Jana Jenkins wears a lot of hats. She is both Director of sales at Oregon Wild Rice and co-owner of Oregon-Ag. Oregon Wild Rice was started by two brothers in the mid-Willamette valley in Oregon. Fourth generation Oregon farmers on a farm about 120 years running, they went from grass seed growers to rice because the soil was heavy clay and did not drain water very well. So why fight it? They switched to rice crops which love the water five years ago and have been producing bumper crops of “wild” rice ever since. As crops go, rice is one of the easier products to cultivate. First you dam up some land, let the Oregon rain fill it with water and make a pond, sprinkle the seed in the pond and let it germinate. No plowing, discing or weeding, just wait until it grows to about six feet tall over a few months. The rice is then harvested with a combine, just like most other tall farm crops. Growing rice is not a huge industry in Oregon yet, but obviously with the ease of growing and the amount of rainfall available, it should increase. Oregon Ag came about with Jana being in stores talking to the store owners, who would refer her to other food producers, urging her to check out their products. These referrals led to a stable of clients that Jana and her business partner can take store-to-store and ask the owner what special Oregon products they need, such as a Hazelnut producer, or a wild rice producer or good pickles. Then they fill the need, acting as a built-in distributor for companies not large enough to have their own sales and distribution division. Only started last January, Oregon Ag has already built a great list and it is growing as they find more and more craft products.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

Kelly Cox does what she wants. That’s a quote from Portland Magazine, and our hosts get Kelly to explain exactly what that means. For the past five years, Kelly has traveled the globe seeking the origin of the best food ingredients as the content of her award-winning series, The Original Fare on PBS. As her website says, she has done everything from plucking tea leaves in Sri Lanka to hunting seals on ice floats off Newfoundland, sharing the experiences with the public. The mission is to find where food comes from and understanding the work and culture that goes into producing food ingredients. The show is part travel, part food but mostly the people behind the food, showing our commonalities and our difference. There’s another reason for Kelly’s drive. She works with young women around the world with common initiatives, Girl Power and Gender Equality. In 2014, she made her debut as a film director with Big Dream, a show that follows seven ambitious young women around the world who stop at nothing to achieve their big dream. It’s available on Amazon. Portland, Oregon is Kelly’s home base and there is a strong connection and support, especially with our host Sarah Marshall. And when COVID lockdown hit, Kelly realized that an international program such as Original Fare was going to come to a halt when there was no international traveling! She then turned her focus locally for projects, which had mixed results, so she and her husband moved in with her parents in California. Now that odyssey has taken them with her parents to Idaho, where they are currently still treading the COVID waters. What’s next? There are a couple of wild acres on the property, so Kelly has taken to starting her own ambitious garden and also growing a chicken flock, for fresh eggs. Not surprisingly, Kelly’s life reflects her show. It’s Original.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

Laney Sisun first started healing herself, then started building a company to heal others. A sufferer of Crohn’s Disease, an auto immune affliction of the gut, and it’s miserable. To manage it, she turned to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which limits all sugar and fruit except honey and keeps the carbo count low. It worked. Then she began cooking and baking for herself because she was, as she confesses, a “junk food junkie” and giving up the donuts, cookies, etc. was not an option. But finding a recipe took lots of experimenting to come up with the desserts that were, as her Honey Palette company says, are exciting and decadent. Also a Registered Nurse and certified AIP Health Coach, Laney saw there were few products available to the public that would help them stay on the strict diet and manage afflictions like Laney was able to do. She wasn’t sure she wanted to start her own company at first, so she took a business course offered by the Oregon Entrepreneur Network, a comprehensive look at setting goals, planning strategy and of course, financing the endeavor. Also, the networking with other founders was invigorating and gave her the inspiration to give it a try. She entered pitch competitions which sharpened her vision and strategy, and built her confidence (check out her YouTube session), She won a competition that catapulted her from only selling at a local farmer’s market to getting shelf space as two Oregon grocery store chains and she was in business! Her products are especially a god send for those with diabetes, who think they can’t have the sweet things in life ever again without harming themselves, and Laney’s absolutely gorgeous looking desserts can fill that void.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

