Quote:
Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower
You are really lucky and rare then not to be regulated.
I know where I am, Wisconsin, anything that is cut for any reason is considered "processing" and has to be done in a licensed kitchen and you need a processing license.
Real big hassle here. It's gotten so bad that in some places where there are farmers markets, you can't even cut a melon or tomato to give a "sample". Not ALL my markets take that hard a stance, but unfortunately my biggest market does.
So anyone else considering this as an opportunity, be sure to check out your local AND state rules about processing FIRST.
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Not to go off-topic, but this kind of nonsense is killing farmer's markets. I cannot believe farmers haven't been able to band together and overthrow these moronic laws. Go to the news media, make a huge stink about it! I think it would make a fantastic PSA (public service announcement) if you had a farmer cut open a tomato and hand it to someone to taste it, and you had a cop step up and arrest the farmer. Then have the voiceover "Did you know it is illegal for farmers to have cut up a tomato, melon, fruit, or other product and have another person taste it at a farmer's market? Overprotective special interests have gotten these laws on the book, but you can help. Vote Proposition 12. Bring sanity back to our farming heritage."
I figure if I cannot slice a tomato or melon at a farmer's market, I'm not gonna sell many, as my product has to TASTE better than the others. Before I got into growing tomatoes, I'd pretty much given up on decent-tasting tomatoes. It was tasting one at a farmer's market (The Bayou City Farmer's Market operated by UrbanHarvest) that got me totally hooked on heirlooms.
I was really shocked to hear they have the same nonsense in Kentucky. I guess I thought of Kentucky as the last place I'd ever see iron-fisted laws about being able to sample a tomato or melon at a farmer's market.
Thank God cooler heads have prevailed in Houston.
And don't get me started on the thousands of dollars they expect people to spend to package salads, make yogurt, etc. at home. This type of regulation doesn't stop people from being unsafe. I'd rather have an inspection and see that everything looks clean and organized, then requiring people to buy a bunch of overpriced equipment and build a whole separate kitchen. That doesn't prove anything. Some of the best food I've ever had was made in people's homes, and it didn't take a special kitchen or thousands of dollars of commercial equipment to make it.
I stayed in Bozeman, MT last spring for a week and of course did the Yellowstone thing too. Very beautiful up there. Can't wait to go back.