From Fruit to Future: Redefining What Belongs With Katey Jo Evans

Katey Jo Evans used both creativity and innovation to reshape how people see agriculture through her business, The Frozen Farmer.

The fruit was still good.

It was sweet, ripe and ready to eat — but it would never make it to a grocery shelf. On Evans Farms in Bridgeville, Del., bins of watermelons and cantaloupes sat just slightly too small, too misshapen, too imperfect for retail standards. To most, it was a waste. But to Katey Jo Evans, it was a question: Who decided what was “good enough?”

That question would eventually grow into The Frozen Farmer, a brand built on transforming “imperfect” fruit into ice cream and sorbet. Long before it became a business, it was simply a conversation — one that began around a farming family’s Sunday supper table, where Evans, her husband and her young daughters wrestled with a problem many in agriculture quietly accept: perfectly valuable products went unused simply because they lacked perfection.

For members of the National FFA Organization, that instinct — to question, to innovate, to lead — feels familiar. But for young women in agriculture, that journey has not always been as clearly defined. When FFA was founded in 1928, female members were not included. It wasn’t until 1969 — more than 40 years later — that women were officially admitted.

Since then, they have transformed the organization, now making up nearly half of all members nationwide. Yet numbers alone do not tell the full story. Because even today, many young women walk into rooms where they feel underestimated and unsure if their voice carries the same weight.

Evans knows that feeling well. As she began building her business alongside her mom, she realized that being a woman in agriculture and entrepreneurship often meant having to prove herself before she was heard. There were moments of doubt — moments where her ideas were questioned or her presence overlooked. Instead of stepping back, she stepped forward.

“It pushed us to be more prepared and more confident in our voice,” Evans says. Confidence, she learned, is not something you wait for. It is something you build.

At 3:00 a.m., Evans stood in line in New York City with hundreds of entrepreneurs, waiting for a chance to pitch on Shark Tank. Months later, she was selected from more than 43,000 applicants. Nine months after that, she stood in California, sharing her story with a global audience — and secured a deal. People listened.

The Frozen Farmer, a female-owned business, was met with a “yes” on Shark Tank by Lori Greiner in March, 2020.

After her episode aired in March 2020, messages flooded in from across the country and around the world. Curious consumers who had never stepped foot on a farm were suddenly asking questions, seeking understanding and connecting with agriculture in a new way.

At home, Evans and her daughters began coloring in a map, marking where people were reaching out from. Soon, the United States filled in, followed by countries around the world. Now, she was no longer just building a business; she was bridging a gap.

“There’s a huge disconnect between people and agriculture,” Evans says. “But when you give them a story, they start asking questions.”

In 2021, she sat on a national food industry panel at the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s Global Food Forum. Surrounded by leaders across the food system, she noticed something striking — there were no other farmers, and she was the only woman at the table. For Evans, that moment wasn’t discouraging — it was defining.

“It’s about creating a path that maybe didn’t exist before,” she says. That path now extends beyond the farm.

On June 14, 2024, Evans published Kenna, the Produce Princess: The Crown of Confidence, inspired by her daughter. The book encourages young girls to see themselves in agriculture — to believe they can be anything, from wearing a crown to working in the field.

Katey Jo teaches her daughters the importance of advocacy, confidence, and courage by being a role model herself.

For Evans, representation matters, and confidence must be modeled before it can be believed. For young women in agriculture, especially FFA members, her story is a reminder that leadership doesn’t start with having all the answers; it starts with taking the first step.

“You don’t always need all of the answers,” Evans says. “You just need the willingness to take that first step.”

Back on the farm, the fruit is still imperfect, but it is no longer wasted. Now, it is transformed into something meaningful, something valuable, and something seen. In many ways, the voices of women in agriculture are rising — one story, one step, and one voice at a time, just like that of Evans.