A retired couple in Texas, who thought they could supplement their retirement with sales of pickled vegetables grown in their garden are suing the Texas Department of State Health Services. Why?
Anita and Jim McHaney are suing over the state’s definition of a pickle. They’ve been selling their produce at a local farmers market and wanted to expand into pickled items such as beets for off season, but due to a pesky state regulation they found that they could not. Anita says it’s the fault of the Texas Department of Health, not the legislature.
“The Cottage Food Law has a whole list of foods you can sell at Farmer’s Markets. It has pickles, that’s how it’s written. Then the Health Department got a hold of this and wrote a statute on how to interpret what the legislature said and they added after pickle: a cucumber preserved in brine, vinegar and other solutions, excluding all other vegetables.”
As to why they don’t just grow and pickle cucumbers? She says they don’t do very well with cucumber crops.
Haney was a guest on McIntyre in the Morning.
Sharon Reardon, KABC News