Shasta Bans 86-Year-Old's Fruitcake Sales....

[The Straight Story]

Shasta Bans 86-Year-Old's Fruitcake Sales

REDDING, Calif. (AP) -- Shasta County health officials are cracking down on an 86-year-old disabled World War II veteran who has been selling homemade fruitcakes for more than a decade.

The Department of Environmental Health cites an obscure law banning food businesses in private homes.

Jack Melton of Redding gave away many of his pecan-filled fruitcakes. But health officials saw a small handmade window sign offering some for sale.

Health specialist Fern Hastings said Melton must use a commercial bakery that has passed a health inspection even if he gives his cakes to the public.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=52467&catid=2

jeebus.

[Muttocracy]

1. reminds me of stories about local dairies

A friend was telling me about some place where people would buy a share in a cow so they could have access to raw milk and other dairy products. I guess an owner is allowed to have them, but you can't sell those dairy products, so people get around it...

I wonder... is this health department going after all the PTA bake sales in town?

[LeftyMom]

6. The raw milk thing is because the stuff spreads TB and all sorts of other nasty crap.

It's also because of that decidedly Californian phenomenon "Mexican bathtub cheese" (which is exactly what it sounds like).

[Muttocracy]

7. I know raw milk has health risks. As for "bathtub cheese"...

:puke:

[eyeontheprize]

2. I have no objection to this

It is a useful governmental purpose to insure sanitary food. If only they would do it more frequently.

[hobbit709]

5. Fruitcakes are food?

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. Oddly enough, yes

Properly made (and very few commercially made fruitcakes are properly made) they are quite good. Then again, a properly made fruitcake is soaked with so much alcohol that I doubt anything pathegenic could survive long enough to be a problem.

[hobbit709]

13. George Washington said to use them as ammo

when they ran out of cannonballs once during a battle.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. We actually have that one. Been in the family for years.

It keeps getting re-gifted.

[Sebastian Doyle]

24. Exactly.

My mom used to make the fruitcake in October. By Christmas, there was more brandy than actual cake substance in a slice of that shit. No bacteria could have lived in the thing, but if one had gotten there, it would have died happy.

Nothing like that crap they sell in the mail order catalogs either.

[marybourg]

10. A couple of years ago in Phoenix

lots of people got deathly sick from home-made tacos two women were making in their home kitchen and selling out of a cooler.

[Hannah Bell]

17. yes, & so have lots of folks gotten sick at fast food joints, from corporate-produced

hamburger, spinach, milk, & miscellaneous other food products.

sometimes they died, e.g. jack-in-the-box.

[Daemonaquila]

39. So what? Lots more have gotten sick from eating in licensed restaurants.

I'm tired of how people get all worked up about the dangers of homemade food or unlicensed kitchens, etc., etc., etc. For crying out loud, more people get sick from eating tainted crap from "proper" restaurants, fast food places, and grocery stores than will ever get sick from eating food from bake sales, a few unlicensed sellers, farmer's markets, and so on.

In my part of the country, unlicensed food is serious business. We love it. We pay our local community folks for their efforts, eat great meals, trade, and generally live better than most thanks to the local gray market. People are not getting sick. They're eating healthier food for the most part since a lot of the meat is wild and the veggies are home grown without the massive amounts of pesticides and herbicides.

[Luminous Animal]

22. I object...

mass produced food needs tight controls. Locally made food, like this guy and school bake sales, then let the buyer beware.

[Lorien]

32. Yep. My grandparents were Mennonite and lived in an Amish area of Ohio

there were LOADS of home based businesses out there. My grandparents sold honey and preserves, while neighbors sold bread, eggs, meat,milk and cheese, pies and cookies, fruits and vegetables, and yes, fruitcakes. You could stock the pantry just by stopping by a few homes and farms. No one ever got sick that I know of. In that area of the country selling food products from home is a way of life.

[Lorien]

31. They do it to anyone who is not affliated with a giant corporation

but toxic food from China-if imported by Wal-Mart-gets a pass.

