The enthusiasm will come through your ear phones when you hear this week’s guest, Allinee, “shiny” (small “s” on her website) Flanary, founder of Come Thru Market. If you check her website, you will see a true system of farm-to-market education and assistance focused on black and indigenous farmers and makers. There step-by-step tutorials to walk participants through the process of developing a product, readying it for market and getting into marketplaces. Also, shiny books private consultation sessions for those wanting to accelerate their projects. Come Thru Market is open the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month from May through October, 3-7pm. She also takes her Scrapberry farm to Portland’s Montavilla Market which is mainly the last Sunday of each month. Scrapberry Farm is shiny’s medicinal herb farm, which is heavy on spicy peppers. Her journey began with her own chronic diseases and disabilities. She pursued herbalism to heal herself and quickly discovered the false claims and fraud in the industry. Many products had the right idea for healing, but sourced their herbs from agribusiness entities which produced inferior herbs. To correct this, shiny started a small garden in the front yard of her Portland, Oregon home. The longer she tended the garden and consumed her own herbs, the more the neighbors in her community commented on how much better she looked and felt. They said she seemed “shinier”. At the time, she was a college professor and librarian, with absolutely no experience in farmers’ markets and no real desire to be part of them. But the black and brown herb growers and farmers she knew pushed her hard to pursue a path to farming. Her first foray was a small plot in a hilly, rather cold part of the state with a growing window of about two months. It helped her see that food was much more difficult to grow than herbs and they became her focus. So now that shiny had a product, where to sell it? And that was the entrée into farmers’ markets. Of course the path is never easy and she had to navigate state regulations while also having the FDA watching over her herb claims. At the same time, shiny wound up bumping into more and more black and brown farmers who needed help marketing their food and herb products. So as difficult as the regulations were, as complex as the steps to running a successful farmer’s market, shiny saw the big opportunity to put together a farmer’s market, complete with the “how to” educational component and offer a path for the farmers who were looking for a sales outlet. With all systems “go” in her comprehensive business, shiny juggling lots of plates but certainly has the energy to keep them in the air. The market: IG - @comethrupdx. Website: https://www.comethrupdx.org/home. IG - @scrapberryfarm, TW - @scrapberryfarm, TikTok - @scrapberryfarm. IG - @bbhx.pdx. IG - @racemefarmers .

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

For background, the Specialty Foods Association’s (SFA) mission is to shape the future of food by championing, nurturing and connecting their members to deliver innovative products and expand the consumption of specialty foods. They have built a culture based on core values that include transparency and integrity to inspire sustainability, creativity and expand their industry. To promote those values, the SFA hosts trade shows to encourage networking, opportunity and the building of lasting relationships. The latest Summer Fancy Food Show was held at the Javits Center in New York City, Sunday through Tuesday, June 12-14 and was attended by our hosts, Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall. They recap their adventure in this episode. The unfortunate sideline of Sarah Masoni catching COVID and being down for a couple of days did not dampen the thrills of this incredible event. The event was full; lots people, interest, new food items and enthusiasm for a more normal business environment. Our hosts wanted to share information about the people they met, the food they ate and about food shows in general and what a vital part of the industry they provide. To start, there were over 1,700 exhibitors displaying foods from all over the globe so that gives you an idea of the enormity of knowledge the participants are exposed to. Sarah Marshall also visited the Good Food Mercantile Show the day before the Fancy Foods Show, which is a great way to increase her network. Good Food Mercantile tends to be more specialty foods merchants and a smaller venue, so there is a completely different viewpoint than Fancy Foods. Sarah encourages all food entrepreneurs to see as many of the good trade shows as their budget allows to keep growing their base of contacts and keep abreast of what’s happening in the trade. While in New York for the show, Sarah Masoni also did a film clip to be shown in the Chicago Museum of Ice Cream. Opening July 17th, the Museum is very experiential and interactive and fun for the whole family. Sarah Marshall’s philosophy on travel is to find one fun thing to do each day, so while in New York, she and Sarah Masoni walked The High Line to the Chelsea Market. Then, it was visit to Art Tech House where there was an exhibit called “Life of a Neuron”, which is evidently an amazing film. They also visited Mercado Little Spain and enjoyed some of the best olives they had ever eaten; and that compliment comes from a couple of olive experts. Sarah Masoni presented at the Fancy Foods awards ceremony and recognized those in the food industry who had contributed for years to its success. One story of note was from the person who introduced the Calamata olive to the US; it was encouraging, inspirational and heartfelt. And there were many other stories of food pioneers who brought new tastes and experiences to the US. The main Fancy Foods Show mission remains: Be more of a community than a trade show. Make the participants feel included and that they also have equity in promoting nutritious, creative and delicious food that is part of the wonderful experience of being human. SFA culture: https://www.specialtyfood.com/specialty-food-association/about-us/culture/. Good Food Mercantile: https://goodfoodfdn.org/mercantile/. Chicago Museum of Ice Cream: https://www.museumoficecream.com/chicago. Little Spain: https://www.littlespain.com/.