Texas Family Fight For Freedom To Sell Pickles
After working for years as a nurse and engineering consultant, Anita and Jim McHaney had plans to move out of the city when they retired. They spent several weekends scouting various potential property locations until they finally settled on one they loved. It was a 10-acre plot of land and they thought it was the perfect location to start up their own farm-- Berry Ridge Farm.
The two of them had plans to earn some extra income by growing a variety of goods that they'd take to local farmers markets to sell on the weekends.
They had a plan to sell a variety of pickled items,...
As it stands right now, the rules only permit pickled cucumbers from being sold out of an individuals home. And that means that Anita and Jim are prohibited from selling a variety of their pickled goods at the farmers market.
If they get caught selling prohibited pickles, they could face a $25,000 fine...
There is a lot of demand for pickles in Texas, Anita admits that they hear about people making requests for other pickled items quite frequently when they attend farmers markets. Anita says that many people ask where the pickled beets are, the pickled okra and other items, little do many of them probably suspect that there is such a hurdle to be overcome for farmers who might be looking to get those goods in the hands of the people.
For those in Texas right now who want to sell pickled items aside from cucumbers, they are required to obtain a food manufacturer license. If you want to grow and pickle some beets and sell a few at the farmers market, the state isn't ready to permit such an exchange so easily just yet.
“You’d think that it would be easy, but it’s not. Every time we thought we had figured out what we had to do to meet all the rules, we found another one,.... It turns out it's just very difficult to meet all of the rules to make a pickled beet.” admits Anita McHaney.
Anita and her husband don't want to face a potential fine that could be thousands of dollars, so for now they've put the pickle plans on hold, and they are instead focusing their efforts on the legal fight ahead of them. They say that without being able to pickle a variety of other produce that it's limited their ability to turn a profit and the farm isn't in operation any longer.
Violating their economic liberty...
There isn't any reason why pickled beets or carrots should be treated any different than pickled cucumbers.
Well, they're going to get one now.
Even the representative who is said to have originally authored the law behind the current pickle problem, himself admits that he doesn't understand why the state, if intentional or not, has construed pickles to only mean cucumbers.
Pics:
Pixabay
Sources:
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05/31/how-texas-definition-word-pickles-prompting-lawsuit-over-economic-libe/
https://www.today.com/food/texas-couple-sues-state-over-its-pickle-definition-t130382
https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/texas-pickle-lawsuit/060618
http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2018/06/07/texas-couple-sues-state-over-legal-definition-pickle.html
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Geez! Sick Laws!...
OMG ! just when you thought you heard everything @doitvoluntarily lol! just goes to show how many stupid archaic laws there still are out there! I really hole she wins and changes this law for all of us! UNBELIEVABLE! Thanks for sharing , I am so busy these days , glad your on my Auto voter, now resteemed , and because its a awesome food post I will upvote and resteem as well into my @momskitchen blog. Steem On!✌😋👍
Hello are you a food lover like me.
😋😋 don't be shy
This reminds me of the regulation decades ago in Wisconsin preventing the sale of margarine -- anywhere in Wisconsin. There's a lot to say about Cheeseheads too.
At least they are doing you a favor from preventing ingestion of margarine, that stuff is really toxic ;)
Sounds like someone has lobbied Government to keep the pickle business right where it is by making it illegal to produce them. What a bunch of hogwash!
Good article and well-stated. They should be able to sell whatever they want this is America. It sounds like though if they do they'll be in a pickle I wonder if the same holds true for Jam. Thanks my friend
I considered selling baked goods on etsy but ran into the same issue. You have to have a commercial kitchen to legally sell food you cook here. I figure laws like this keep you buying products with chemicals produced by corporations instead of home made goods from local people. Pickling is different than baking and this case sounds so unfair. The $25,000 fine is ridiculous.
I am not a fan of pickles.
This seems pretty cut and dried to me. Pickling is pretty hard to "mess up" and make dangerous, just from the nature of the pickling process itself, so the health "concerns" are bound to be overblown here. If you crack a jar of heat-sealed pickled product and it wasn't sealed properly you are going to know it, because the "pop" will not be there (breaking the seal) and the product will likely taste "off."
I certainly hope that The State of Texas takes another leadership position in the fight for individual rights here, and rules in favor of this couple. God bless Texas!
Its great that you are raising your voice this way, also till now I didn't know that there are some prohibited pickles available in the market. I am not a fan of pickles, hope that make sense.
amigo, que bueno se ven esos frascos de encurtidos y si son pepinos los otros demasiado buenos, saludos ,muy buen trabajo