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 in 2007 to join her husband, Richard Holcomb, at Coon Rock Farm. The couple also own Piedmont Restaurant in Durham, North Carolina.
Jamie’s days are spent writing about food and farming and planting, harvesting, cooking and selling products from her farm. Jamie’s first cookbook, The Farmhouse Chef: Recipes and Stories from my Carolina Farm, came out in Fall 2017 from UNC Press. Jamie’s second book, Canning in the Modern Kitchen came out in August 2018 from Rodale Books, a division of Penguin Random House. She is also a guest lecturer at UNC Chapel Hill, NC State University, Duke University, and teaches cooking classes around the country. Jamie was recently named one of North Carolina’s “Outstanding Women in Business” for 2016 and was in the 2017 “40 Under 40” class by the Triangle Business Journal and has had featured articles and recipes in many local, regional and national publications. Jamie is also a regular contributor to cooking segments on the Hallmark Channel Home & Family show.