Sarah Frey


Sarah Frey is an American farmer and business owner. She owns Frey Farms, the largest H-2A visa employer in Illinois as well as the largest grower of pumpkins in the United States.

Background

Frey grew up on her family farm in Keenes, Illinois, the youngest of five children and the only daughter. The family was poor and survived mostly on food grown or reared on the farm. She says that her first sale of melons took place when she was eight. In her youth, she wanted to move to a city job and escape the farm, but following the threat of the farm's repossession, she decided to help save it. She took over selling melons and cantaloupes to local groceries, and obtained a job selling to the local Walmart distribution center in 1997, while she was still in her teens. At 16, she took over distribution and quickly increased the farm's client list from 12 to 150. She purchased the farm outright at age 18.
Frey attended Frontier Community College.

Businesses

Frey has been described as "the Pumpkin Queen of America". She grows more pumpkins than any other farmer in the United States. In 2016, Frey sold around five million pumpkins. Most of her crop is not suitable for eating, but is very popular for Halloween lantern carving. The family business now owns about of farms, spanning Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, and West Virginia. Although pumpkins are the most popular produce, the business also farms watermelons, cantaloupes, sweet corn, and hard squash. As of 2017, Frey Farms is the largest H-2A visa employer in Illinois, and recruits around 250 staff to assist with the pumpkin harvest, which takes place across Illinois and Indiana. She has also produced Tsamma watermelon juice in an attempt to break into the watermelon juice market. Frey's business negotiations with Walmart have been featured in a Harvard Business School study.
Her second book, The Growing Season: How I Saved an American Farm—and Built a New Life, was reviewed by Publishers Weekly.

Published works

Frey is divorced. She has two sons.