Face of the Farmer is a series published online for Cannabis Now Magazine, profiling the legacy and heritage farmers.

John Casali & Rose Moberly

Huckleberry Hill Farms

Second generation Heritage farmer in Southern Humboldt

In the mid 1970s, by the time John Casali was five years old, his mother, Marlene Farrell, had relocated them from his birthplace of San Francisco to a farm in Southern Humboldt County in Northern California.

Though the exact year is in debate, it’s been noted that after more than 100,000 people gathered in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco during and after the summer of 1967, the event was thereafter named the Summer of Love. When the festivities ended toward the end of the decade after 1969, many traveled north to live off the land - dubbed Back to the Landers.

They settled mainly in three regions, known today as the Emerald Triangle, made up of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity counties. Also known for its legacy farms that began the cannabis industry, with Casali included, still homesteading his mother’s property 50 years later.

Growing their own food, Casali’s mother established Huckleberry Hill Farm, planting fruit trees and grape arbors that still produce today, alongside flower gardens woven throughout the idyllic hillside property, filled with the history of the cannabis cultivars they’ve painstakingly produced over the years, in memory of loved ones now passed. 

Casali’s earliest memories are of those following his mother around the garden, as she taught him everything about gardening and farming.

“Cannabis was always part of our life from the very beginning, but it wasn’t the only crop on the farm,” he shared. “I can remember running around with my mother as early as 10 years old, helping her cultivate the plant, but also tending to a grape arbor, fruit trees, and the vegetable garden we ate from. Cannabis was just another crop that allowed us to survive and thrive in the country.”

Growing their own food, commercial fishing, and logging and/or chopping firewood for others, are just a few ways those living a rural life survive on the north coast of California and Oregon. Cannabis was grown on the side as a subsidy. Many produce farmers selling at the farmers markets to the north also grew cannabis in a don’t ask, don’t tell scenario that served them well for years. Until the helicopters came.

CAMP California, subsidizing ignorance since 1983.

The Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, otherwise known as CAMP (1983 - 2012; 2015 - present) is a multi-agency law enforcement task force under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Justice, coordinating local, state, and federal agencies (Army soldiers, National Guardsmen), with a common goal of eradicating unlicensed cannabis cultivation and distribution in the state.

What CAMP did was federally fund, or subsidize, a bevy of local law enforcement for the failed War on Drugs. Just as with the failed DARE program taught in schools by paying police officers to teach kids about drugs, CAMP created a cash flow to otherwise lowly paid law enforcement, causing them to become dependent, and subsequently support, the failed War on Drugs at the polls - perpetuating the ignorance surrounding a benign and beneficial plant, and the farming thereof.

No matter that California was legal for medical cannabis since 1996; and now legal for the recreational use of cannabis since 2016. City, County, and State agencies have been guaranteed an income for raiding locally legal medical farms and associated entities for years under federal prohibition of the plant.

With the combined funding, CAMP utilized helicopters in its multi-agency task force, forcing the plant meant to grow outside in the sun inside. Changing the face of cannabis farming for decades, if not forever.

The Raid

When he was 15 years old Casali begged his mom to start his own farm. Not young enough to purchase an 11 acre parcel on his own, she co-signed and he provided the down payment for a sweet spot along the Eel River.

“Mom and I would compete for the best crop,” he shared. “But then CAMP started in the 80s, and by the early 90s my parents decided that fishing would be safer, so they left me to take care of the family farm.”

CAMP helicopters forced farmers to grow under trees and often underground in shipping containers to hide, changing everything forever. The one plant that used to provide five or ten pounds each at full growth out in the sun, now produced substantially less, in its hidden, stunted capacity.

But hiding wasn’t enough, and one morning just after sunrise, 30 federal agents arrived at the farm, staying all day. They never handcuffed the farmer or his friend and neighbor, Todd Wick, who were both 24 years old at the time. Rather, they handed Casali a little yellow speeding ticket, adding if they need to talk to him further they’d be back.

After one year and two months they came back, this time arresting the now 25 year old friends, offering up a hefty $275,000 bail for Casali.

“My mom put up the house and everything else she owned to get me out of jail,” he explained. “For the next three years Todd and I drove from Southern Humboldt to the federal courthouse in San Francisco to fight for our freedom as cannabis farmers - as good people, never wanting to hurt anyone.”

One hundred supporters from Humboldt arrived for the sentencing that included mandatory minimums of ten years to life. Casali and Wick surrendered in the summer of 1996, just a few months before California would vote to legalize medical cannabis in the state - the first to do so in the country.

“There was no appeal process based on the new medical laws,” he added. “Because we had no more money left to fight for both appeals, Todd went through the process and lost. After that, we were resigned to be in the system until we served our time.”

