In the carefree 1960s and ‘70s, California’s verdant Malibu canyons became a hot spot for counterculture movements, drawing iconic creative figures who sought refuge from the bustling city life of Los Angeles and elsewhere. The region’s winding trails, hidden groves, and panoramic vistas provided the perfect backdrop for open-minded expression and collaboration. Legendary musicians like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Jim Morrison found inspiration in the serene landscape, writing classic songs that reflected the spirit of the times.
THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY within the canyons throughout the Santa Monica Mountains was infectious, with informal gatherings, jam sessions, and impromptu art shows becoming commonplace. This creative camaraderie extended beyond music. Visual artists painted, sculpted, and architects built eclectic spaces that harmonized with the natural surroundings. Writers penned novels and screenplays, their words infused with the mystique of the canyons.
In 1971, the young reflective writer Joan Didion landed there with her husband, at the end of Trancas Canyon Road just yards away from Broad Beach where she penned a lot of her most well-known work, including her book of essays “The White Album.” In it, she references Amado Vazquez, an orchid farmer at Arthur Freed Orchids, named after the Hollywood producer. Vazquez and Didion had a special relationship, with him granting her access to the peaceful greenhouses on the property for the purchase of a nickel pansy. There, Didion would ensconce herself among the orchids in an oxygen bubble to write free from distractions. In “The White Album,” she wrote of her fondness for greenhouses, and the ones at Arthur Freed Orchids in particular: “Back in this canyon near my house twenty-five years later were what seemed to me the most beautiful greenhouses in the world — the most aqueous filtered light, the softest tropical air, the most silent clouds of flowers.”
Forty-five years after “The White Album” was published, Arthur Freed Orchids and the greenhouses once filled with yawning flowers that Didion revered are a thing of the past. In their place today stands Zuma Canyon Orchids, a multipurpose space that’s described on its website as “a regenerative farm, educational center, apothecary, and center for the arts.” With a focus on regenerative farming, the compound aims to boost soil health, raise livestock, and grow a bounty of produce.



1. Harrison carries a Stan Bitters planter; Bitters’ distinctive work is all around the property.
2. The apothecary and dinner under the moonlight.
3. (left to right): Jeffrey Hutchinson, Connor Matts, Jess Karpiak, Harrison, Jahangard, and Augunas.
“The last chapter of ‘The White Album’ was about this property,” Kevin Augunas, a founder and land steward at Zuma Canyon Orchids, tells me on my visit to the farm as we sit around a table in the apothecary housed in the old tractor barn. Dried, muted-yellow chrysanthemums — which flourished in the area after the destructive Woolsey Fire of 2018 — hang from the rustic ceiling, while a still sits in the corner, and on the table it’s hard to ignore the pungent scent of handmade soaps, made with ingredients grown on the farm.
It was important to Augunas, when he started Zuma Canyon Orchids in 2020, that his new project honored the former orchid farm that once stood there. Before getting into farming, Augunas himself fit the mold of many before him who visited or lived in the area. He had a storied career as the owner of the label Fairfax Recordings and a music producer who nurtured the careers of artists like The Lumineers, Cold War Kids, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. After leaving the music business in 2016, Augunas became passionate about agriculture as he learned more about the connection between our health and the quality of the food we eat. That passion was reinforced when his father died at 53, prompting him to prioritize a healthier lifestyle. So when Augunas learned that the orchid farm became available, he had the idea to explore an agricultural project there. And he called two people to make it happen.



1. Augunas harvests one of the more than 100 varieties of fruit and nuts.
2. Jahangard appreciates the spring bounty.
3. The property’s original 1963 post-and-beam guest house.
The first person Augunas rang was Trevor Jahangard, then the director of agricultural operations at Apricot Lane Farms, a unicorn regenerative farm made famous in the 2019 Netflix documentary, “The Biggest Little Farm.” It’s also where Augunas met Jahangard, while he was visiting the Moorpark, California, property. Jahangard — who is now farm manager at Zuma Canyon Orchids — got into farming after a life-altering experience when he was bitten by a kinkajou while working as an animal trainer in his early 20s. A lifetime of consuming inflammation-inducing high-carbohydrate and sugary foods didn’t mix well with the medications he was taking to heal the wounds on his hands and fingers, and it wasn’t until he saw an Eastern medicine doctor that he ditched carbs from his diet and started feeling better. “It opened my mind to what healthy food actually is. I was always into animals and sustainable environmental practices, so that experience is what led me on the path to farming,” he tells me, speaking about how he learned to use food as medicine.
Jahangard’s time at Apricot Lane Farms was a master class in understanding the potential of dedicating one’s life to all the nuances of regenerative farming, fueled by a personal passion for the canon of experts in the field. “I was going home and watching YouTube learning from Joel Salatin and Gabe Brown in that world, and Christine Jones and Nicole Masters and John Kempf. The list goes on and builds off of [William] Albrecht and all these older names,” Jahangard says. After working at Apricot Lane Farms for seven-and-a-half years, he left to start his own consulting business focused on regenerative agriculture.
That switch in 2021 led Jahangard to meet Augunas, who needed boots on the ground to reimagine the avocado orchards next to the famed greenhouses on the land. “I helped plant the plants and made sure the livestock were run correctly and holistically managed,” Jahangard explains. Now, he adds, “I’m looking at the ecosystem restoration and planting companion plants to make sure we have diversity and soil health.”



