[Sca-cooks] regulations on sales of spices?

[Maggie MacDonald]

I was at the farmers market in downtown Chula Vista today, and found a
merchant who sold fresh spices in bulk. She had Grains of paradise, she had
nigella, she had black and green cardamom, corticated and whole.

One of the items the Calafian cooks guild needs for the November Coronation
feast is sichuan pepper (long flower pepper?), I forget the exact chinese
name for it.  She told me she was not allowed to sell it, by law.

Once she mentioned that, I realized that the only merchant I had seen on
the internet selling it was one out of Canada.

Is there something about this spice, or other spices, that would cause
regulations against them being sold in America?

(By the by, this merchant leaves on Monday to move back to the
Caribbean.  They were bureaucratized and taxed to death here in California).

Regards,
Maggie MacD.