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Avid gardener Traci Hildner loves the Pacific Northwest’s climate and soil because it allows affectionatos like her to grow a variety of fruits and vegetables, all filled with fabulous taste and nutrition. But Traci also was interested in keeping as much of the crop as possible and not wasting much, if any of her bounty. And so, she began researching the preservation of our great variety of foodstuffs and has become a leading expert on the subject. So much so she started her own business to teach and encourage others to share her passion for revering the food harvest and making sure it all was consumed. Her company, The Lucky Larder, LLC, takes a bit of explanation. The word lard may conjure up visions of clogged arteries, but the word larder actually translates to pantry; the storage of food for off season, hard times or even emergencies. Traci started her company in early 2015 after years of self-tutoring in the art and science of canning and preserving. That education came with the purchase of she and her husband’s first home, which led to the planting of her first garden. Excited after the harvest of her first year’s crop, Traci expanded her garden for the next harvest. That move led to an oversupply of fresh food and Traci was faced with the reality of throwing away the unconsumed portions. Then around 2013, she went through Oregon State University’s Master Food Preservation program and her certification became the foundation for the business. This same extension program reaches out to all families to assist in helping them stretch their food supplies. And they can be reached via phone or email by the general public. Part of the key to Traci’s success with The Lucky Larder is the business is built on teaching and that is a big part of her background. She taught high schoolers for 15 years and loved it. In fact, if she had not gotten dissatisfied with the “larger system” she would still be there. But it gave her a background in handling a class and measuring their progress. Her classes are mostly hands-on, as Traci feels that is the best way to reinforce learning and drive it to the visceral level. Her classes have been given in the university and college campuses around the state and she does private classes as well. Traci puts on special events and signing up can be done easily on her website. Her exciting news is hopefully she will be moving into a bricks and mortar space soon, which will allow her to offer more classes at a consistent location. Traci’s personal garden grows more fruit and vegetables than can be listed here but suffice it to say her variety and range make her imminently qualified to assist any gardener anywhere. Follow Traci’s two Instagram accounts: @luckylarderpdx and @kitchenculturepdx.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Our hosts are back from the Fancy Foods Show in New York, but with a casualty. Sarah Masoni has become a COVID statistic and while not able to interview with a sore throat on this show, promises us she’ll be back next week for a Fancy Foods Show rundown next week. So Sarah Marshall is interviewing today’s guest, Emily Greene, founder of Foodie Snitch. Emily is a food photographer/journalist and food stylist who currently resides in the Portland area. Emily loves to support Portland businesses and lifestyles through photography and video. She especially focuses on new restaurant openings and show them off through social media. The emphasis is to make things look fun and draw people into their establishment and of course, bring in more business. Emily feels she has so much to work with in the Portland area, that there is so much in terms of innovation and creativity in the food scene plus the added dimension of being in the middle of an agriculture cornucopia. Also, even with inflation, Portland is still one of the more affordable places in the country to explore restaurants. What makes it amusing for Emily is constantly asking herself the question, “What are my top five _______?” (fill in the blank; bars, restaurants, breakfast sandwiches and so forth). She explores that question through her video work but actually answering that question is impossible with all the restaurant choices and new ones popping up all the time. Emily isn’t limited only to the Portland area and pre-COVID travelled frequently outside of Portland. But even now, she finds when her reviews are within driving distance from Portland, her audience is quite willing to travel to her new finds. Emily grew up in Southern Oregon and attended the University of Oregon in Eugene before graduating and moving to Portland. Her degree gave her a graduates’ “dream job” covering restaurant openings with all the glamour and food and drink to make each assignment a party. And going to five or six new places a week got Emily familiar with all the city very quickly. The restaurant scene wasn’t the only assignments for Emily, as she also covered outdoor and community areas, which helped her round out her skill set and contribute to the stunning visuals she creates. But between the connections that food brings to people plus the lack of politics in the food community, Emily chose to focus on the food scene. She has grown to love the teamwork between owners, chefs, staff and patrons. There is also a love for interior design that makes every little detail of the restaurant from the walls to the napkin rings appeal to her. Emily also has a big perspective on her visual journalism profession. She has a handle on what forms of media are getting results, and short, effective videos are definitely leading the way. Emily also emphasizes that many of the videos getting results are done with hand-held mobile devices, which are often referred to as cell phones. To follow Emily, her Instagram and TikTok handles are the same: @foodiesnitch. Her website: https://www.foodiesnitch.com/.