This story was originally produced by Manchester Ink Link. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Kamryn Downs is sympathetic to the pickle her neighbor has found himself in. She lives a few doors down from Daniel Mowery, who is currently protesting the city’s prohibition on home-pickling for profit.
She’s been there and done that, too.
“I got a similar cease and desist letter,” says Downs, who started selling baked goods from her home just about a year ago under the shingle of Granite Crust Cottage Bakery, and did so for about six months – until the city found out about it.
She promoted her business on Facebook and word circulated fast – eventually circulating all the way to the city health department.
Her cease and desist letter arrived in March of 2025, and while it was disappointing, she understands that rules are rules. She ceased her baking and desisted from filling the cute little bread shed in her yard that created a handy “honor system” for customers to swing by and grab some pre-paid sourdough.
“I don’t care if it’s the Pope. If the Pope is pickling and selling from his house and happens to live in Manchester, we’d treat it the same way."City Health Director Anna Thomas
In principle she agrees with Mowery.
“I do agree with what Daniel said – I think there should be a better way. Our kitchens are probably cleaner than a lot of commercial kitchens. I had a designated room for bread prep and while I do have cats, I kept them out of the kitchen,” Downs said. “If they wanted to inspect my kitchen, that would be fine with me.”
But in practice, she says she sides with the city on the question of pickling.
“For him to think it was politically driven that he got shut down for making pickles in his kitchen is kind of ridiculous,” Downs said. She has followed Mowery’s pickle drama on Facebook and feels it’s been blown out of proportion.
“There are bigger problems in the city,” Downs said. “It’s not about making pickles, and it’s not about politics; it’s a safety issue. My grandma canned everything and she taught me that it can cause some real problems.”
Downs has kept her chin up. She’s also kept her part-time day job, as a hairdresser, while going to school to be a surgical tech. Her husband is in the military, and so her home baking was a fun way to pass the time while generating a little cash.
She hardly has time to bake these days. But she’d like to see the city relax the rules when it comes to homesteading, particularly for baked goods. She’d even volunteer to help map out new rules.
“When I go to a farmstand I’m taking that risk into my own hands, knowing I’m buying something that someone made. Why shouldn’t the people of Manchester do the same – live free or die, right?”
Homesteading and the city’s responsibility to health
City Health Director Anna Thomas stands by the current regulations on homesteading. That doesn’t mean she’s not open to change.
But she is pushing back against criticism that her department overstepped in ordering Mowery to stop selling homemade pickles, saying the city’s food safety ordinances are both legal and necessary to protect the public.
“This is not my first rodeo, but it’s definitely one of the more unusual cases,” said Thomas, who has overseen Manchester’s Health Department for more than three decades. “I don’t care if it’s the Pope. If the Pope is pickling and selling from his house and happens to live in Manchester, we’d treat it the same way.”
At the heart of the issue is Manchester’s long-standing regulations on homesteading – the sale of foods prepared in private home kitchens. While New Hampshire law allows local communities to set their own food safety standards, Manchester is one of 15 self-inspecting cities/towns and one of six municipalities in the state that bans the practice.
That is where the confusion begins – and where the solution might be. Ordinances are made to be changed and adjusted, as anyone who pays attention to city ordinances knows. But that is not up to Thomas; it is the job of the Board of Aldermen to propose – or change – the rules.
Why the rules exist
Thomas explained that the city does not monitor private kitchens unless food is being distributed or sold to the public, at which point state and local food licensing laws apply. The main concern, she said, is that home kitchens lack the safeguards required to prevent contamination — such as specialized sinks, temperature controls, and separation from living spaces.
“Pets walking on counters, inadequate equipment, or improper canning techniques can all introduce serious risks,” she said. “Pickling and canning are both an art and a science, and if not done precisely, they can lead to outbreaks of botulism and other foodborne illnesses.”
She pointed to past incidents in the region, including a foodborne outbreak tied to pulled pork and another that sickened children at a daycare, as reminders of why oversight is essential.
