By Amely Greeven
“I know what perfect looks like,” Kelly Meyer says, laughing at the tangles of corn and squash, cornucopia of salad greens, and glorious bevies of sunflowers and dahlias growing on her California field of dreams called OneSun Farms. “And this ain’t perfect!” But after emigrating from the epicenter of Hollywood to a small hot spot of organic and biodynamic farming above the Pacific Ocean, Meyer has fully surrendered to nature’s way of doing things. Perfect doesn’t matter much at all to nature—rich, microbe-filled soil and riots of biodiversity do.
Meyer created her second life in food and farming after her world changed suddenly. She had raised her family at the top of the Hollywood food chain as the wife of a major industry executive, had devoted herself to environmental advocacy and fundraising, and was known for her ability to gather people for great causes. But finding herself unexpectedly single in her 50s, Meyer seized the chance to reinvent herself. She listened to a clear and present inner voice that ordered her to get down to earth. Plant a garden, it said.
“I’m an instigator by nature,” Meyer confesses with a chuckle. She had already created a nationwide project of installing teaching gardens at schools, fueled by a mission to broaden access to healthy eating and inspired, perhaps, by her maternal lineage of Colorado women farmers. When she stumbled across a few forgotten acres of tired land tucked in an old neighborhood in the Malibu hills, Meyer had a vision of abundance. She knew that with the right regenerative practices, and a little time, she could coax life from it—and lots of fresh, organic food.
The land was sandwiched between two properties owned by expert organic and biodynamic farmers who mentored Meyer in the art of stewarding soil. By planting cover crops of clover and dumping loads of compost, she and her small crew restarted the natural cycles that had gone to sleep and began planting. Spurred on by her daughter, Meyer also threw herself into creating a one-woman granola and snack company, also called OneSun. “It is a first, very small step to get more nutrient-dense nutrition from organic and regenerative growers into our food system,” she says, adding that her greater goal is to expand the healthy food sector through scaled up production and affordable products.
Several years into her regenerative project, Meyer is reaping the rewards. “Food grows like crazy here,” she enthuses. Her bounty finds its way into the local restaurant scene and home kitchens via her neighboring Thorne Family Farms. Moreover, Meyer is making OneSun Farms a nexus for conversations about regeneration and authentic experiences of community. At a recent Goop beauty launch held on the farm, Meyer had a flotilla of manicured influencers scattering biodynamic compost on the earth and blessing the fields in unison. “They had the best day ever!” she says. At a “friendraiser” for the agricultural transformation project Farmer’s Footprint, an audience of Angelenos dropped their hustle and communed wholeheartedly. OneSun Farms has become a much-needed touch point of reconnection for others. “I can get them here,” Meyer says, acknowledging her well-honed skills of creating events to remember—“and then nature does the rest.” onesunfarms.com
