About the Farm

The Farm and the Experience

Blue Heron Farm is a working regenerative farm in Bishop, California. It is a place where food is grown with care, seasons are honored, and community is part of the work.

The farm is home to a thousand plus fruit trees, mixed vegetable fields, chickens, rabbits, and open space meant to be walked, explored, and enjoyed. We grow food for our CSA, our farm stand, and our local community using practices that focus on soil health, biodiversity, and long term resilience.

When you arrive, the pace shifts. Things slow down. You step out of the noise and into a living landscape shaped by seasons, weather, and daily care.

You will walk through the orchard with fruit overhead and soil under your feet. You might pick up your CSA box, wander the farm stand, or pause to watch chickens move through the grass. Kids exploring the trees. Neighbors stop to talk. Someone is usually harvesting nearby.

This is a place where food is fresh, hands are often dirty, and conversations come easily. You will see what is growing now, what is resting, and what is being prepared for the next season. The farm changes week by week, and every visit feels a little different.

Whether you come to pick fruit, shop the farm stand, attend a workshop, or simply spend time here, we hope you leave feeling more connected. Connected to your food. Connected to this valley. Connected to the idea that small, local places like this matter.

Blue Heron Farm exists to feed this community and create a space where people can slow down, learn, and belong. This is a place built by hand, shaped by neighbors, and rooted in the belief that good food belongs close to home.

The Vision

I want Blue Heron Farm to be a place people talk about with joy.
A place where they say, "Gosh, I love that place."

I want people to feel connected to the land, knowing this is where their food comes from and creating memories they'll cherish forever, picking peaches, laughing in the barn, sharing meals by the pond. I dream of weddings under the trees, school groups learning about the soil, and workshops where people can discover the magic of growing their own food.

BUT IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THIS FARM.
IT'S ABOUT SPARKING SOMETHING BIGGER.

I want more people to realize that good food can grow anywhere. Even in the dramatic, often unforgiving environment of the high desert.
And not just on farms, but in their own backyards.

GOOD FOOD GROWS HERE
ISN'T JUST A TAGLINE - IT'S A PHILOSOPHY.

The History of
The Blue Heron Project

The Blue Heron Project began in the chaos and uncertain spring of 2020, right the the beginning of COVID. While the world shut down, Rachel sat on a back porch in Bishop asking herself a simple question. What can I do?

Grocery shelves were going bare. Fear was everywhere. The one thing she knew how to do was grow food. So she tore up the patch of grass behind her rental house and planted a garden. That first year it began, what she jokingly called an underground, black market CSA and was feeding six families.

At the end of that first season, a neighbor leaned over the fence, looked at the overflowing garden, and said, “I’ve got an old plot I’m not using. Want to farm it?” That small offer lit the spark.

Over the next four years, the CSA grew. Garden beds at a time. One more borrowed yard. Families added each season. By year four, it had grown into a 25-family CSA spread across eight backyard plots around town. It was not fancy. It was hand built, scrappy, and held together by neighbors, trust, and the belief that food can bring people together, even in hard times.

The Blue Heron Project was never just about food. It was a promise. A promise to bring food back this valley, to make good food accessible, and to build something real, rooted, and resilient.

What started as a backyard garden now lives on ten acres of orchard and vegetables. There are fields and orchards, CSA boxes, a farm stand filled with laughter, and a community that helped grow this place from the ground up. Now known as Blue Heron Farm, the mission remains the same. Grow food. Grow connection. Build something resilient.

Meet the Owners

Rachel Kulchin

FOUNDER | OWNER | FARMER
Rachel Kulchin is a farmer, educator, and founder of Blue Heron Farm in Bishop, California. She’s building a community-rooted, regenerative farm that feeds people, teaches land stewardship, and brings folks closer to where their food comes from. When she’s not wrangling weeds or fixing irrigation, she’s probably barefoot in the orchard, chasing chickens.
Aki Stankoski

OWNER | CTO
is a former computer nerd turned farmer and the tech brain behind Blue Heron Farm. His love of data brings a technology twist to the way the farm grows food, tracks trees, and keeps the chaos organized. He’s also the smiling face you’ll spot at the farm stand or markets, usually after fixing something with code, duct tape, or both.