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I was shocked beyond belief on Monday evening when a text came through from a friend announcing a GoFundMe campaign in memory of Jay and Kristen Ruskey , the couple who pioneered the most adventurous crops in California — including coffee trees and caviar limes — from their Good Land Organics farm in western Goleta. They died together suddenly sometime Sunday morning while visiting friends in Cambria, leaving behind three teenage children and their groundbreaking company, Frinj Coffee .
I’d just been emailing Jay about his trip to the Dubai Coffee Auction a couple weeks before, when he was excited to present Frinj on the world’s most coveted coffee stage. I’ve been following and writing about their work for more than a decade, including this in-depth cover story from 2021 .