Officials with the USDA toured Midwest Food Bank as the Farm to Family Food Box becomes a lifeline to many. DAVID PROEBER
BLOOMINGTON â 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.
âThis place Iâd spent my entire life trying to escape from, in 2020, it became my escape,â said Frey, the founder of Frey Farms in southern Illinois and âPumpkin Queen of Americaâ in the words of the New York Times.
Frey was a keynote speaker 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.