By Christopher Heimerman & Illinois Press Association
• Jan 8, 2021
Sarah Frey sees and appreciates the irony when she looks out at her once-small family farm that became a big player in the specialty crops industry.
“This place I’d spent my entire life trying to escape from, in 2020, it became my escape,” said Frey, the founder of Frey Farms in southern Illinois and “Pumpkin Queen of America” in the words of the New York Times.
Frey was the keynote speaker Thursday at the annual Illinois Specialty Crop Conference, put on virtually by the Illinois Specialty Growers Association. She described to the audience how long before the COVID-19 pandemic saw people fleeing the congestion of cities, as a teenager she dreamt of stepping into a high-rise and ascending the elevator to her office.