Jay Ruskey. Daily Coffee News 2020 archive photo by Joe Proudman/UC Davis, courtesy of Frinj Coffee.
John “Jay” Ruskey and Kristen Ruskey, the married couple behind Good Land Organics and pioneers in the California-grown specialty coffee movement through Frinj Coffee, died on Sunday, Feb. 8, in Cambria, California.
A spokesperson for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff”s Office told Daily Coffee News that the case is under investigation and that “the deaths do not appear to be suspicious.”
A Gofundme campaign in support of the Ruskeys’ three children and funeral costs described the couple as “caring and generous members of our community, always eager to support schools, causes, and friends” and as “loving and fiercely engaged parents to their cherished children.”
“We are all at a loss to navigate this unimaginable tragedy, but we are reaching out for support to help the Ruskey family with funeral costs, memorial arrangements, and to alleviate immediate financial pressure,” organizer Jose Caballero wrote.
A longtime organic- and sustainability-focused farmer, Jay Ruskey was a driving force in the California-grown arabica coffee movement through his company Frinj Coffee and a network of approximately 70 farms from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
Frinj Coffee grew out of Good Land Organics, the exotic fruit farm that the Ruskeys owned just west of Goleta. After Good Land began experimenting with growing coffee in 2012, Jay Ruskey incorporated Frinj in 2017 and brought its first microlots of California green coffee to market, capturing the attention of high-end roasters throughout the country. More recently, the Frinj name captured international attention by fetching $256 per kilogram ($116 per pound) for a 20-kilogram lot of fully washed Gesha-variety coffee at the DMCC Dubai Coffee Auction.
In an Instagram post today, Frinj Coffee described Ruskey as “a genius for organic agriculture.”
“When the world said California couldn’t produce coffee, he proved them wrong when one of his coffees made history as the first coffee from California to be sold at an international auction,” the company wrote.
In a 2020 interview with Daily Coffee News, Ruskey described his career-long involvement with California’s sustainable agriculture movement. Ruskey also remained an advocate for farmers throughout the coffee world, from high-end boutique farms in the mainland United States to conventional smallholder farms in Latin America, Africa and beyond.
“Farms growing coffee in Guatemala and the Congo get under 5% of the total value of their crop back,” Ruskey told DCN in 2020. “Then, you factor in that the crop takes four years before it gets to production and turns a profit. It’s insane how this system sustains itself when small farmers with commodity prices are held so low.”
Frinj said today that the company plans to continue Ruskey’s legacy despite the “devastating loss.”
“To those of us who knew him and worked with him, he was more than just our CEO,” the company wrote. “He was a best friend, and to some, a father figure. He was as much a larger-than-life inspiration as he was a down-to-earth friend.”
As of this publication, the Gofundme campaign to support the family had raised over $125,000.
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