In Bloom
A multi-sensory spring experience exploring pollination through food, beverage, and garden — our debut gathering at Olivewood Gardens in National City, San Diego.
Location
Pollination: from garden to table
In Bloom was Our Collective Foods' debut experience — a multi-sensory spring afternoon at Olivewood Gardens in National City, exploring pollination in concept, form, and study. Food, beverage, and garden as one.
Location
Olivewood Gardens, National City, San Diego
Date
April 18, 2026
Year
2026
Location
Olivewood Gardens, National City, San Diego
Date
April 18, 2026
Partners
The place
In Bloom was the pilot edition of In Season — a year-long series of immersive food and beverage experiences led by Our Collective Foods in partnership with Olivewood Gardens and ESTE Tea. Olivewood was not simply the venue. It is a sixteen-year-old regenerative farm and community learning center rooted in National City — one of the most nutrition-insecure communities in San Diego County. The garden is the classroom, the soil is the ingredient, and the community is the point.
The food
Beets from Olivewood's garden appeared across the menu in three forms — juice reduced to molasses, pulp compressed into edible soil, tops woven into floral arrangements. A quiet asterisk on each menu card marked dishes that depended on pollinators: "1 in 3 bites we eat depends on them." Spring produce shaped every dish: beets, kumquats, nasturtium, peas — each ingredient at the peak of what the season offered.
The beverage
ESTE Tea debuted their spring herbal collection at In Bloom — sourced from a small farm in the Sashima region of Japan. A honey flight featured hyper-local and rescue bee honeys, connecting flavor directly to the pollinators active in the garden around us. Every sip was a story about where something came from and who grew it.
The experience
Guests moved through the garden at their own pace, guided by their senses and their curiosity. The afternoon was designed not to lecture, but to let the food and the place do the teaching. Guests left with seedlings grown by Olivewood's high school students, wildflower seed paper made from recycled materials, and local rescue bee honey — small extensions of the experience designed to carry the afternoon forward.
"The experience at Olivewood Gardens has inspired me to start gardening and growing veggies again. Such a cool spot right in the middle of National City. Never would've thought this place existed."
— Guest, In Bloom, Spring 2026