Farming in Prison

Because Casali and Wick were farmers, licensed and able to operate heavy farm equipment, much of their time served was spent working agricultural crops associated with the US Penitentiary at Lompoc, at around 12 cents an hour.

A little known element of the failed privatized prison system is its eventual transferring of jobs that used to be done by private citizens. Not all jobs in America went oversees during the 1980s. Everything from manufacturing food stuffs to shower doors - to the 411 Information line, went to prisoners for pennies an hour. A travesty not often discussed in politicking of job gains and losses in the U.S.

Since the Lompoc prison camp didn’t have a residential drug program, Casali was transferred to Nellis Airforce Base, where he said he actually learned something about drugs and addicts.

“While the program didn’t apply to me and my cannabis use or farming of it, I learned a lot about true addicts out there, and how they really lose their ability to control what they consume and how much. Personally, I don’t believe cannabis falls into that category at all.”

Casali added that, ironically, the prison system is loaded with offerings of any drug desired and its up to the prisoner to abstain or face consequences of a higher security stay with less privileges.

After serving eight of a ten year sentence for good behavior, Casali was released to a half-way house in the worst neighborhood in San Francisco, known as the Tenderloin. 

He then came back home to Humboldt and began farming his beloved cannabis once more, under California’s newly established cooperative medical cannabis compassionate care program.

“I had 50 people here in this community waiting to help me get my life back in order,” Casali said. “Everyone here knows it could have happened to anyone.”

Call it a barn raising at its finest, the struggle is nothing new to cannabis farmers across the country in newly legalized states. They raise barns and support each other while fighting issues of inequality, high taxes, and ridiculous ordinances at every turn.

These same farmers who struggle through the same challenges as our food farmers - drought, storms, frost, low prices at market - had the added fight against the failed War on Drugs, brutal raids, serving time, and subsequent implied criminality upon re-entering society.

The only difference between cannabis farmers and food farmers is, there are no government subsidies for a low return in the ever evolving multi-billion dollar cannabis market. There is no category for small, craft cannabis farmers that would help them compete with large-scale corporate operations that sprung up across the state after legalization in 2016.

Shout out to Willie Nelson, thank you for Farm Aid, but we really need Green Aid for our cannabis farmers about now. Just saying.

The price per pound

Within the past legal medical market of California, the price per pound could fetch upwards of between $3,000 and $4,000. In California's regulated market, the farmers were promised upwards of $1,200 per pound, per contract. But in the final analysis of getting it to market, they were offered a take it or leave it deal of just $400 a pound, contract or not. How did this happen?

“It costs me close to $500 to grow one pound,” Casali explained. “To give you an example of a neighboring ag situation, Napa Valley grape growers are taxed $15 per acre, cannabis farmers are taxed from $4,200 to $5,000 per acre - that’s $1 per square feet - making cannabis the highest taxed agricultural crop in the world, right out of the field.”

Add $161.28 California State tax per pound, then $150 or so per pound to trim, with Water Board, Fish & Game fees, and thousands of dollars of improvements made for most to come into compliance, and anyone can see that on paper, this is the beginning of the collapse of the historic, heritage small cannabis farmers.

“We are predicting that by the next season, we’ll lose fifty percent of our small farmers up here,” Casali lamented.

To give you a better idea overall what California’s cannabis industry to the north has been through since the legalization of adult use began, the County of Humboldt estimated that there were 15,000 small cannabis farmers or growing locations operating when legalization went on the ballot with Prop. 64 in November of 2016 - with no issues of meeting supply and demand, and nary a pound left on any shelf. Let that sink in.

Today, there are currently 400 permit holders in Humboldt County alone, with Casali predicting at least 200 will have to stop farming in the next year, unable to afford to farm in a legal market.

“When we lost the one acre rule the night before legalization, that put a nail in the coffin of most of our small farmers,” Casali surmised. “The corporate farms, or those with the most financial backing, began buying up the smaller farm’s licenses, beginning what’s called ‘stacking licenses.’ One large-scale, well funded farm nearby has maybe 20 licenses stacked right now.”

The one acre rule was supposed to be the saving grace for the small farmer. The way it was taken away the night before legalization with lobbyists in a closed-door, secret meeting, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left many appalled, stating it was a “good-old boys club” of wealthy California cannabis entities looking to operate beyond promised limits.

Cooperative umbrella’s were another way the small farmer hoped to survive, but with a $400 per pound reimbursement, even those entities fell short at market.

Finger pointing aside, one issue slightly overlooked is the lack of safe access or retail space available in which to move plant material from the farm. With a national insistence that the plant is not beneficial, many conservative cities and counties have banned cannabis access points. We know supply and demand is there, it’s the lack of availability of retail spaces that’s caused perfectly good product to stall in distribution, subsequently lowering prices overall.

