Feeding the Family

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

News, Business

4.6 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hey Smarties! We’re dropping into your feeds today to share this special coverage from Marketplace.

For many people gathering around the table this holiday season, things feel a little different. Maybe it’s the cost of ingredients that’s on your mind, or cuts to USDA funding that have left your food bank running low. Or maybe it’s the simple reality of a packed schedule — there’s a lot to cook, and so little time.

In this special from Marketplace, we bring listeners a collection of stories on the business and economics of food. Our reporters take us across the country to farms, home kitchens, and restaurants. We visit a refugee farmer in Houston, a chocolate-making lab in California, and stop for a bite at an award-winning restaurant in Portland.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, smarties, it's Kimberly. Today, we're going to share some of the incredible reporting that our colleagues here at Marketplace have been working on lately. It's a special called Feeding the Family, and it's a collection of stories on the business and economics of food, from farms to home kitchens and restaurants. Look, Marketplace is only able to do this work with your help. Donations from our
0:23.9	listeners keep Marketplace free of paywalls and accessible to everybody. And you can help us fuel Marketplace's
0:30.3	smart, trustworthy coverage in the new year. Donate before the year ends at Marketplace.org
0:36.3	slash Give Smart or at the link in your show notes.
0:40.4	One of the perks of my job is that sometimes I wind up in delicious places.
0:46.5	We do have some chocolates if you guys are interested in tasting it.
0:50.0	Oh, no, thanks. I'll pass.
0:51.6	All right. Well, let's get out of here.
0:53.9	Have you not seen my mouth watering over here?
0:56.5	I'm visiting a company called California Cultured.
1:00.0	They make chocolate and coffee.
1:01.9	I'm at their headquarters in Sacramento, California.
1:04.9	In a small kitchen, Steve Stearns, a former chef at high-end restaurants,
1:09.9	has three different chocolates lined up for me to try. Little thumbprint-sized morsearchs, a former chef at high-end restaurants, has three different chocolates lined up for me to try.
1:13.2	Little thumbprint-sized morsels laid out on a platter. I'll try to spare you the chewing sounds,
1:19.3	but the first two samples taste a little sour. It's not my favorite. I'm going to be honest.
1:25.0	Steve says I'm picking up on the fruity, more acidic notes.
1:30.2	The third one is a nice, toasty, dark chocolate.
1:33.7	I think that's my favorite of the three.
1:36.4	It's got a little bit more bitterness to it.
1:39.5	Yeah.
1:39.9	But it still has those fruity notes.
	...

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