Flavor is the nutrient’s way of saying hello.

 
We’ve long believed our fruit tastes different because of how we grow it. In 2025, we started to find out if we could measure that difference and what it might mean for the nourishment in every piece of fruit we grow. 

Soil Health & Nutrient Density: What We’re Learning

At Frog Hollow Farm, we've spent decades building healthy soil. Compost, cover crops, and careful stewardship of the orchard understory aren't new ideas for us — they're the foundation of how we grow.

Frog Hollow fruit is renowned for its legendary flavor and quality, something we've long connected to our regenerative organic growing practices. High brix levels (an objective measure of the fruit's sweetness) and exceptional flavor, factors that research suggests may be associated with nutrient-dense food, have been a hallmark of our fruit and a reflection of the care we put into our soil and trees. But until recently, we didn’t have access to a way to measure the actual nutrient content of our crops.

We are guided by a commitment to producing fruit that is good for people and the planet. The scientific community is actively exploring the relationship between soil health and nutrient density, and we decided to begin exploring it ourselves. This page shares what the current research suggests, how our farming practices connect to that science, and what we found when we put our peaches to the test in the summer of 2025. Our aim is to share what we're learning honestly and transparently, as the inquiry unfolds.

Why Soil Health May Influence What’s in Your Food

Plants obtain the essential vitamins, minerals, and compounds we value in food from the soil in which they grow. That makes soil health a foundational component of the nutritional potential of any crop.

Healthy soil is a living system. It contains organic matter built up from decomposed plant material, and it teems with microbial communities, including bacteria and fungi that are constantly at work breaking down and transforming nutrients into forms that plant roots can absorb. This process, known as nutrient cycling, is what connects what's in the ground to what ends up in the food. (1)

Among the most important of these exchanges is the symbiotic relationship formed between tree roots and mycorrhizal fungi, which colonize root systems and extend their reach deep into the surrounding soil, drawing in water and minerals that roots alone could not access. Research suggests this partnership plays a meaningful role in the mineral nutrition of fruit trees.(2)

When soil biology is degraded, these processes can be disrupted and plants may be less able to take up the nutrients they need. Conversely, research suggests that soils with higher organic matter and active microbial communities may support crops with higher concentrations of certain minerals and beneficial plant compounds. (3)

Soil health is one part of a larger picture. The science is still developing, and nutrient density in any crop may be influenced by many interacting factors, including soil type, climate, crop variety, and season.

How We Nurture the Soil

The health of any farm’s soil is not fixed. It is shaped, over time, by the practices a farmer chooses. These practices are among the most powerful levers available for building and maintaining soil health. At Frog Hollow, our choices are intentional, employed over decades of regenerative organic stewardship across our 280 acres.  

The practices we employ mimic the earth’s natural processes and work as a system to build and maintain living, biologically active soil that healthy trees need to thrive.

Compost

Compost is the backbone of our soil fertility program. We are proud to produce 5,000 tons each year, recycling on-farm inputs, usually deemed as waste, to an amendment rich in diverse microbial life.  Applied to the orchard floor,  these lifeforms eat and move through the soil, performing essential ecosystem functions like fixing nutrients, composting organic matter, and creating porosity in the soil so water can be filtered and stored. (4)

Cover Crops

When you walk through the understory of our orchard, you will find a cacophony of plant life. While many farmers use mechanical tillage or herbicides to remove understory life, we foster it. Cover crops feed soil biology, fix nitrogen, support healthy soil structure, and contribute organic matter as they break down. (4)

Mulching and No - Till

Our cover crops grow tall with the winter rains. In the spring, we weed wack them down, creating a rich green mulch that biodegrades into the soil. We practice no-till management, protecting the soil ecosystem we work to build. By leaving the soil undisturbed, we give mycohrizzal fungal networks and other microbial life the stability they need to form and maintain relationships with our trees' roots, supporting nutrient uptake. (2)

These practices reflect a commitment that has guided Frog Hollow since we transitioned to organic production in 1989: that the health and flavor of the fruit we grow is inherently tied to the health of our farm’s ecosystem, and that by caring for the land, is caring for the people who choose our fruit.

