How Bloom Ranch is helping guests rethink their relationship with food and healing

When you get off the 14 Freeway to Bloom Ranch in Acton, a small unincorporated community on the northeastern edge of LA County, the landscape opens up to a peaceful expanse of desert. Nestled here, among the dirt roads and long stretches of land dotted with the occasional home, lies the Bloom Ranch, a 250-acre property that became the site. the largest owned by Black the farm in the region while Dr. Bill Releford bought it in 2023.

Neat rows of collard greens and kale stretch across irrigated beds, while orchards of peach trees — the farm’s signature fruit — appear throughout. In just two years, the farm has become a beacon for Black Angelenos and visitors looking for community and a deeper understanding of farming.

The farm was founded in 1891 by the Swiss mason George Blum, and remained in his family for five generations until 2018. Another farming family, the Zieglers, operated the ranch until Releford bought it, and renamed it Bloom Ranch in honor of the original owner.

Releford, a pediatric surgeon, artist and writer committed to reconnecting communities with land and food, often wonders if his ancestors would be proud.

“The economic power of this country is built on enslaved Africans,” he said. “As the third ruler of this country, I think in 1891, what was the condition of our people at that time? What was the life of my grandfather? And I think, would they be proud of me to know that their great-grandson, or a child, has been handed over the scepter of governing such a large country?”

Visitors can explore Bloom Ranch on guided walking and driving tours that pass through orchards and fields while tracing the ranch’s history. Releford, or another member of the group leading the tour, shares stories of early homesteaders, Black agricultural pioneers and the evolution of the land over a century. Visitors often reflect on their own family histories — land lost, traditions carried forward — and leave with a new sense of stewardship, Releford said.

Dr. Bill Releford, owner of Bloom Ranch.

Lavender grows in thick, sweet-smelling thickets along the tourist trail and is included in the soaps sold at the local store. Chickens roam the enclosure, laying eggs from bowls for Sunday dinner. Depending on the season, the fields are filled with various vegetables, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes and peppers, while herbs such as basil, black sage, rosemary and marjoram scent the gardens.

According to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture, black farmers do about 1.5% of all US farms and worked on about 0.6% of the nation’s farms, a dramatic decline about 15 percent in 1920. In California, the same census they recorded only a few hundred Black farm workers across the country, among more than 60,000 farms.

The descent did not happen by chance. For more than a century, Black farmers have been like that systematic loan rejectionexcluded from government assistance programs and displaced by discriminatory policies and legal loopholes. At the same time, many black neighborhoods were hit hard road reconstruction, subsidence and highway constructionto separate economic stability and reduced access to green spaces and fresh food.

On the contrary, Releford’s stewardship of 250 hectares has more than an agricultural meaning. It reads like a return.

“The innovations of black farmers like George Washington Carver and Fannie Lou Hamer inspire me every day,” he said. “Their work was always about more than plants. It was about empowering people and life. Bloom Ranch embodies that legacy, honoring and using practices like Carver’s crop rotation and soil health methods.”

Chicken coop at Bloom Ranch. Simone Taylor celebrates her birthday with her friends at a Sunday jazz brunch at Bloom Ranch. Kellie McCann who works on the farm walks with the dogs of Dr. Bill Releford Bodie and Cosmo as guests Rika Talbert and Kev Brown enjoy time with them.

Born in Oklahoma in “a little cotton town between Tulsa and Muskogee,” Releford was raised on a farm by his parents, grandparents and uncle. He made his first quarter picking cotton at a young age.

“I remember my grandmother raising chickens, cows and horses, growing vegetables, beans and sweet potatoes,” he said. “Since I was young, I was taught to farm, not even knowing that I would depend on it in the way that I think.”

Releford later moved to Los Angeles, where, as a podiatric surgeon specializing in amputation prevention and limb preservation in high-risk areas, he saw firsthand how diet shapes long-term outcomes.

