On Thursday's newscast, we told you about the ultimatum that vendors at the Michael Finnegan market received: they had until the following day, Friday to get food handler's certificates or be barred from entering the market.
As we predicted, no one did. And as you could have predicted, no one was sent home or kept out of the market for not having it.
So the grace period has been extended - it had to be because it turns out, the vendors had not gotten the letter in a timely fashion. And when we visited today, they seemed just fine with that:
Jules Vasquez
"You went to get your food handlers certificate yet?"
Consuelo Maldonado - Vendor
"Not yet, we are not getting it until Wednesday."
Jules Vasquez
"But has anybody - because it said on Friday, you shouldn't have come here without the certificate."
Consuelo Maldonado
"No, that's just talking."
Jules Vasquez
(Laughs) "That's just talking..."
Consuelo Maldonado
"We will get it Wednesday; that's the law."
Jules Vasquez
"Ruben Aloysious, do you have a food handler certificate presently?"
Ruben Aloysious Barrow - Vendor
"Not yet."
Jules Vasquez
"Okay, but you intend to get one."
Ruben Aloysious Barrow
"Yes, I'll get it this week because I just got into the - just star today."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you need one? You are selling only bark and things like that. You think that you need one?"
Ruben Aloysious Barrow
"I think that you would; you should because if you look on the - if you see this one, it's clean. But if you look on the bark of the tree before - the bark that I got before, from the forest, it had on a lot of fungus on it. And those fungus needs to be taken off, because on the tree, you will have all sorts of living microscopic creatures that live in it."
Jules Vasquez
"So you feel alright with the certificate?"
Ruben Aloysious Barrow
"Yes I feel alright with it. I feel that it is necessary to protect our health in general. all the populace: yourself, myself, the people who I'm selling to."
If you're wondering, Ruben Barrow was shaving down Provision Bark - a highly regarded blood tonic.
