The Swinery

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There's a bit on Rebeka Denn's blog today about the Swinery being closed down all of the sudden. Apparently, Gabe's only posted on his Facebook page, but blames it (somehow) on retaliation for Gypsy. The Swinery website and all mention of it on the CC website have been taken down.

Does anyone know what is going on? I was looking forward to stocking up at the Ballard Market tomorrow!

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/devouri...ives/160475.asp

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Posted on Rebekah Denn's blog today:

Swinery update

I talked with the folks at Public Health -- Seattle and King County and with Gabriel Claycamp to find out what happened with Claycamp's planned Swinery Meats stand at the Ballard Farmers Market.

If you remember, Claycamp had planned to be at the market last week with all sorts of cured meats and stocks, but instead took down the Swinery Web page and told friends he had been shut down.

A health department e-mail said his application for a market permit was turned down. It was denied, according to the department, because he is not allowed to sell the food, because he never had a permit to make it in the first place. The long version:

1) The meats were not being made in an approved kitchen. "The owner had written that he'd be using a previously approved/permitted commercial facility in Bothell; however, when our inspector visited that location, she found that he did not have arrangements or approval to use that facility."

2) Claycamp provided plans last year to use his own facility to make the food, and those plans were approved. "However, to receive a permit, he must show that he installed the equipment, get the necessary plumbing system and permits, etc., as described on his plans." He needs a preopening inspection to confirm that he followed through on those plans, but he never applied for the permit that would have triggered that inspection.

3) To sell cured meats, he needs a Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan and possibly variances. To sell fresh meats and possibly cured meats at farmers markets, he needs mechanical refrigeration.

I had talked with Claycamp earlier in the day, and he mainly focused on roadblocks such as the HACCP requirement, which he called a massive and expensive proposition that other vendors haven't had to produce. (The health department says everyone has been treated equally.) Mechanical refrigeration also would be difficult and pricey, as the market does not allow generators.

Claycamp said he thought he had everything in order to proceed, and he still wants to deal with whatever he needs to do to get the Swinery going. "I'm just trying to figure it out. All I want to do is make it legal," he said.

He has a hearing with the health department Thursday, he said, and he's hopeful. The department is calling it a conversation. "A hearing implies he had a permit that was revoked. He never had a permit to make the meats."