[rucky]

3. When i was selling doggie biscuits I got around this by renting a church kitchen. n/t

[Warpy]

11. Right, there are institutional kitchens that are up to code

that can be rented. I hope somebody who lives near this guy gives him a line on one. He can sell the cakes anywhere as long as he prepares them in a sanitary and licensed facility.

[Flubadubya]

4. LOL, I thought you meant the fruitcake was 86 years old...

That would definitely make sense... but the real story sucks! :shrug:

[HockeyMom]

8. My aunt kept a piece of her

wedding fruitcake, laced with Irish Whiskey, for 10 years. On their 10th anniversary the bride and groom finished the piece of wedding cake. It was supposed to be good luck. No, they didn't get sick or die.

[DFW]

12. I saw the title of the OP

And I thought to myself, "what's an 86 year old doing selling Republican talk-show hosts in the first place?"

[salguine]

14. When you consider some of the nasty shit the FDA probably turns a blind eye to,

this just takes the cake. So to speak.

[Trillo]

16. Curious that parents cooking for their children aren't food businesses

Perhaps kitchens shouldn't be put in private dwellings, clearly, it's to dangerous for people to eat anything cooked in them. Let all eat at the local eatery with an approved kitchen, or buy a pair if scissors to open the sealed plastic bag of junk food. Just think what it would do for corporations bottom lines ... remember your stock holdings in this down economy!

---

I was aware of this law, and simply don't like it, though the version of it I saw was slightly different. Years ago, when I was still struggling to earn money, it occurred to some of my friends that I should sell the product of a particular recipe that I have that they sampled. (little did they know they shouldn't have been eating it because it wasn't cooked in an approved kitchen hehe)

After briefly looking into the relevant laws, I realized I couldn't start the biz on a microscopic shoe string budget, and I needed a whole distribution network setup in advance to guarantee sales, in order to cover the increased costs of having such a bakery, in order to borrow money, and then there's that minor little issue of the intelligence of borrowing money to start a biz, and whether you really want a portion of your profit going to the local loan shark (division of Federal Reserve).

Ah. Well. Live and learn. Proles wouldn't be proles if they were legally allowed to do something productive.

[pop goes the weasel]

18. Agreed

Sales under a certain amount shouldn't draw enforcement. I sometimes buy homemade tamales, and I know they aren't done under "sanitary" conditions, but I would eat them if they were given to me instead, so I don't have any problem with buying them.

[dysfunctional press]

23. what's so curious about it...?

when it comes to food and the public health- i'm all for the regulation of it.

tell me- are you against government regulations in ALL industries, or just the ones that you wanted to enter?

as people have pointed out- you don't need to invest in having "such a bakery"- there are licensed facilities that can be rented for that purpose.

[Trillo]

25. Curious that a guy selling fruitcakes from a sign in his window is an "industry"

Who knew?

If you want to start such a biz, every increased cost needs to be extracted from the gross sales, and there's a limit, particularly in food and restaurant business, as to how much one can raise prices due to competition, leaving only selling more as a method to "break even". This is also true even when you use the word "rent".

There's another issue with using the home inspection route, that hasn't been mentioned in the thread, besides the loss of privacy and paying the inspector's fees and the risks that another purpose is to see what other stuff you have in the home to subvert the 4th Amendment or steal, at least according to the literature I got from the city I looked at years back (in California), and that's the presence of pets. Pets are not allowed in the sanitary environment. If only all kitchens were built so they could be isolated from the rest of the structure, but they're not. So no indoor pets could be allowed.

People do the best they can do. The monetary burdens were too great, and the unknowns too unknown (marketing), in my best judgment. At the time, I was not aware of any kitchens advertising for part-time rent, but how much extra effort is involved there? Do they let you store your flour and sugar etc., there in between time's you're renting it, or does that cost extra, and what kind of security is there for those foodstuffs, or does one need to carry this extra weight back and forth? Do they have high quality water with low mineral content? How long does it take to become familiar with someone else's oven, and how many batches don't come out quite right as a consequence?

