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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Sarah Frey’s path from selling produce locally as a teenager to building a farm business reflects a practical question at the heart of agriculture: how can a grower find value in crops that do not meet grocery-store standards? In a 2021 Successful Farming profile, Frey describes a family farm, a willingness to persevere through difficult seasons, and efforts to use more of what the farm grows.
Who is Sarah Frey?
A 2021 profile by Megan Schilling in Successful Farming describes Frey as the youngest of 21 children, raised on a struggling farm in southern Illinois. According to the profile, she began a local produce delivery business at 15 and took over her parents’ farm at 17. The article’s deck traces that journey from selling melons to becoming known as the “Pumpkin Queen.” These are milestones reported in 2021, not a current biography or independent verification of her present role.
The profile presents her story through family, perseverance, and a love of farming. Frey’s book, The Growing Season, recounts childhood experiences and lessons she says she later drew on in agribusiness and in saving the family farm.
How Frey Farms built value beyond the field
Frey’s account emphasizes that a crop can have value even when it is imperfect. Produce that does not meet retail appearance or shelf requirements may still be useful as an ingredient. She describes juicing as one way her farm uses such fruit rather than leaving it without a market.
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“I would point to our juicing capabilities and technology where we use the otherwise imperfect fruit to make really incredible ingredients out of that fruit to make our juices.”
Frey also links this approach to vertical integration: taking on more stages of the value chain on the farm. In her words, “Figuring out how to pick up more parts of the value chain to become vertically integrated on the farm is one of the more impactful things we’ve accomplished.” Processing can offer another route to capture value from a crop, though the interview does not quantify its financial effect or claim that the model works for every farm.
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She describes the operating challenge as seasonal and variable: not every growing season is perfect, and farms can be left with crops that are less suited to fresh retail sales. “We constantly look for ways to innovate and use more of what we grow, to see past the imperfections in the fruits that would normally be discarded,” she says.
What the 2021 profile reported about the farm and its products
At the time of publication, Successful Farming described Frey Farms as operating thousands of acres across Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, and West Virginia. The profile named squash and pumpkins, sweet corn, and watermelon among its crops, with produce distributed to retailers nationwide. It gave no exact acreage, and those geographic and business details should be read as the article’s 2021 snapshot rather than a confirmed current footprint.
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The interview also named Sarah’s Homegrown agua frescas and Tsamma Watermelon Juice as beverages developed from imperfect fruit, and said they were sold in stores across the country at the time. Their present availability is not established by that profile.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The idea Frey draws from difficult seasons
Frey’s account is not just about production; it is also about responding to setbacks by looking for another use or opportunity. Reflecting on the message of her book, she says: “A common theme is to continue to look for the good even during the tougher seasons of our life.” In the farm context she describes, that outlook means trying to see past cosmetic imperfections and find a useful purpose for more of the harvest.
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Read Megan Schilling’s full 2021 Successful Farming profile of Sarah Frey for the original interview and its full context.
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