Growing a Mother’s Love

For the small cannabis farmer still standing, many feel that branding the farm, the farmer, and their cultivars is the key to success in the new market. Personalized cultivars grown in the sun for years in loamy redwood soil can’t be compared to indoor, large-scale operations. 

Casalis’ partner, Rose Moberly, joined him three years ago, relocating from her home state of Colorado, where she too learned to farm cannabis at an early age.

“We both went to community college, but both gravitated back to our true passion, farming the plant,” he said.

Sadly, Casali’s mother passed away while he was serving time. She was at sea and died of a heart attack one year to the day of his imprisonment, while pulling canned goods from a freezer to bring to him in prison for her next visit.

“My mother taught me everything I know about farming,” he explained. “This farm is her legacy, and I just had to find a way to honor her, so we created a new cultivar from a favorite strain she created, Paradise Punch, by crossing it with both Blueberry Kush and Lavender Kush, to make Mom’s Weed.”

When Rose became part of his life on the farm, Casali said it could no longer be just about him.

“Rose’s mom, Margie Zietz, battled cancer and passed away in 2020,” he said. “We took Paradise Punch and crossed it with Rose’s mom’s favorite strain, Wishful Thinking, creating Margie’s Magic.”

Another cultivar created, Whitethorn Rose, used the same cross as Mom’s Paradise, crossed with Lemon OG, that spoke to this writer like no other. Created in honor of a town in Southern Humboldt lost to raids, Whitethorn used to host a postoffice, market and a tavern.

“Whitethorn was a big part of my childhood,” he said. “When the raids began many of the small towns supporting farms turned into ghost towns.”

Make a Wish

Aside from the hard work and red tape of being cannabis farmers, there are perks and magic to be found in the hills of the Emerald Triangle, with John and Rose offering up wishes to special visitors via crystals.

“We had a load of rocks delivered from the local quarry, and noticed some of the rocks smashed were hollow and full of crystals,” he said. “So, we began putting them aside and saving them for guests to open up.”

This writer was able to break open a geod, taking a large piece for my home altar and leaving another on the farm next to a Budha in the garden, where it will live forever. My wish was written on a piece of paper and placed in a box labeled “wishes.”

The crystals left behind by others, the mother plants set up like memorials to those they were grown for, the fruit trees, grape arbors, and the general layout of this small (less than an acre) farm, has been landscaped with love and intention - with the cannabis plant and the people who love her honored at every turn.

Everything about Huckleberry Hill Farm is sentimental, everything has meaning and is historic to the cannabis industry. It’s a true trickle-down culture straight from the farm that not many will ever be aware of as they enjoy the cultivars they’ve created.

“Cannabis is a profoundly mysterious plant,” Casali surmised. “And such a powerful, healing plant, that even after working with it my entire life, it feels like I’ve just begun to truly understand her. Rose and I are just grateful to be here another season. To be able to farm this land that my mother found for us and loved. Did I take it for the team in prison? Yes and no. We are going forward with love and good intentions for this life we love on the farm. That’s really what it’s all about.”

Sunshine Cereceda

Sunboldt Grown

This once shy Southern Humboldt farmer gets serious about branding

Stepping out of the unregulated Medical Cannabis market in California into the world of legal, recreational weed, with licensing and high taxes to follow, has been no small feat for most of the farmers where it all began, in Northern California. Specifically, the Emerald Triangle, that makes up Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties - the cannabis capitol of the world, where many of the cultivars we enjoy were developed.

One Southern Humboldt farmer, Sunshine Cereceda, was comfortable in medical space, using the cooperative model where patients supported farmers. There she was able to develop and brand cultivars of her own, Loopy Fruit, Wanderlust, Delphina, and Redwood Summer.

Cereceda saw the writing on the wall with issues of legalization for the small farmers to the north, and her message is the still the same, farmers need to brand themselves, their farms, and their cultivars in order to be known and compete effectively.

They also need to do away with the middle-man - or the “Bro Distro,” as she’s dubbed them. The old-school method of moving material and product on a handshake, with the small farmer at home often getting the short end of the deal. It worked to a point back in the day, but today trust is being exploited by what she calls “corporate sharks.”

“Cannabis has always sustained us, even through the hard times, so why is it not going to get us through now, after all these years and everything we’ve been through?” she asks. “In my mind, the small cannabis farmers need to change their mindset. They need to do away with all the bad habits developed in the past unregulated markets in order to move forward.”

“Rookies and bad habits built the industry during prohibition,” she added. “We were functioning without a future under prohibition. From my roots in activism I understand the challenges of the messenger, but we have this product that’s already branded from our region - we are known as rockstars in the industry,” she said “There’s no stronger cannabis community in the nation. We are just in transition - it’s a learning curve, to say the least.”