The numbers for renting a full time kitchen just didn't make sense to me, without a guarantee of a return.

But, yeah, every cook in their own kitchen trying to start a small biz with the change in their pocket is "an industry", I agree, sarcastically.

[dysfunctional press]

26. not if you own a dictionary.

"The numbers for renting a full time kitchen just didn't make sense to me, without a guarantee of a return."

you obviously have no business trying to start a business. if you're going to insist on guaranteed returns, anyway.

leave it for the risktakers(that would be the ones willing to risk their own capital on their own abilities, NOT the ones willing to take risks with the public's health)

[Trillo]

27. Thanks so much for your kindness.

Every banker has always insisted on a guaranteed return, (that was a reference to my prior post where I linked the two).

Don't believe what they say, watch what they do.

[dysfunctional press]

29. "Every banker has always insisted on a guaranteed return..."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

then i guess that this whole financial meltdown is just an illusion...? :shrug:

[Trillo]

33. Nah, the way banks just hand out money for free,

never even requiring payback! You know, biz as usual, as you seem to define it.

:rofl:

[dysfunctional press]

36. where did i define it as such?

you truly need a dictionary.

maybe you'll get one next boxing day.

[Trillo]

37. "boxing day"

Who needs the dictionary?

:banghead:

This is no longer about food sales.

[Daemonaquila]

42. Oh, good lordy.

If you're a schlub trying to start up a business in your neighborhood, even in a good economy you'll be turned down for a loan unless you provide some guarantees for return or a huge amount of security... like your house and your first born. If you already are rolling in millions at least on paper, they're all too eager to give you more money. 'Cuz OF COURSE you're a responsible money-making citizen who'll only make more, right?

[dysfunctional press]

47. i don't know about that...

there seems to be plenty of schlubs out there over the past few years that got all the money they asked for...kinda how the whole mortgage meltdown got started, in case you hadn't noticed.

[treestar]

43. The difference is selling to the general public

You can do anything for yourself.

You can be your own lawyer, but you can't be someone else's without complying with public regulation.

You can stay home with your kids, but can't open a daycare, to offer that to others, without complying with public regulation.

[Trillo]

46. I think most of us understand that.

I was hopeful that portion of my post was sarcastic.

I didn't know children were the "private property" of their parents, which was an implication of the sarcasm, and why I thought of that example instead of 'serving a meal to non-relative friends', which I may have also alluded to in a later post.

There are a lot of gray areas, and good reasons for some of these regulations, but as I wrote, it also kept me from pursing the potential biz further. It's so much better to be at dependent upon the wealthier folks in our midst who are just freely handing out money and opportunities to the little folks, paying living wages, and running their own businesses for the health and welfare of the public at large.

Here's one of this morning's example:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4726815

I don't believe that most "little people" feel they're unregulated at all, but the large corporations in our midst seem to be paying off their potential regulators with campaign contributions and or something even more sinister, which effectively means we're no longer a republic, merely the shell of one that might have existed long ago.

[LisaL]

19. I misread this. I thought somebody was selling 86 years old

fruitcakes.

[catnhatnh]

20. "Obscure Law"????

Hardly...and neither does it ban home production. It does require the kitchen meets certain standards and that it be inspected.

This is one of those recurring stories of the "little guy" beaten down by the "system" and just meritricious bullshit. Every state has health and food safety laws and every state enforces them upon each provider of commercial food...and selling food makes it commercial.

The same people are outraged when they find a McDonalds has let a single insect fall into one of millions of products sold each day are also outraged that this guy is not allowed to produce his fruitcakes in a kitchen that might or might not pass a health department inspection given to McDonalds shithouse.

I sell burgers and dogs from a twenty foot trailer and am inspected at least twice a year. I've never scored under 96% or received a "serious" demerit. I hate I never got a 100% but watch sanitation like a hawk because the first hint of a check is when the car parks with the city seal.

