![]() ![]() If you’ve ever bought a melon or a pumpkin in America, chances are you are my customer. Harvard Business School used one of my first major deals as a case study in the art of negotiation. In recent years I’ve enjoyed expanding our agribusiness into the beverage and consumer packaged goods markets. ![]() My company, which has its headquarters down the road from my childhood and current home in a tiny Illinois town called Orchardville, manages thousands of acres of farmland coast to coast. I’m the CEO-or, my preferred title, the founding farmer-of Frey Farms, which sells, among other things, tens of millions of pumpkins and watermelons a year. We both ran companies that earned millions a year in revenue. The latest notches on our resumes, too, were similar. As we gazed out of the floor-to-ceiling windows at skyscrapers, we both held glasses of champagne. He sported an expensive watch and I pearls. ![]() He wore a custom-made suit I a designer skirt, blouse, and heels. At a cocktail party teeming with incredibly successful people, a man assumed we came from the same place. ![]() The following is an excerpt from her new memoir, “ The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life-and Saved an American Farm.” Click the audio player above to hear Frey’s conversation with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal. But Frey’s journey to pumpkin royalty began in her teens with an old pickup truck and produce delivery route. In 2016, The New York Times dubbed Sarah Frey “America’s Pumpkin Queen” because her company, Frey Farms, sells more pumpkins than any other producer in the United States. ![]()
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