some parents say they love sourdough, but they can't give sourdough to the kids" he said.

"That's softer, more like white bread. I just call it the Ed Bread, and you can chop it up for PB&Js."

The Davises are about to install larger ovens to streamline baking. They rise early so they can stock their front-yard stand before leaving for work and school. And payment for the baked goods is the honor system.

"I grew up with a very family-oriented, large Yugoslavian family. Food was the core of everything we did and still is," Melissa said.