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Our show hosts are headed off to New York next week for the Fancy Food Show. Follow them on @masoniandmarshall . And now for a chocolate show, a fan favorite. Maureen Nikaido, is founder of Moku Chocolate a chocolate company with a great story. Since Maureen sponsored a Nicaraguan child and made a visit to the country, she has been dedicated to spotlighting cacao farmers around the world, Her chocolate handcrafts high-quality, bean-to-bar, single-origin chocolate from raw, direct trade cacao beans. Moku’s direct trade beans are sourced from farmers in Nicaragua, Peru, Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, and Colombia. This ensures socially responsible compensation to the cacao farmers and fosters prosperity among the farming communities with a focus on integrity, quality, and environmental sustainability. However, it’s the stories she shares with her customers about the farmers, their country and their lives that creates a bond far beyond eating a chocolate bar. Maureen and our host Sarah Masoni originally met at the Portland, Oregon Good Food Mercantile, sponsored by the Good Food Foundation. Its mission is to celebrate, connect, empower and leverage the passionate and engaged, yet often overlooked, players in the food system who are driving towards tasty, authentic and responsible food in order to humanize and reform our American food culture. Maureen started selling Moku Chocolate in February 2021, but the idea had begun on that Central America tour in 2013. She went to a chocolate museum in Granada. The story of cacao bean, the source of chocolate, the fact that it grew on trees, the natural beauty of the region and the care and craftsmanship that went into creating chocolate was so richly told that Maureen was hooked. There was another side to the story, however. The cacao bean was essentially a second crop for the farmers, to bring in some extra income. But the share of the global market value they received as incredibly small, and most families were barely subsisting. After a few years, Maureen jumped into researching the chocolate craft community and in 2019 things got serious business-wise. Luckily, she found a legion of people who wanted to make chocolate treats, but also support fair trade and a better life for the farmers. Maureen then took some online classes to learn how to make chocolate and since then the notoriety has been excellent. Her first big award was International Chocolate Awards for her goat milk chocolate. And the awards have been stacking up ever since. Maureen’s packaging is extremely sophisticated and consistent, so take a look on her website when you have a chance. Her distribution is currently online and about two dozen grocery stores down the central valley of Oregon. Where to find out more about Maureen and Moku Chocolate: Website - Moku Chocolate – moku chocolate

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Oregon State University supports small farms and the people who run them. OSU’s small farms program offers workshops, online resources and site-specific gatherings that cover the entire state. Recognizing that farm soils, topography, weather and so forth vary greatly across Oregon, the program addresses the different regions and the different knowledge it takes to farm successfully. In-person individual farm tours are starting up again with the COVID lockdown behind us. Teagan Moran runs the south Willamette Valley program and got involved after her college education. Dissatisfied with what she felt was isolation brought on by the tight nuclear family, she searched for communities that were cohesive and working together for a common good. Her conclusion was that small farming communities, working together in the production of food for themselves and others were the communities where she wanted to spend her life. She marveled at finding people who nursed each other with both healthy food and healthy relationships. She spent the next years living and working in the communities that she loved, always tortured with the societal belief that farming was not a sustainable way of life, that economically it just didn’t work anymore. After traveling, learning and being part of these loving communities, Teagan came back to her native Oregon to do graduate work. She pursued community-based education, focusing on the adult population, the theory being communities had much of their destiny in their own hands and education was the best way to help guide good decision making. A side benefit of grad school, Teagan met her now-husband in the process, who also made farming his focus and passion. The two of them began working in the greater Portland, Oregon area, step by step debunking the myth that farming was not a viable path for people. After two years and much training, they went on to manage a farm, start a family and continue to solve the challenge of how to be a family in Oregon that wanted