Texas Couple Could Change Sour Law on Pickles with Lawsuit
One retired couple looks to get themselves and other farmers' market sellers out of a pickle.
Who doesn't love a good pickle! Of course, I'm talking about the lunchtime companion, not a sticky situation. It's a simple act of preserving food through fermentation by immersing it in a vinegar solution. There are a gazillion different things to pickle and just as many ways to pickle them.
One Texas couple has run into a less-than-kosher predicament with the former.
According to TODAY, Anita and Jim McHaney of Hearne, Texas have been selling goods at the local farmers' market. I was a dream of theirs for retirement and they love it. To make their produce last longer, they pickle many of their goods.
Unfortunately, an archaic definition of pickle prevents them from selling those fermented goods.
The Cottage Food Law, as defined the Texas Department of State Health Services, allows certain food items (many which are sold at farmers' markets) to be exempt from the strict regulations that commercial kitchens must abide by. In other words, the goods you see sold at farmers' markets are to be purchased at your own risk.
Although the law had been updated in 2013, it still defines pickles as pickled cucumbers and nothing more.
That means vendors at farmers' markets can only sell pickled cucumbers. Well, living in the south, we know that there are wonderful pickled varieties like beets, okra, Giardiniera and more. And who hasn't gagged at the sight of pickled pig's feet? Many farmers like the McHaneys struggle to grow cucumbers in their area, so expanding the law to include other items will definitely help out.
What's the strangest thing you've seen pickled?