“We have a high standard and probably the oldest and most comprehensive regulations in the state. We’re hypervigilant and, with a few exceptions, businesses here are amazing to work with,” Thomas said.
Much ado about picklesAccording to Thomas, her office received a complaint that a city resident was selling canned pickles from home. After confirming the report, the department issued a cease-and-desist order – a standard enforcement action that has been taken about 35 times in the past five years.
Thomas says the issue of homesteading arises when the city becomes aware that someone is making food in a home kitchen and then selling it to the public.
In this case, not only was there a complaint, but there were conflicting accounts from Mowery himself, between his social media posts and published reports, in which he vacillated between saying he gave away the pickles to family and friends, or that he was accepting orders for cash.
Mowery declined comment for this story but has said on his Facebook page that he’s “fighting for lemonade stands and people who can jams, jellies, sauces and, of course, pickles.”
Thomas said once a cease and desist letter goes out the city will provide a list of commercial kitchens in the area available for use, if they’d like to continue to produce items for sale to the public.
In this case, Mowery publicly criticized the city’s action against him and rallied support from Levasseur and others on social media. Levasseur has urged the public to show up and protest the city’s pickle policies at the Sept. 2 Board of Aldermen meeting, and he reposted a message promoting a group of libertarians who intend to sell pickles outside City Hall prior to the meeting.
Politics enters the debate
The dispute has since spiraled into a political flashpoint.
Levasseur, who is using a photo of Mowery and his pickles as his Facebook cover photo, has submitted a letter to City Clerk Matt Normand titled “Leave our pickles alone,” which was scheduled to be up for discussion at the Sept. 2 aldermanic meeting. He’s requesting that the city update its homestead food operation ordinance.
Writes Levasseur:
"In lieu of a recent Cease and Desist letter pertaining to a home based canned-pickling hobby, received by Daniel Mowery, a ward six Manchester resident, from the Manchester Health Department dated August 15, 2025, I am respectfully requesting that Manchester update its current ordinances concerning Homestead food operations be aligned with the state’s existing exemptions per NH RSA 143-A:5 (exempting operations with less than $20,000.00 annual gross sales from state licensing currently preempted by the city of Manchester.)"
Levasseur goes on in his letter to say that Manchester residents “should not have to live in constant fear the city health department is watching their social media posts. The chilling effect caused by the letter Mr. Mowery received from the heath (sic) department will now stop home bakers and canners, and even soup makers, to forego putting up pictures of canned pickle jars or homemade French bread sticks – for fear they will get a Cease and Desist letter.”
Mowery also promoted the political aspect of the pickle issue when, on Aug. 19, he indicated on his Facebook page that he was “asking God to forgive” the person who “turned me into the City of Manchester” and that “this person is a democrat, and has turned me in for our Block parties.”
Looking ahead
While Thomas remains firm that high-risk foods like canned goods cannot be produced in home kitchens for sale to the public, she said she is open to considering changes for lower-risk items, such as fully-baked goods.
“We don’t police lemonade stands,” she said. “But when food is prepared for public sale, there’s an obligation to protect the community. It’s bad form to dismantle an entire food safety framework because one person doesn’t like an enforcement action. We take public health very seriously, and Manchester’s food scene is a major part of our economy. Our goal is to keep it safe and thriving.”
Mayor Jay Ruais declined to comment prior to Tuesday’s meeting, but said through his chief of staff that he acknowledged ordinances in place in the city have been on the books for 60 years, and that he has been working across several departments to revisit all homesteading activities.
Thomas agrees – over half the ordinances on the book at any given time are in need of adjusting – especially in a post-COVID environment where many have created small business ventures and use social media to market their goods and services.
“I’m open-minded to look at all perspectives, and certainly we could update the current ordinance to allow exemptions when it comes to baked goods, in particular. But when it comes to canning, it’s an art and a science to do it safely. In any mid-sized or larger city, we have these protections in place for a reason,” Thomas said.
These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