The fruitcake guy may run the cleanest kitchen in the world. But from the checks imposed to this point he may flick buggers from his nose into the batter or rub his personal nuts before handling the product. The fact is if you handle food for sale there are rules and being "forced" to comply with them is not being punished-it's being vetted as safe to buy from.

My sympathy for the fruitcake guy comes from him being old and set in his ways. But he is wrong and must comply with the law or cease.

[SidDithers]

35. +1. Good post...nt

Sid

[KittyWampus]

38. IMO, some regulations for SMALL businesses can be onerous. As a small business owner I witness how

businesses flaunt rules year after year or see the fines as the cost of doing business.

My family has had an Inn for over 50 years. We did dinners for the public for the first 30 years. Two seatings a night was about 60 people all together.

We had fire and health inspectors come. Towards the last decade, the fire inspector who knew us let us get by with our dish washers by saying they were 'grandfathered in'.

They were two regular ole dishwashers. Newer regulations dictates industrial dishwashers that take up a huge amount of room and are expensive. And WAY out of scale to our business.

And yet, at this point we could probably no longer use those old dishwashers. We'd have to install ansel systems and grease traps.

Fucking ridiculous.

I agree regulations are necessary. I also believe there should be regulations drawn up and enforced in proportion to the scale of the business.

[Le Taz Hot]

44. On the other hand . . .

I dated a health inspector who inspected commercial kitchens who informed me that if I had seen what he had seen I would never eat in another restaurant again. The fact that I've been cooking for a good 40 years, in a modest home kitchen, and in all that time have never made anyone sick, should count for something.

This is it. The economy is probably going to bring us Depression for at least 10 years and the way back will come from the bottom up. With that in mind, some of these particularly insane regulations needs to be rescinded, or at least ignored by the authorities.

[DainBramaged]

21. Fern Hastings

With a douche bag name like that, no wonder she is a prick

[Doremus]

28. The raid on the kids' lemonade stand down the street is next week.

Glad to hear our tax dollars are keeping us all safe. :eyes:

How many Jack in the Boxes and greasy spoons DIDN'T get inspected so they could harrass this old guy?

[Lorien]

30. Too bad they don't crack down on melamine laden food from China

like this. I'm betting that the fruitcakes are safer than half of what's on grocery shelves these days.

[aikoaiko]

34. Even if he gave the fruitcakes as gifts he would still need a commercial bakery/pass inspections

That's fucked up.

[BronxBoy]

40. Wow

These rules and regs are a patchwork quilt from state to state and even from county to county. They just passed a law in Georgia that exempted baked goods, jams and jellies from the certified kitchen requirements. While a lot of these laws are intended to protect public health, some of them aren't very well thought out.

Glad none of us got banned

[treestar]

41. Hard cases make bad law

The trouble is, there is a reason for laws like this. There's no way to suspend them for sympathetic cases. Other than perhaps to make the statute more complicated (excepting home businesses, but then having to define that - there's no black and white end to these questions, though people wish there were - we'd end up with people in court arguing whether or not their business was a home business).

If you're 86, there were plenty of things you could do unregulated when younger - and that applied to big business, too. Or small time scammers. Those baddies always ruin it for those who were going about their business honestly - by creating a need for regulation that all have to comply with.

[Daemonaquila]

45. That's poor policy.

"Those baddies always ruin it for those who were going about their business honestly - by creating a need for regulation that all have to comply with."

There will always be some licensed or unlicensed ass who adds melamine to the food, doesn't watch how old the meat is, etc., and no regulation will change that. It's as stupid as trying to ban weapons - even if every known projectile and bladed weapon is banned people will still be finding better ways to hurl rocks at each other with deadly effect. In the end, the best - though imperfect - solution is to back off and instead work on changing our culture from one where boundless capitalist greed is the highest virtue to one where community and dealing well with each other takes higher priority. You're right there were things we could do unregulated many years ago. We haven't added regulations because we "saw the light" about hidden dangers year after year, but because we let greed turn our country into a shithole and it was easier to pass more and more regulations than to fight back against the wealthy crooks.

The movement toward unregulated, grey market, local business is part of the way out of this mess.