1. A granite orchard table sits among the avocado groves.
2. Soaps made by Hutchinson in the apothecary.
3. Gina bundles freshly foraged herbs and flowers in the apothecary for the “Things for Burning” collection.
The results are impressive. As you wander the 10-acre property, the diversity is evident. “We have over 100 different varieties of fruits, nuts, and berries — 950 [trees] in total,” Jahangard says. “We have a small livestock operation. We have vegetables. We’re letting the cover crops and weeds grow and then inviting the sheep to graze on it,” he adds, noting that focusing on boosting soil health is an important part of his role on the farm.
The second person Augunas called was Neil Harrison. Another creative with an interest in agriculture who is now a partner at Zuma Canyon Orchids, Harrison has a decades-long career in apparel design ranging from his start at Quiksilver to the first 15 years of Volcom, and once owned an avocado farm when he became disenchanted by the clothing industry. During my visit to Zuma Canyon Orchids, Harrison turns down the frenetic Charles Mingus jazz riffs emanating from the stereo to share stories of how he and Augunas became fast friends. After Harrison created the logo for Fairfax Recordings, the two bonded on surf trips to Costa Rica, and stayed in touch, waiting for the right opportunity to work together again. Years later, that opportunity turned out to be Zuma Canyon Orchids.



1. Artist Jonathan Cross and some of his hanging vessels.
2. Garden boxes that track the path of the sun.
3. Hutchinson distills essential oil from lavender.
For now, as the regenerative compound continues to evolve, it operates under the auspices of a sharing community. Both Jahangard and Augunas are eager to point out the long list of their friends who have visited the farm to contribute their knowledge as the team continues to build Zuma’s legacy at their own pace. Their collective connections have opened the doors for various artists to contribute to the surroundings in a natural way that seamlessly integrates with the environment. For example, famed sculptor Stan Bitters made inviting bulbous ceramic birdhouses that are placed around the property. Artist Ido Yoshimoto, who trained under sculptor JB Blunk, carved an offering bowl and ceramicist Jonathan Cross made brutalist stools that sit near a long, serpentine table that a local worker carved by chainsaw from a fallen eucalyptus tree. “We like to support our friends and the artists who make stuff for the farm that we can share with other people. Those artists in turn become more visible which creates a symbiosis,” Augunas adds.


1. Lifting the orchard table into avocado groves.
2. Artist Ido Yoshimoto carves an offering bowl from a fallen eucalyptus tree on the property.
Another friend who has gotten involved with Zuma Canyon Orchids is Jeffrey Hutchinson, the director of the apothecary, who has a background in herbalism and botany. Speaking in a calm and meditative tone, Hutchinson describes what he does at Zuma as “ethnobotany,” adding that he looks “at traditional uses of plants on the land, the traditional uses of the land itself, and the ecology of the land.” Hutchinson and Jahangard are in constant contact, exchanging insights on ecology and exploring what can be crafted from the farm. “My job here is to maximize the harvest,” Hutchinson adds, pointing out that you can easily sell a plump green avocado but also use the oil from that fruit to make soap. While nothing Hutchinson has made is yet for sale, he teases a list of shareable offerings ranging from candles, teas, tinctures, incense, and other products sourced directly from the land.
As Augunas notes, good things take time to come together. He adds that he and the team are calling the through line of what they’re practicing at Zuma Canyon Orchids “ancient future technologies.” The small team comes and goes as they please, seemingly free yet connected to the land, like the creative communities that have come before them. “It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s anything and everything at the same time,” Harrison says of the compound. “When I’m here my days are multifaceted where sometimes I’ll be working on soap packaging with Jeff [Hutchinson] or running up to the house to talk to someone about how the [kitchen] tiles are laid out or designing garden boxes.” Augunas adds that Harrison “makes everything come together like a story.”
It’s easy to see that Augunas understands people and how to put them in the same room to galvanize ideas. At Zuma Canyon Orchids, he, Harrison, and Jahangard work like a band, each bringing a different set of skills to the stage until everything starts to harmonize.