to farm with no access to land. They now have their farmland, but Teagan’s husband manages another farm while Teagan works for OSU’s small farm program, so the difficulty of sustainable small farm operation is reflected in their very lives. The Oregon Small Farm News is one of the program’s communication vehicles that pulls all the threads of the activities around the state, plus it contains the research findings of the program’s professors and keeps farmers up to date. In addition, it gives a voice to supporting organizations and individual farmers to keep the industry viable and relevant. There are three main areas of interest, small acreage stewardship, commercial small farms and community food systems. One of Teagan’s ongoing questions comes from the “newbies”; people who fell in love with the idea of farming, found acreage to buy, moved in and are asking the question, “Now what?” A good publication is “What can I do with my small farm?” to get started. It walks the reader through a series of questions that help them form a decision on the best way to manage their new venture. One of the toughest hurdles Teagan helps people get through is to understand that farming is more than the land and weather, it also depends upon the personality of the farmers and their family philosophy. Some of the great breakthroughs for the program have been laws that allow direct farm to consumer sales and assistance for farmers who want to create value-added foods. And the guidance from the program also includes navigating the complexities of Oregon law, especially in the area of water rights. Learn more by going to the website: smallfarms.oregonstate.edu. The online news publication can be found here. https://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/smallfarms/about/oregon-small-farm-news.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

It’s always great to be first, and Amana Gillies of House of Spain Olive Oil created the first. The first producer of Premium CBD infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil. However, not JUST the first, but also the best. She uses only the highest quality, organically grown, Oregon hemp derived CBD. Their CBD contains zero heavy metal or heavy solvent residuals and completely non-detectable THC. And they use the purest CBD crystalline available worldwide. How did this all come about? The company name is a big clue. Amanda’s father is Spanish and immigrated to the US in his later 20s. No money, no English language but his background in furniture and indomitable spirit was the springboard to a real American success story. Amanda and her husband had spent their working lives in the service industry and had experience in hospitality and restaurants and then Amanda’s entrepreneurial father approached them with an idea. Since they had deep family connections living in Spain, would they be interested in importing the country’s premier olive oils? Her husband, Peter, and she had wanted to start their own business anyway, so the timing could not have been better. They received their first half-pallet of olive oil and before they had any business materials, even business cards, Amanda signed them up for the Northwest Food Service Show in 2018. Talk about fearlessness! There was one hitch; since they didn’t even have a legal entity, they had to sign up under Amanda’s father’s business name, House of Spain, in order to be in the show. The show was a huge success for them, and they had tons of names for follow up, but it was definitely too late to change the name of their business. So, it stuck. They did add on the phrase EVOO, which stands for Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but essentially they have kept the father’s namesake. A quick look at their website will show how their product offering has evolved and expanded since those first days. However, the company name really does reflect the authenticity and sourcing of the company’s products. Combining her family heritage along with the millennial-long history of Spain is an amazing story behind the product in the package. Beyond the romance of the story, however, is the practical matter of sales and competition. Olive oil is a saturated market and even with their early success, Amanda and Peter knew they needed to ladder on more products to grow the business. The idea of infusing the olive oil with premium CBD came about because they were both using CBD and in a brainstorming session, it seemed very natural to create something that differentiated itself and was also making people’s lives better. Beyond olive oil, they also have infused CBD into gummies, teas, pet products, tinctures, salves and honey. House of Spain products are available in select stores and online, where they ship from their headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

From her Norwalk, Connecticut headquarters Anne Grossman, founder of Rebel Daughter Cookies bakes up much more than cookies. She also bakes up, as her website says, “Women empowerment and giving yourself permission to indulge and savor every bite.” Here’s the story behind the cookie. Rebel Daughter was the nickname given to Anne by her Mother. Always pushing the boundaries, always doing what she was told she couldn’t do, Anne was really rebelling against any limitations put on her and always urging others to do the same. To not be pigeon-hold or stifled and to flourish as we were all born to do was her mission. She came from a rather conservative family who played by the rules and so asking questions and challenging the status quo made her stand out as rebellious, a trait that would carry through to her company. Started in November, 2019, Rebel Daughter Cookies was the perfect challenge for