Authorities are investigating the sudden death of a Central Coast couple who pioneered the California coffee movement from their Santa Barbara County farm.
Jay and Kristen Ruskey, owners of Good Land Organics and co-founders of Frinj Coffee, died Sunday at a home in Cambria, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department confirmed Friday.
Authorities have not revealed how the couple died. Autopsies were performed Thursday and toxicology results are expected in a few weeks, said Tony Cipolla, public information officer for the Sheriff's Department.
“At this time the deaths do not appear suspicious,” Cipolla said.
A GoFundMe created to support members of the Ruskey family with funeral costs, memorial arrangements and other expenses had raised more than $133,000 as of Friday afternoon. The couple has three children: Kasurina, 19, Sean, 16, and Aiden, 16, according to the fundraiser.
The Ruskeys helped develop more than 65 coffee farms from Santa Barbara to north of San Diego that grow 14 varieties of coffee. Jay Ruskey was lauded as the first farmer to sell locally grown coffee in California.
Jay Ruskey founded Good Land Organics in the early 1990s, growing exotic fruits on a farm in Goleta. The couple launched their coffee brand, Frinj, in 2017.
The couple's coffee business took off after Jay Ruskey tried several times to plant coffee trees in 2002 with the goal of learning the best practices for growing coffee in Southern California.
“I've always been passionate about crop adaptation,” Ruskey told The Times in 2024. “I was working with the UC Cooperative Extension Service to plant lychee and longan when Dr. Mark Gaskell, an expert in small berry crops, gave me 40 coffee plants and encouraged me to try planting them next to other plants.”
In 2024, Frinj Coffee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming about $215,000 in assets and listing more than $1.8 million in liabilities, the Santa Barbara Independent reported. The company regained its position at the beginning of the year and, in January, was the first California-based coffee producer to compete at the Dubai Coffee Auction.