It is an idea that later informed his book, “Real Farm-acy: 5 colors a day to a Better Life.” While hosting health fairs throughout Los Angeles County, Releford began incorporating farmers markets into the events, working with Black farmers to increase access to fresh produce in their neighborhoods where it was often limited. Those efforts eventually led him to purchase the Bloom Ranch.

“One of the most unique things about Bloom Ranch is that in our entire 135-year history, pesticides have never been used here,” he said. “Our fruits and vegetables are grown organically using time-tested methods such as complementary planting, choosing plant combinations that naturally repel pests and enrich the soil.”

The farm has inspired countless visitors to rethink their relationship with food, like one group of women who visited the farm to support a friend’s health journey after being diagnosed with breast cancer. They are all committed to getting their vegetables from Bloom Ranch as part of his healing process.

“Stories like that are precious to me,” said Releford.

A view of the peach orchard and grape vineyard at Bloom Ranch. Jordan Wright (right), tour guide at Bloom Ranch, picks oregano for guests Nakesha and Alfonso Nicks. A Blooms Bounty box of discarded vegetables.

The farm offers produce boxes for local and online purchase, including subscription options, as well as house-made pantry items – extra virgin olive oil, hand soap, peach and vanilla spreads, sun-dried tomatoes, spice mixes, essential oils and a variety of vinegars, all using ingredients grown on the farm.

April Marie Holland, self-care coach and host of “Treat Him With Care” podcastfound spending time at Bloom Ranch deeply rejuvenating since his first visit in 2024.

“Being outside — with nature, food, and seeing all the different aspects of farming on tour — feels like warmth, feels like care, and like this is a safe place to just be,” Holland said. “It’s deeper than just shopping or hanging out. It feels like a welcome — like this is my family’s farm.”

Not only did Holland feel better physically, she credits buying groceries from the farm for sparking new excitement and creativity in her cooking routine. “I’ve never had a peach so good – it’s good. I’ve made peaches.”

Releford also runs the Food Is Medicine program, a partnership with UCLA and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, which provides specialty produce boxes targeted for specific clinical needs. For example, the “stone box” for urology patients is full of herbs to help prevent kidney stones.

Jeron “Jax” Jackson, owner of Jax the Barber Lounge in Inglewoodtraveled more than 200 miles round trip from Moreno Valley with his wife to attend Bloom Ranch’s weekly Sunday jazz and champagne brunch.

“I’ve never been to a place where the owner comes out to greet you and make you feel like you’re family,” said Jackson. “Just being able to relax and be our own guardians was really amazing.”

Drinks are served at the Sunday jazz brunch at Bloom Ranch. Victor Burke, partner at the ranch, mingles with guests attending the Sunday jazz brunch at Bloom Ranch. Herbie Kae on saxaphone. Guests at the Sunday jazz brunch at Bloom Ranch enjoyed fried chicken and peach cobbler.

Bloom Ranch is a family affair. Releford’s children, nieces, nephews and cousins ​​all contributed to its success. His daughter Akilah Releford-Gouldwith a thriving social media presence showcasing her homemaking and winemaking events, she has become an integral part of Bloom Ranch’s online presence.

“Not everyone might have access to farms, but I feel like it might encourage people to say, ‘Hey, why can’t I see my local farmers market or the farmers market near me?'” Releford-Gould said. He also lends his expertise to the winery, Casa Locé in Ojai, which produces rosé and sparkling Chardonnay under his Lucky Girl label.

Every year, the farm honors Black history with a Juneteenth celebration — Leimert Park drummers bless the land during the 2025 event. Last year, the farm threw a themed Halloween party in honor of Ryan Coogler’s “They are sinners.”

When thinking about the future of Bloom Ranch, Releford leans on the wisdom of the world. In moments of solitude he says he feels the presence and wisdom of those who came before him.

“The guidance I need for the future is often already there, handed down from past generations,” he says. “That living connection shapes everything we do and reminds me that farming is as much about memory and heritage as it is about food.”

Bill Releford chats with one of his employees at the end of a Sunday jazz dinner at Bloom Ranch.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)