Food Forestry
From Neglected Orchard to Food Forest:
What Regenerative Growing Means to Us
There's a moment, walking through the orchard in the early morning, when you can almost hear it working. Birds moving between the avocado and citrus trees. Mulch breaking down into soil. Roots growing underground that no one can see but everything above ground depends on. This is what a food forest looks like — not a farm laid out in tidy rows, but a living system where every part feeds and supports every other part.
We were honored to be featured in Edible San Diego's piece on food forestry, and we wanted to take a moment on our own blog to talk about what that concept means to us, and why it's at the center of everything we do here.
What is a food forest?
A food forest is exactly what it sounds like: an edible landscape modeled after a natural forest ecosystem, where trees, plants, fungi, and soil life all work together instead of being managed in isolation. Instead of a single crop grown in rows and propped up with synthetic inputs, a food forest layers companion plants, encourages beneficial pollinators and fungi, and lets the land's own intelligence do a lot of the work.
It's a different way of thinking about a farm. Less about control, more about partnership.
Our path to becoming a food forest
When we first took on this land, the orchard was in rough shape. Three years of neglect had left the avocado, citrus, and pecan trees crowded out by weeds, the soil depleted, and — according to at least one expert at the time — some trees that would likely never bear fruit again.
Rather than starting over, we started underground. We focused on rebuilding the soil, introducing companion planting, and doing the slow, unglamorous work of regenerative land care: no harsh chemicals, mulch instead of bare dirt, and space for the mycelium and microbial life that make an orchard actually thrive to come back. That decision — to work with the land's ecosystem instead of against it — is what took us from a struggling orchard to a food forest.
The results have spoken for themselves. What started as a handful of trees producing a modest crop has grown, season after season, into an orchard that's healthier, more productive, and more alive than it's been in years with all the trees producing.
Why it matters
We believe the way land is cared for shows up in the food it grows, and in how that food makes you feel. A food forest isn't just a more sustainable way to grow — it's a more honest one. It trusts that the earth already knows how to do this, and that our job is mostly to get out of the way and support the systems already at work underground. Nutrient rich soil produces nutrient rich food.
It's also, we think, part of why time spent here feels different. When you're surrounded by a living, working ecosystem instead of a manicured landscape, something in you settles. That's not an accident. It's the whole point.
A love letter to Edible San Diego
We've long admired Edible San Diego for the way they tell the stories of the people and land behind our region's food — with care, curiosity, and real reporting. Being included in their food forestry feature, alongside so many farms and growers we respect, meant a great deal to us. It's a publication we've followed and trusted for years, and having our small corner of Valley Center included in that conversation is something we're genuinely proud of.
If you haven't read the full piece, we'd encourage you to — it digs into Indigenous stewardship of native trees, the underground fungal networks that hold orchards together, and the growers across San Diego County working to expand our region's tree canopy. Read "Food Forestry" on Edible San Diego →
And if reading about it makes you want to see it, walk it, and taste it for yourself — we'd love to have you. Come stay with us, wander the food forest, and experience what regenerative land care actually feels like underfoot.