Authorities are investigating the sudden deaths of a Central Coast couple who pioneered California’s coffee-growing motion from their Santa Barbara County farm.
Jay and Kristen Ruskey, homeowners of Good Land Organics and co-founders of Frinj Espresso, died Sunday at a house in Cambria, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Division confirmed Friday.
Authorities haven’t launched how the couple died. Autopsies have been carried out Thursday and toxicology outcomes are anticipated in a couple of weeks, stated Tony Cipolla, public info officer for the Sheriff’s Division.
“At the moment, the deaths don’t seem like suspicious,” Cipolla stated.
A GoFundMe created to assist the Ruskey relations with funeral prices, memorial preparations and different bills had raised greater than $133,000 as of Friday afternoon. The couple has three kids: Kasurina, 19, Sean, 16 and Aiden, 16, in line with the fundraiser.
The Ruskeys helped develop greater than 65 espresso farms from Santa Barbara to north of San Diego that develop 14 types of espresso. Jay Ruskey was lauded as the primary farmer to promote regionally grown espresso in California.
Jay Ruskey established Good Land Organics within the early Nineties, rising unique fruit at a farm in Goleta. The couple launched their espresso model, Frinj, in 2017.
The couple’s espresso enterprise took off after Jay Ruskey tried a number of occasions to plant espresso bushes in 2002 with a objective of studying one of the best practices for rising espresso in Southern California.
“I’ve at all times been keen about crop adaptation,” Ruskey informed The Instances in 2024. “I used to be working with the UC Cooperative Extension Service to plant lychee and longans when Dr. Mark Gaskell, a small berry crop knowledgeable, gave me 40 espresso vegetation and inspired me to strive planting them aspect by aspect with different vegetation.”
In 2024, Frinj Espresso filed for Chapter 11 chapter, claiming about $215,000 in property whereas itemizing greater than $1.8 million in liabilities, the Santa Barbara Unbiased reported. The corporate regained its footing firstly of the 12 months and, in January, it was the primary California-based espresso grower to ever compete within the Dubai Espresso Public sale.
