'Pickle Bill' tastes sweet to farmers selling produce

Here's a new law that's easy to swallow.

The so-called Pickle Bill passed muster in the final days of the General Assembly, allowing Connecticut's family farms to start bottling their own acidified foods.

The provision was part of the Farms, Food and Jobs Bill that will also allow poultry farmers to sell poultry products directly to consumers, restaurants and hotels; let farmers markets operate more widely, specifically for one-day events such as country fairs, and make more funds available for milk promotion.

The Connecticut Farm Bureau, a major backer of the bill, said the state has taken "a great step forward" in boosting statewide agriculture.

"We and many of our farming members are thrilled with the bill's passage, and we await Gov. (M. Jodi) Rell's signature," said Steve Reviczky, executive director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau Association, in a statement. "This bill helps our state's farmers by allowing them to expand the market for their products, helps state consumers by giving them more options to purchase farm-fresh items and helps create jobs."

The House and Senate unanimously approved the bill.

Approval of the Pickle Bill came despite concerns expressed by the state Departments of Public Health and Consumer Protection and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which worried over the possibility of botulism poisoning.

Proponents of the law said requirements that farmers take a food-handling course, restrict access to the kitchen and submit their recipes to a lab for analysis will keep consumers safe.

The new law allows products with a pH of 4.6 or less such as pickles, relishes or chow-chow (a pickled vegetable mix) to be sold directly to consumers. Previously, farmers would have had to install a commercial kitchen.

The poultry-farm provision gives the state Department of Agriculture the authority to inspect businesses, which cannot produce more than 5,000 turkeys or 20,000 other types of birds annually.

"By expanding the opportunities for farmers to sell their products, everyone benefits," Don Tuller, president of the farm bureau, said in a statement. "This legislation greatly improves farmers' opportunity to produce and sell their products."