Jamie DeMent

Jamie DeMent was raised in Eastern North Carolina. As she saw family farms disappearing and industrialized farming taking over, she searched for ways to revive the simplicity of eating healthy, locally grown food. In 2001, after completing her degree in Southern History and African American Studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, she became a Legislative Aid for Representative Brad Miller on Capitol Hill, then was a Director of Special Projects for the NC Museum of Natural Sciences where she supported fundraising efforts for the Nature Research Center. DeMent left the Museum to join Richard Holcomb at Coon Rock Farm. The couple also own Piedmont Restaurant in Durham, North Carolina, and nationwide food delivery business, Bella Bean Organics. Jamie’s days are spent writing about food and farming and planting, harvesting, cooking and selling products from her farm. Jamie has a cookbook, The Farmhouse Chef: Recipes and Stories from my Carolina Farm, published by UNC Press. She is also a guest lecturer at UNC Chapel Hill, NC State University, Duke University, and teaches cooking classes throughout the country. Jamie was recently named one of North Carolina’s “Outstanding Women in Business” for 2016, was in the “40 Under 40” Class for 2017 by the Triangle Business Journal and has had featured articles and recipes in several magazines.

​