"It's not often that pickle kerfuffles make the news cycle, much less in a way that spreads across state lines and becomes a symbol of self-sufficiency and cottage food regulations. But who can resist a story about homemade pickles, a local home-canner sharing the love, and a city council allegedly forced to action? It put them in a pickle, as the saying goes. The city is Manchester, New Hampshire, and the issue revolves around a newly coined term for an old-school practice called homesteading."
"This apparently triggered an enforcement mechanism intended to shut him down, completely - even for gifting to neighbors. A cease-and-desist letter made it formal, directing Mowery to stop distributing his canned goods unless he obtained a permit and got his kitchen commercially licensed. It's based on a local Manchester city statute that regulates home-based food production - even though the state itself would likely allow it under a certain type of so-called "homestead" law."
In summer 2025, longtime hobbyist canner Daniel Mowery produced bread-and-butter pickles, jams, tomatoes and other canned goods and had long gifted them to friends and neighbors. A social media post inquiring about buying a jar led the Manchester health department to allege at least one sale, triggering enforcement. Officials issued a cease-and-desist ordering Mowery to stop distributing his canned foods unless he obtained a permit and a commercially licensed kitchen. The enforcement cited a Manchester city ordinance regulating home-based food production, despite state homestead-type law likely allowing such activity. Homesteading is described as a self-sufficiency lifestyle.
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