Our Nutrient Density Testing Inquiry - Peaches 2025

“These were as close to the apricots of my youth as I’ve come.” - Hetty Lui McKinnon

“When I was a little girl, I lived in Baltimore in a row house with an alley behind it. By some magic a prior owner of this house has planted a peach tree and every year I ate peaches that were picked from the tree, sweet and lovely and perfect. We left when I was 6, and I have not had a peach that tasted that delicious and perfect since. But the peaches you sent me brought me right back and were absolutely delicious with the sweet juice and consistency of peaches that were just picked and had ripened on the tree.” - Frog Hollow Customer

Our fruit’s reputation for exceptional flavor and high Brix levels has always felt like a signal of something deeper.

Many of our customers tell us they haven’t tasted fruit like ours since childhood, from a grandparent's tree, or from a distant memory of fruit grown in another country. We believe this points to a real connection between farming practices, soil health, flavor and nutrition. Research suggests this connection is measurable: analysis of USDA nutrient data found a significant decline in the nutrient content of fruits and vegetables since the mid-twentieth century, coinciding with the rise of industrialized agriculture and its reliance on synthetic inputs and varieties selected for size and shelf life, rather than flavor. (5)

We have long held that how we grow influences flavor and nutritional character.  It is a shared conviction of many of our peers in the organic and regenerative farming community, and has guided our commitment to the land and the soil since our transition to organic production over 35 years ago.

We test many things on our farm, soil microbial life, soil nutrient status, pest pressure, and brix, as tools for understanding and improving our practices. Until recently, nutrient density testing was not available to us. That is beginning to change.

In partnership with Edacious, a leading ISO accredited laboratory, we conducted nutrient density testing on six varieties of Frog Hollow peaches across a three-month harvest window, using conventionally grown peaches sourced from a neighborhood grocery store on the same day as our harvest as a benchmark for comparison. This work is part of an emerging body of inquiry, shared by farmers, researchers, and food advocates, into how agronomic practices influence the nutritional profile of food. We are committed to contributing to that understanding, transparently and honestly, as the science continues to develop.

Our Testing Protocol

Six Frog Hollow peach varieties were selected across our June through August harvest window, chosen to be representative of our peach crop as a whole across the growing season. Each variety was sampled individually, with each sample comprised of fruit harvested from up to three orchard blocks.  Conventional benchmark samples were also composited and sourced from a local grocer on the same day as each Frog Hollow harvest. All samples were shipped fresh via next-day air to Edacious, where they were frozen upon receipt and held until the full sample set was complete before analysis. Samples were processed and analyzed by Frog Hollow variety and the corresponding conventional benchmark.

What We Found

The results showed distinct nutritional patterns between Frog Hollow Farm peaches and the conventional benchmark. While many nutrients were comparable, some were meaningfully higher in our fruit, most notably vitamin C, select minerals, and carotenoids. Taken together, the data present a strong directional signal linking our regenerative soil health practices and organic management with differences in nutrient density in our peaches.

Next Steps

2025 was the first round of analysis, and we are holding the findings accordingly. The first season’s testing was the beginning of an inquiry, not a conclusion. Nutrient density is influenced by many factors, and building a meaningful site-specific body of knowledge takes time, repeated observation, and continued curiosity and commitment. We are not doing this work alone. The relationship between soil health, farming practices and the nutritional quality of food is an emerging inquiry in agriculture today. Farmers, researchers, scientists are actively exploring it, and we are contributing to this broader conversation. 

In 2026, we will conduct a second round of testing to expand our sample set across a second growing season to observe whether the same patterns emerge. We look forward to sharing what we learn.

Citations

1. Jacoby R, Peukert M, Succurro A, Koprivova A, Kopriva S. The role of soil microorganisms in plant mineral nutrition—current knowledge and future directions. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2017;8. Wang X, Chi Y, Song S. Important soil microbiota effects on plants and soils: a comprehensive 30-year systematic review. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2024;15.

2. Averill C, Bhatnagar JM, Dietze MC, Pearse WD, Kivlin SN. Global imprint of mycorrhizal fungi on whole-plant nutrient economics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2019;116(46):23163–23168.

3. Montgomery DR, Biklé A, Archuleta R, Brown P, Jordan J. Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming. PeerJ. 2022;10:e12848. Grusak MA. Communicating about food composition and nutrient density. National Academies of Sciences (NAS).

4. Khangura R, Nunes JM, Cordeiro M, et al. Regenerative agriculture: practices and mechanisms used to improve soil health. Sustainability. 2023;15(3):2338. Coller E, Cestaro A, Zanzotti R, et al. Microbiome of vineyard soils is shaped by geography and management. Microbiome. 2019;7:140.

5. Davis DR, Epp MD, Riordan HD. Changes in USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops, 1950 to 1999. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 2004;23(6):669–682.