Amanda Ramirez holds down two inspiring and demanding roles that are a result of her commitment to better nutrition for the world. She is a personal chef running her own business, Made to Nourish, and is also community builder and social media director of Eat Pluck. Her personal business advocates recipes that offer great tasting and nutritious meals. Eat Pluck has created spices from meat organs that are incredibly rich in natural nutrients and have added vegetables that give meals a unique spicy taste. How did she get to be the nutrition guru? In the fashion industry at the time, Amanda had health issues that western medicine could not heal. So she turned to changing her diet to natural healing and in two short months she felt 100% better. She wanted to share her good fortune and knowledge with the world and started her personal chef business began in 2013. And luckily, some of the first people she met was James Barry, founder of Eat Pluck. She simply HAD to work with James and his company after hearing him speak. The parallel stories have worked well, as Amanda has now grown her team to three women chefs who specialize in creating recipes for people with auto-immune system problems, food allergies and those dealing with cancer. They want food as healing to be a message carried forward as an alternative to pharmaceutical medication. And it’s more that good tasting, good for you food. It’s a total mental health, physical health and spiritual growth program that comes with a new way of living and thinking for many. It’s mainly what Amanda calls elimination diet, a process of eliminating the foods that irritate the gut and lead to many common maladies.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

As a backpacking guide and wilderness therapist in Oregon’s Mount Hood area, Melissa Mutterspaugh, AKA Mountain Mel, was almost horrified when the group would stop and people would pull out artificial snacks in the middle of a perfectly natural environment. The experience gave her the motivation and mission to create natural foods and food products to replace the “toxic” ones they were using. A clinical herbalist, Melissa has a use for most of nature’s plants. Take nettles, for instance. They sting, trust me, but Melissa will tell you that you can pick the top of the leaves with your bare hands, and if you chew the leaves from the top, the small hairs on the bottom side will crumble and you won’t be stung by them. And if you have chronic pain from some old injury, you can rub the underside of the leaf – the stinging side – and after you endure an hour or so of discomfort, you’ll find your chronic pain may be gone! Her clinical background was achieved by attending the Elderberry Botanical Studies school in Portland, Oregon where she learned the chemical properties of plants and how to harvest. Feeling the background was helpful but a little “hippie dippie”, Melissa wanted to know more about the human body and the mechanics of interacting with the beneficial elements of plants. She next attended Portland School of Traditional Herbalism, where she heard from some of the best herbalists around how natural elements dance with the human body to help heal itself. Mountain Mel’s herbal products include herbal teas, body and lip balms, hand sanitizers and special tea blends for mothers and expectant mothers. They are available online and at certain Oregon stores currently.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

Stacey Givens is a real urban farmer. On an acre pretty much in the middle of Northeast Portland, Oregon, The Side Yard grows local, fresh and delicious food for the community. And she’s a proponent of lovage, a plant that pops up in spring and is a food that may soon be discovered by many. Stacey remarks how the leaves are great for pesto and other sauces, and at a certain stage, the stems make terrific Bloody Mary straws. They grow up tall, then get dried out cut to one foot lengths for many uses, not the least of which is putting in the smoker for smoked fish! Stacey has curiously found that visitors from Germany in particular are pleased to see lovage offered in the US, as it is quite common in Germany and much of Europe. An urban farm is a different kind of place, as some of the 10,000+ annual customers have a hard time figuring out if they are parking their car in someone’s yard, but when they get in the growing area, it is truly magical and a world of its own. Stacey has about 27 large beds of herbs and plants, so it is a sensory delight. Stacey has so far decided not to chase the organic certification because they have established a reputation with restauranteurs and the public, plus they are part of the Portland scene. However, she was reminded by host Sarah Masoni that through the Department of Agriculture, she might be eligible for a $750 rebate on the certification cost. “What???” was Stacey’s reaction. Good things come from this show. The future, however, is dicey. Urban farms are disappearing left and right, Stacey says, as the acreage needed for growing becomes more valuable as a space to develop. But for now, Stacey Givens’ The Side Yard is literally spreading its seeds, offering a subscription of seeds for those who want to start their own garden. So for now, Stacey continues to grow in many ways.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

Tiffany Miller and Carnie Wilson have created more than Love Bites, they’ve created Love coffee, scented candles and even hand sanitizer. Love Bites by Carnie, has created a sweet sensation Bite Mob Team and have an extremely loyal audience who orders their treats online that are delivered from their Sherwood, Oregon location. Both entrepreneurs love to cook and have found their cooking and business freedom after teaming up over 40 years ago. As best friends, they tackle the challenges and unknowns of business together and support each other even through the inevitable differences of opinion. And this they manage with home life, children and delivering delicious treats as a balancing act. Carnie got started in business journey in a rather typical way, cooking bite sized treats in her kitchen that EVERYBODY raved about and got her started thinking: Can I sell enough of these to make a living? But how to make it happen? So she put a package of desserts together and took them to a Los Angeles restaurant that quickly offered her a deal. Not having much business savvy, Carnie turned to her best friend Tiffany who had the business background and asked about the demands that would go with the deal, including scary things like “exclusivity”. After some hand wringing, Carnie said, “Let’s be partners!” and the company was born. The first year was spent on the road and actually taking the desserts to the bite-size they now sell. The support for each other also gets them over the hump of being in different cities and still operating successfully. COVID has hit them hard; they had a café to serve their coffee and bites they had to close and are not certain if it will reopen. It also has affected production, but they have weathered so far, mainly because the flavors Carnie has created and continues to create have captured the public’s imagination. COVID put their grocery store distribution on hold, but now they are planning to co-pack rather than expand their own production. They plan to expand the brand and products nationally – one bite at a time.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

