Farmer Emily Jane Freed (also known as Farmer Freed) was raised in Sonoma County where her parents shopped at the farmers’ market and volunteered at the local co-op. Clover Stornetta dairy products were delivered to the doorstep, and Craig the fish man honked the horn as he drove into the neighborhood to announce the fresh catch of the day. Farmer Freed and her mom often ate lunch at Revelation, the natural restaurant in town, which served soybean spread and tofu-egg salad sandwiches on whole wheat bread topped with fresh alfalfa sprouts.  Sweet treats included homemade yogurt and fresh-baked carob chip cookies.

Her parents’ diligent work of

raising a child on good, pure food and healthy eating habits has finally paid off. Emily now manages the logistics for Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County where she is responsible for the distribution of 10 million pounds of food through 200 agencies and program sites. Previous to her work at the Food Bank, she played in the dirt professionally as the Regional Production Manager at Jacobs Farm/del Cabo, Inc. where she supervised over 500 acres of organic culinary herbs, edible flowers, and mixed vegetables. Farmer Freed’s passion is to inspire those around her to connect deeply with the earth and create sustainable intersections with their local, national, and international food systems. 

Emily earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon, where she double majored in Journalism and Communications, and Spanish. She received a Certificate in Ecological Horticulture from the University of California, Santa Cruz and remained on staff for another year as a teaching assistant. Additionally, Emily is a certified ServSafe Food Protection Manager.

People always ask Farmer Freed how she got into the salt business and the story goes something like this: One summer afternoon, after a long day in the field, Freed began imagining new ways to use the abundant culinary herbs around her.

As she glanced around her kitchen later that evening, she landed on a simple, versatile, and delicious idea of dropping a handful of culinary herbs into a bowl of Kosher salt sitting on the stove.

As the fragrant herbs and salt mixture swirled around in the metal bowl, she knew she was on to something big. Emily first taste tested the scrumptious salt mixture of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme on locally grown popcorn. The following afternoon, she biked samples to a few friends around town. Within a few days of receiving the Farmer Freed’s Everyday Herb Salt samples, Farmer Freed was inundated with requests for more. It was not long before Farmer Freed’s culinary salt blends ended up on shelves in Santa Cruz and in stores throughout the greater Bay Area.

Farmer Freed continues to create the culinary salt blends in the original metal bowl that she started with years ago.

As her Grandma Irma always said, “Enjoy it in the best of health.”