Sorry to hear about what you're goin through. What I learned working for the government in the Air Force for 20 years, was " better to ask forgiveness than permission. I was home on leave when I tapped a few trees just to see if I could make syrup. At the time we already had a pretty successful apiary and were producing honey in NC where i was stationed. I began researching OH laws or Codes as they call em here. At the time I came across the bottling license for anything you made on your farm, from Jelly to honey, maple syrup etc. It was $100 a year license and you had to have refresher training every year, which was another $200, and travel to wherever they had it. After scrolling through hundreds of pages of code, I finally discovered, this was only required if you sold more than $49k of product a year. Obviously you are referencing Federal regulations here, but the bottom line is, there are rules in place because SOMEONE, sometime put time, money or something else in place of health, sanitation, QUALITY, and made someone sick or whatever. I won't go down the rabbit hole of our court & liability systems. Our federal and even local governments are becoming more & more bureaucratic, and they seem to be the ones getting something for nothing while we the people keep getting less and less for all the time, $, and labor we spend making our products.
'12 15 jugs - Steam pans
'17 125 3/16 - 18" x 72" drop flue on homemade arch
'18 240 3/16 - Deer Run 125
'19 450 3/16 - Converted RO to electric/added a membrane
'20 600 3/16 - Maple Pro 2x6 Raised Flue, added AOF/AUF
'21 570 3/16 - Built steam hood, Smoky Lake filter press
'22 800 3/16 - Upgraded RO to 4 4x40
'23 500 3/16 - Re-plumbed RO, new "Guzzler"
'24 500 3/16 - Steam Away, DIY 8x40 RO