She had been told by the market manager that she was not permitted to sell hummus, tabbouleh or falafel.
Luckily many of her other Middle Eastern specialties such as dolmas, salads, breads, baklava and her seasonal Easter cookies were for sale as usual.
The Otago Farmers Market Trust has to approve the products vendors sell, as does the DCC environmental health department.
However, it appears another stall-holder also selling hummus, falafel and tabbouleh questioned whether she had approval to sell these.
Mrs Harris, who is from Lebanon, started selling at the market in August 2006, and after a few weeks applied to sell more lines, including hummus, falafel and tabbouleh, which are an integral part of cuisine in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, as she found people enjoyed her products.
She received approval to do so in an email on November 23, 2006, although the trust did not appear to have a copy of this.
Paul Crack, chairman of the trust, says he was aware of "an issue" with her approval to sell certain products but when asked, did not want to comment as he did not know the ins and outs of the matter.
However, it would be reviewed by the manager and trustees as a matter of some urgency.
"We've never, from day one, allowed any one seller to have a monopoly - I mean, it is a market," he said.
"The trust has a longstanding policy that sellers need to seek and gain approval for what they sell and the trust looks at those extremely carefully and makes all sorts of balancing against a number of factors, so we can be seen to be a legitimate farmers market and sustainable."
The market at the Dunedin Railway Station on Saturday mornings has a wide variety of stalls, with several selling similar products such as bread, baked goods, cheese, meat, sausages and cured meats, fish and, of course, fruit and vegetables.
One would think that with an average of 8000 people visiting the weekly market there would be room for two stalls selling Middle Eastern foods, especially as items such as hummus are becoming mainstream items of our diet these days.
