Along California’s Central Coast, where ocean air meets fertile valleys, One Tree Hill Farms is reimagining what modern farming can be. The company’s creative director and sustainability strategist, Shery Zarnegin, is working to bring forgotten farmland back to fruition.
Shery’s artistic direction, brand storytelling, and innovative thinking shape the One Tree Hill Farms’ identity, influence its product development, and position it as one of the new voices in California’s regenerative agriculture scene.
How It All Started
The story began in 2017. Entrepreneur Edvin Ovasapyan and creative director Shery Zarnegin took over a struggling avocado farm on California’s Central Coast. Edvin’s experience in management and development led him to believe that the farm had a chance to transform and grow. And Shery’s strategic and creative abilities showed her the potential to reimagine the concept. So Shery came up with an idea for a profitable farm that would also be meaningful, attractive, and relevant to today’s consumers, combining her experience in design, sustainability, and brand development.
The entrepreneurs made a bold choice: pairing premium Geisha coffee with Hass avocados in a shared ecosystem. Shery and Edvin led the creation of One Tree Hill Farms as a platform for regenerative farming, storytelling, and environmental awareness, turning the farm’s natural assets into a living brand.
The farm now produces an average of 100,000 pounds of avocados and 5,000 pounds of coffee a year. So, creative farming can produce results even on abandoned land.
Using Regenerative Practices to Restore Land
Regenerative farming is not just a trend – it’s a movement. The market could be worth $49 billion by 2034, according to Insight Ace Analytic. As it grows, so does its popularity. Shery sees it as a kind of ecological and cultural healing for agriculture. When she came to One Tree Hill Farms, she began promoting a closed-loop farming philosophy that focuses on integrating crops and minimizing both waste and artificial fertilizers.
Under her leadership, the farm implemented tactics:
– Rotate crops to maintain biodiversity and ensure stable yields.
– Protect delicate coffee plants with natural systems such as avocado foliage shading.
– Create compost and nutrient cycles that prioritize soil regeneration.
– Encourage natural pest resistance through crop diversity.
– Share these strategies in a way that motivates and informs others.
Shery’s influence positioned the farm as a replicable model of long-term, scalable sustainability.
Transforming Neglected Coastlines into Productive Farms
While many saw coastal parcels as too difficult or unprofitable to restore, Shery viewed them as blank canvases. She brought a designer’s eye to land rehabilitation – treating each new site as an opportunity to blend ecological function with aesthetic and cultural relevance.
Through careful planning, storytelling, and emphasis on microclimate optimization, she transformed degraded hillsides into living systems that produce food, restore ecosystems, and connect emotionally with communities.
Breathing New Life into California’s Legacy Farms
Farming in California has been challenging due to economic pressures, water restrictions, and a high rate of bankruptcies. Edvin and Shery’s multiple properties are helping them rekindle long-standing agricultural roots, some of which have been abandoned for years. The entrepreneurs are determined to respect the past rather than erase it. Their work now involves modernizing while preserving the character of these historic sites using zero-waste planning, renewable energy, and green infrastructure.
Beyond biology, Edvin and Shery’s regenerative vision focuses on cultural continuity, educational opportunities, and visual storytelling that reconnects people with the land.
Building Synergy Between Avocados and Coffee
Combining Hass avocados and Geisha coffee was one of Shery’s most creative ideas. It resulted in a kind of plant symbiosis and gave the farm several economic and environmental benefits:
– Reduced irrigation and fertilization costs.
– Natural protection of the coffee tree canopy.
– Improved soil health and microbial activity.
– Greater biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.
– Diversification, multiple revenue streams.
Shery’s creativity also helped develop new ways to work with cascara, an often undervalued but beneficial crop used in beverages and other products. As a strategist, Shery used this knowledge to develop a new line of specialty products and to market to interested customers.
Creating Long-Term Economic and Environmental Value
Shery’s vision and Edvin’s approach link profit with purpose. Their strategies have reduced input costs, increased brand visibility, and opened doors to new markets – from fine foods and functional wellness to eco-tourism and education.
More importantly, Shery’s work helped to generate local seasonal jobs, supported environmental literacy, and elevated the broader conversation around what sustainable farming can look like in the modern era.
Vision for the Future
Entrepreneurial Edvin Ovasapyan has plans to scale up to 300,000 Hass avocado trees and 300,000 Geisha coffee trees. The farm manager is confident that this is possible in the near future. Shery’s strategy is helping to make this happen. Through design, storytelling, and eco-innovation, it sets a new standard for what it means to farm the land in the 21st century. Its message is clear: forgotten places don’t need pity – they need imagination.