Anne. Mother of two with absolutely no official culinary background, this impossible, unachievable goal was the perfect ceiling for Anne to break through. And in addition to all those hurdles, COVID hit the company right away. Even though Anne had no formal culinary training, she did grow up in the kitchen cooking and baking with her Mother and Grandmother. It was her curiosity added to her determination that gave her a scientific approach to producing her amazing, indulgent and unique cookie product line. As she says, for some cookies she gets the recipe perfect in three tries, others take 20. Her chocolate chip walnut cookie, for example was born trying different ingredients, adding more of some, less of others and having her husband be the one-person taste panel. After testing cookies about every other day, he said, “This is it, you’ve got the recipe” and a new cookie was born. Naturally, her cookie recipes “rebel” against the status quo and if go to her website, you will see testimonial after testimonial saying her cookies are far and above the most famous brand names around. There are about 9 or so flavors currently and all sold online. The packaging also reflects the care, craftsmanship and quality of the cookies and is truly stunning. It wasn’t easy getting the packaging where it is now, either. Anne started with FedEx boxes, then wanted to improve the looks and searched around for a manufacturer. This was during COVID and of course, everyone had supply problems, delays, shutdowns and the whole story. But Anne persevered and found a west coast company that could produce the quality and quantity she needed in a reasonable timeframe. If you’re thinking of a unique gift, you should take a look at her site. The cookies are large and creatively decorated. And for new mothers, there are even three special lactation cookies formulated just for them. Whether or not you are a rebel daughter or have one in your family, order some up and indulge without guilt.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

Our show’s hosts, Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall, are well connected as you know, and today’s guest is connected with Sarah Masoni as a fellow committee member and attendee at the last Fancy Foods show in Las Vegas. Laura Briscoe of Laura’s Gourmet Granola and Sarah are mutual advocates for promoting crafted, artisan, healthy and delicious new foods and provide incredible support to the industry. After graduating from college as a Poli-Sci major, Laura went to work in the tech industry in sales. The crunch of 2001 convinced her to get away from the hectic tech pace and find a new avenue. It was a movie, “Eat Drink Man Woman” that was the epiphany for Laura. She identified with the daughter in the movie and was inspired to check out the best culinary school in the area. Laura then enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu in Arizona. It was during school she realized that she did not want a business partner to open a restaurant, she wanted to do it all by herself and began her business plan then. The school allowed her to do her externship to create her business so upon graduation she hit the ground running. Of course, she found out the entrepreneurial path is bumpy. She once cooked for a wedding party of 240 and the only equipment was a grill. Yes, learning to improvise is a mandatory skill. Around 2002-3, Laura began playing with a recipe that eventually became the granola for which she is now famous. But while she let that percolate her private chef and fine dining business really took off. She gained a reputation quickly that not only included running a great business, but led to local news and talk show cooking segments that grew her brand name. But the granola recipe lingered in the back of her mind. She became addicted to granola in college and would stuff herself right out of the box even in the classroom. Then she saw a recipe in a magazine to make granola and decided to make her own with exceptions. Those exceptions were butter, sugar and other ingredients she just would not eat. But she experimented with the recipe substituting ingredients acceptable to her and then one day, her original vanilla crunch granola was born (It is still the flagship flavor of the line). When Laura baked, she baked a bunch and had so much she gave it away. Of course, the rest is a familiar story: Friends loved it, wanted more, gave it to their friends and suddenly Laura was beseeched with offers to pay her, trade her, any compensation to have some of her fabulous granola, and the light went on. A best friend said she should sell it so she started talking to stores but couldn’t get to the decision makers. Then, synchronicity and serendipity, as Laura likes to say, hit. She walked into a store to get some ingredients and noticed a bunch of men in suits holding court. When Laura asked the checker what was going on, she was told the store was going to be turned into a AJs Fine Foods store and pointed out the owner. As soon as the owner broke from the pack, Laura was there pitching him on her product and her plans. He told her he’d give the product a try and, true to his word, she got a call 10 days later saying they would stock the granola on their shelves. That was the start, as the store wanted more flavors and Laura began adding flavors and the line just kept growing from customer demand. Laura’s has grown tremendously and her granola in lots of stores – check out her website – sells online and has Laura’s Gourmet Granola on menus from Florida to Alaska in hotels, restaurants, corporate dining, professional and collegiate sports teams and healthcare food services.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.

Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky

In this episode, we break tradition. Meaningful Marketplace interviews female food company founders and female entrepreneurs in the food marketplace. But Tory Campbell’s family business is truly worthy of a message that needs to be shared with the entire food world. Their company, Felton & Mary’s Artisan Foods, produces the magic behind that glorious, mouth-watering global pastime, Bar-B-Queuing. Along with the spectrum of sauces that cater to all tastes, Felton & Mary also offers spice rub for advanced meat preparation, and they have now branded their very own link sausages, a recipe of ground pork, ground beef and an ideal blend of their special seasonings. And now the story behind the company name and the family. Felton and Mary Campbell were Tory’s grandparents. If you knew them you would have known, as Tory says, “…two amazing people who really had a knack for hospitality…”. They always had big pots of food on the stove at their home and always welcomed friends, family and neighbors to come over and enjoy their food. To them, community was built through hospitality and food. Felton and Mary met in the Bay Area and retired up to Portland, Oregon in the mid-80’s. Their children and grandchildren, including Tory, followed them there and it was only natural to start a family business around the food and community they had enjoyed all their lives. Felton and Mary were particularly adept a Bar-B-Que and there’s a reason behind that. Bar-B-Queuing is an intensive love affair with the meal. It’s a commitment of time, labor, multiple ingredients and is a community project. There’s downtime in the process, time where people play board games, shoot the breeze and catch up on events. Plus, there’s tradition and showmanship; the cook has center stage. It also revolves around a big fire, so it’s somewhat primal as well. The recipes developed at home were the impetus to start a restaurant, which coincidently wound up being in their home. Felton, Mary, kids, grandkids and neighbors all pitched in, knocking down walls, painting and pulling up tree stumps (Want a tough job? Try that some time.) and the quaint home became Campbell’s Bar-B-Que restaurant. They were big believers in urban farming and utilized the collard greens, basil and other ingredients from their backyard garden. It ran continuously until a few years ago, with Tory’s aunt in charge. Then in 2014 after the closing, she turned the recipes over to Tory, telling him it was time for the third generation to take the ball and run with it. Tory’s mission is to spread his family’s recipes and traditions to the world in an effort to create communities everywhere. The labeling is homage to Felton and Mary for a couple of reasons. First, Tory feels people want to know the source and authenticity for a branded food. They want to know the reason someone was compelled to search for a recipe or a process that was different and worth sharing. But second for very practical reasons, there are lots of Bar-B-Que sauces out there and as Tory says, “You’ve got to stand out!”. A college friend of Tory’s used to go to the restaurant and went on to become a successful graphic designer. He was a natural to work on the labeling and one more shining example of the community that has been built around the Campbell family. Currently, the business is not yet large enough for Troy to be involved fulltime, so he has recruited family members to handle different parts of the business until it grows into a full-time occupation.

Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast. 

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Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers 
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design 
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky