Maine: Vendors Seek To Sell Raw Milk, Hard Cider At Portland Farmers’ Market

Doug Donahue of the Pittsfield-based Balfour Farm said it came as a surprise to him when he was taken to task for carrying raw milk just last week.

“As of last Wednesday, a city inspector came and told us we could no longer sell it,” Donahue told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday.

John Golden, a food writer for Down East magazine who attended a Tuesday night meeting of the city’s Health and Recreation Committee, said Portland is the only municipality in Maine that doesn’t allow unpasteurized milk at its farmers markets.

“It’s not allowed at the [Portland] Farmers’ Market, but you can legally buy it at any other store in the city,” Golden said.

Neither raw milk nor hard cider are allowed to be sold at the markets, which are held on Mondays and Wednesdays in Monument Square and on Saturdays in Deering Oaks Park.

On Tuesday, the committee was slated to discuss adding hard cider to the list of products that can be sold at the farmers market. The proposed change comes in part in response to the recent passage of a state law that allows permitted farm winery operations to sell certain alcoholic beverages at farmers markets statewide.

Read the whole story: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/09/27/business/vendors-seek-to-sell-raw-milk-hard-cider-at-portland-farmers%E2%80%99-market/