Homemade pickles pulled from store shelves in 'grinchy' government crackdown

It's a real pickle for fans of New Brunswick's signature homemade pickles.

The province's Department of Health is pulling homemade preserves from the shelves at retail stores like Cochran's Country Market in Rothesay, where Bronwyn McIntyre has bought Lady Ashburnham pickles for twenty consecutive Christmases.

Unlike dill pickles, beets, and jams, Lady Ashburnham pickles are a Maritime specialty, and aren't available at most supermarkets. They're named for the wife of the 6th Earl of Ashburnham who settled in Fredericton in 1901 — and have a romantic origin story.

While living at a hotel, Thomas Ashburnham fell in love with Maria Anderson, a night switchboard operator for the New Brunswick Telephone Company to whom he spoke regularly as he placed telephone calls from local taverns to the livery stable for a carriage to take him home at the end of the evening.

They married on June 10, 1903 at St. Anne's Parish Church. Lady Ashburnham (née Anderson) became well-known in Fredericton high society as a generous patron of charitable causes — and, most enduringly, as an expert in making mustard pickles.

The recipe — which calls for dry mustard and turmeric — has become a staple condiment of Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners on the east coast.

'How can the province of New Brunswick outlaw Lady Ashburnham pickles? How can they? It is so grinchy at this time of year to do something like that.'- Bronwyn McIntyre, only likes Lady Ashburnham pickles

"They go with a turkey, they go with a ham, they go with a New Year's party, cheese and crackers," she said.  "It's always been there, for any holiday. But especially Christmas."

But not this year.

"I just went to my usual spot, put out my hand, and there's nothing there," McIntyre said.

"I said, 'where are you hiding the pickles?'"

No homemade pickles

The canning quandary, according to Cochran's Country Market owner Tim Cochran, started with a visit from the New Brunswick Department of Health in mid-December.

Staff were told that only licensed, inspected kitchens can sell their products in licensed retail stores — which puts a halt to sales of homemade jams, chow-chow, and Lady Ashburnham pickles (also known as Lady Ashburn or Lady A).

"The Food Premises Regulation under the Public Health Act does not allow for the sale of foods prepared in private home kitchens in retail locations ," said Bruce Macfarlane, director of communications for the Department of Health.

"For licensed food premises preparing home bottled foods (including pickles and jams) the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health has undertaken an extensive review of the risks associated with 'home bottling' type procedures."

"Also, the [Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health] has communicated the findings of its review to Health Protection Service staff who are in the process of visiting food premises in New Brunswick to ensure compliance."

'Good old-fashioned homemade stuff'

It's bad news for the suppliers of pickles at Cochran's — three "older ladies who have been making them for years," Cochran said.

Leading up to Christmas, the market typically sells "two or three hundred" bottles of their homemade pickles at $8 a pop.

"They enjoy doing it and it's extra money ... and they do gear up for the holidays. So it's kind of a wasted effort."

"We've been dealing with our main supplier for almost 20 years and there has never been an issue with any of her product — except that we can't get enough of it to sell," Cochran said.

"I feel bad for them because they have been ramping up making all this product getting ready for a busy season and now — not that they're stuck with it, but it's going to take them a while to sell it."

"I feel a little blindsided," he said.

"In my experience the common-sense, good old-fashioned homemade stuff is as safe and a whole lot tastier from what you're going to find at the supermarket."

Seems 'a little wonky'

It seems doubly strange to Cochran that the regulations still permit homemade pickles and jams to be legally sold at craft fairs, farmers markets and private homes.

"It doesn't make sense — it's the same product ... whether they're selling them in a farmers market or my store. I'm all for regulation and control and making sure that product is processed in a safe environment, but it seems to me that the legislation is a little wonky."

Cochran plans to help get his main supplier properly licensed in time for next year. In the meantime, people can buy their pickles directly from people who make them — or learn to make their own.

• Make your own Lady Ashburn pickles

"We're going to solve the problem," he said. "It's going to be a little bit of a disappointment for this Christmas, but next Christmas I guarantee we'll have lots of product on the shelf."

The crackdown, however, has "flabbergasted" preserve enthusiasts like McIntyre.

"How can the province of New Brunswick outlaw Lady Ashburnham pickles? How can they? It is so grinchy at this time of year to do something like that."

"It just seems silly. We're supposed to eat local, buy local, support New Brunswick communities. I mean this is an agricultural product. These are vegetables from our own backyard. Why can't we have them?"

"We don't live in Toronto," she said. "This is a rural place. I think we should be allowed to eat pickles."