Sometimes podcasts hosts all get together for a show, and that’s the case for today’s episode. Sarah Delevan, founder and owner of The Good Food CFO, also hosts her own Podcast show “The Good CFO”. For six wonderful years, Sarah was a buyer, responsible for sourcing the BEST ingredients from California farmers, ranchers, and fisherman. She spent her time in markets and in the fields, sampling the best food and tastes in the world, and loved it. But she had an even bigger love: Building spreadsheets and as she says in her website, “sitting at my desk - deep in spreadsheets + tools…identifying ways to improve the financial sustainability and profitability of the business that I was working for.”. Geeky? No, just passionate about NOT letting great food products fail simply because most food entrepreneurs close their doors because they hadn’t learned the financial aspects of their business yet. Sarah saw owner after owner fail because they were overspending on ingredients, undercharging for their products or allocating resources to all the wrong places. So in 2017, her mission to offer that critical piece of the puzzle became real and The Good Food CFO consulting business launched. As her website says, she has 50 clients and counting, and the reviews are beyond positive. She has literally been the life preserver for chefs, food cart owners, caterers and more. She has believed in Instagram for her business and her clients, so you might check that out for in-depth information on her career.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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

The story begins with the Peace Corps. Nhu, a native of Vietnam, was volunteering in Kingston, Jamaica. Craig was part of Peace Corps Jamaica’s administrative staff. They both have a passion for education and believe that education changes lives. Hurricane Floyd brought them together, as Craig visited Nhu presumably to bring her supplies, but actually to ask her out! They lived in Jamaica for years, but Nhu longed to move back to the Pacific Northwest and they landed in Portland, Oregon. The move was difficult for Craig at first, so Nhu would shop for all the Jamaican items she could find locally so Craig could have a piece of his homeland. But it was difficult to find spices and rubs, so they started to make their own. When they had parties, they served their Jamaican dishes and friends and family raved about it. But Craig and Nhu realized there was a difference between pleasing friends and family and selling to the public so ventured carefully into the business of selling their Jerk dishes and the spices that flavor them. Jerk has been a part of Jamaica’s culinary tradition for centuries and is a way of cooking pork, chicken, seafood, beef and vegetables. The taste of Jerk best exemplifies Jamaica and the Jamaican people; spicy and hot, yet sweet! Jerk rubs are typically hot with scotch bonnet peppers (habaneros). The couple sells their dishes from a popular food cart and sell their spices there and online to encourage others to cook authentic Jamaican dishes at home. That is their way of educating others to the joys of Jamaican hospitality and food. And the name Fi Mi Kingston? It’s a slogan from the patios (pronounced “pat-wa”) dialect spoken in Jamaica. Fi Mi means “my” and it is the warm way of saying “My Kingston.”

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

With two suitcases, $70 in her pocket and no English, Nong left her native Thailand and landed in the U.S. She quickly learned that her $70 was not going to take her far and hustled for a job and started picking up English as quickly as possible. Her work ethic had been cast in steel; her mother was the sole provider for her family and money was always a struggle. But that kept them close and became the basis for her strong determination coupled with an unlimited compassion for others. Nong worked as a food server seven days a week and saved and saved. She also cooked. A very, very special dish that is basically chicken and rice but finding words to describe it is difficult. People loved it and Nong realized there was a market for it if she opened her own business. Living in Portland, Oregon, a food cart came up for sale for $800 and she jumped on it. Nong has an incredibly honest and fearless approach to life; she is very candid about what she does NOT know, a trait all entrepreneurs should emulate. She had a product, a place to sell it but no knowledge of business. But with her ambition and her humility to ask for help, she learned fast. The food cart exploded into a full kitchen and staff that now cooks, prepares and serves her chicken and rice in traditional Thai butcher paper wrapping to hundreds daily. Nong also has expanded by bottling her amazing sauce which is available on Amazon. Her compassion also is out in the open; she’s proud that her employees enjoy a robust health insurance plan and are well cared for just like her customers. Do yourself a favor and check out her videos on her website, her true personality comes through. And just to demonstrate how the American Dream has come true for her, we talked to Nong from the island of Maui, where she is vacationing with her family.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

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