Visionary La Conner business owner Linda Freed remembered

During the height of America’s running boom, Linda Freed eyed the La Conner waterfront as an ideal venue from which to launch what has proved for nearly four decades to be a pace-setting business model.

Her recipe blending a lifelong devotion to what some at the time viewed as opposites – baking and fitness – was the genesis of Calico Cupboard, the health-conscious café and bakery that today enjoys a loyal following at three Skagit Valley locations.

Freed, an award-winning business owner as well as accomplished hiker, mountain climber and equestrian, passed away last week at age 71 following a brief illness.

Her influence on the local scene will endure, insists Brenda Schmidt, Calico Cupboard’s general manager, among several of Freed’s staff who were with her for a generation or more.

“She was very much committed to doing things right,” Schmidt told La Conner Weekly News. “She was very creative and hard-working and had a vision for what she was doing that inspired others.”

That included her fellow business owners.

“My thoughts about Linda involve her blazing the trail for many of us who had businesses in La Conner,” said Cathie Wyman, who noted that Freed was the Skagit Women’s Alliance & Network (SWAN) Woman of the Year for 1998, recognized for her business acumen and public service.

“She was a dynamo and did a lot to bring people to La Conner,” noted Peter Goldfarb, who owned and operated the White Swan bed and breakfast and was active in the Chamber of Commerce here during much of the time Freed was a daily presence at Calico Cupboard.

“Along with the late Arberta Lammers,” Goldfarb said, “she was one of the best business owners I’ve known.”

The proof, Schmidt said, is in the numbers.

“You can see her impact immediately in the amount of jobs she provided,” said Schmidt. “She had 120 to 130 employees, and there are people who’ve been there for over 20 years. The majority of the core group has been around for years and years.”

It wasn’t always that way.

In the beginning, in 1981, it was Freed and her husband, Rod, who converted the former Dunlap Towing office building on First Street into what would ultimately become an expanded upscale diner along a historically blue-collar shoreline.

“I remember Linda telling me stories that when she first started out she would come in early to bake, go home to shower, and then come back to wait tables and work the counter,” Schmidt said.

Freed drew upon the same type of energy for her other pursuits.

“She put 100-plus per cent into everything,” recalled longtime neighbor Dean Swanson, who was witness to Freed’s equine interests. “She really cared about her animals. When she sold a horse it was hard for her to let go.

“When Linda built her beautiful horse barn in the ‘90s,” Swanson said, “she had a barn dance for her employees, friends and neighbors. And like anything to do with Linda it was fantastic.”

Her love of animals wasn’t limited to horses. It extended to household pets.

“One of the things she worked hard on other than her business,” said Bobbi Krebs-McMullen, project manager at La Conner Weekly News, “was the Skagit Humane Society.”

Civic causes didn’t escape Freed’s support, either. Krebs-McMullen remembered Freed regularly donating baked items to music events held at the Lincoln Theatre in downtown Mount Vernon.

Of course, being in the highly competitive restaurant industry, well known for its tight profit margins, Freed couldn’t always afford to be charitable. Schmidt said that Freed could be tough in business matters.

“She was very straight forward,” Schmidt said, “and had high expectations. If you met those, it was good. I liked that about her. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Freed frequently sought advice, but ultimately followed her instincts.

She saw a growing market for the healthy baked goods and fresh Skagit Valley menu items that had made Calico Cupboard in La Conner so popular. In 1992 she expanded to Anacortes.

Four years later, despite some counseling her against it, she brought Calico Cupboard inland to Mount Vernon. It was another successful move.

In 2004 she opened Seeds Bistro & Bar on Morris Street.

“When she was developing Seeds,” said Wyman, “she told me people thought she was crazy, but she had a concept that she was sure would work. And, as we all know, it did.”

Freed learned to bake from her grandmother, Schmidt said. She grew up seeing baking’s potential as part of a full, healthy and active lifestyle.

Others hadn’t yet made the connection, still linking bakery fare to stereotypical sugary cakes and doughnuts.

“She was never afraid to try something new,” said Schmidt, “She had a love for sharing good food and promoting fitness.”

Freed’s uniquely healthy outlook on life will be celebrated March 9 (4 p.m.) at Maple Hall.