Born Into Activism

Cereceda’s mom brought her to Southern Humboldt from her birthplace of San Luis Obispo, California, when she was just seven years old. 

“I was raised by an activist,” she shared. “My mother organized and protested against Nuclear energy and weapons. She was there during the Diablo Canyon rally in 1978 with Jerry Brown - she was one of the organizers.”

Part of her mother’s advocacy included protecting the redwoods, and Cereceda followed in her mother’s footsteps, majoring in geology at Humboldt State University.

“I studied geology mostly because it’s Mother Earth, and I wanted to understand the earth” she explained. “I thought it was all about plant life, but then I realized it was the rocks and the earth itself.”

The degree led her to work for a time on road inventories for Humboldt Redwoods State Parks, then a gig with Pacific Watershed Associates. 

Watershed stewardship is an important issue in California, and is directly tied to the health of the forests and rivers. 

For decades the watershed was largely ignored by small and large-scale cannabis operations from both the unregulated medical and illicit markets during the days of the Green Rush, rerouting water coming down the mountains to suit its needs, with unpermitted roads crisscrossing the hills - making it nearly impossible for literally hundreds of hill farmers to come into compliance today.

Important to note, the erosion of the roads as also a direct result from the timber industry, now expected to be corrected and paid for by the farmers.

“During a town hall meeting prior to legalization, water experts were brought in to let us know that even in a drought we could gather enough water to care for our crops using rain-catchment systems,” she informed. “Cannabis farmers have taken the lead in responsible water use for agriculture in the state.”

For the love of farming

“It takes one year to grown a crop, it takes several years to grow a business.”

• Sunshine Cereceda

Responsible agricultural practices are key in sustainable and regenerative farming, which is what the Emerald Triangle is known for. But it’s not enough to compete in an overregulated market, where the farmer feels the brunt of taxation, not only on the farm, but on the shelf, as retailers bump their losses down to the farmer at check-out.

“Farmers are at the end of the line in a capitalistic system, and we carry the tax burden as it gets kicked down from retailers and brands that buy bulk and package it themselves,” she said. “I’m lucky that I have good retail partners, but that took time and consistency to establish,” she explained. “If you are still using your Bro Distro, you are losing a big chunk of income.”

With the promise of distributors and umbrella brands representing farmers a clear disappointment - garnering a mere $400 to $500 per pound - Cereceda said it’s time for farmers to rep themselves in the marketplace, and building a brand is where to start.

Doing all the work herself with her team, from seed to shelf, including packaging, Cereceda said she’s been able to get from $1,100 to $1,200 a pound.

“Farm management skills, managing workers - it takes a lot of years and a concentrated effort to be good at it, and that all adds to your bottom line” she added. “You can’t just get a license and think it’s all going to work out alright with your output. Historically we pay for our operation out of each harvest, but that’s’ like working paycheck to paycheck, with no guarantee your next crop will be moved. Our distribution right now is weak.”

Reducing risk plays a big factor in succeeding in the regulated market, and Cereceda said the more a farmer opts out of their own work, the less they’ll make. It’s just common sense.

“How about growing what you can move yourself?” she added. “This is capitalism, count your blessings. This is how it works. The middle man will take all your profits if you let him. And your Bro Distro isn’t much better.”

One distributor Cereceda speaks fondly of is Berner, CEO and co-founder of Cookies, with longtime Southern Humboldt Farmer, Kevin Jodrey in the mix.

“Berner is underrated,” she said. “He’s doing a great job supporting farmers and has gotten more customers off the black market on the streets and into shops than anyone else. He allowed so many black market growers back in the day to prosper growing his genetics - they got brand recognition for his cultivars. Can’t say enough good about Berner.”

Berner is a stage name for Bay Area hip-hop artist, Gilbert Anthony Milam, Jr.,  who branded his Cookies cultivar during the medical market in California. Cookies was made infamous after the Scouts of America forced him to shorten the name from Girl Scout Cookies to Cookies.

Branding a Life

Showing the face of the farmer - telling their stories in today’s social media marketing mindset is everything.

The once shy Cereceda is now posting photos of herself on social media from the farm, holding her colas in the forest, telling the stories of how they were created and named - sharing her charmed farm life with the world.

There’s typically years involved in creating a cultivar, and it’s not uncommon for each farmer to have specific stories surrounding the work, the nuances of the flower, and the name - which often involves a sentimental or meaningful story from the farm.

Sunboldt Grown’s website beckons, “Taste the Redwoods,” noting all cultivars are grown in the loamy ancient soil, taking on nuances, just as in viticulture in the South of France and the growing of grapes for wine taking on the essence of lavender or rosemary nearby.

The plants are grown in the flood plain deposits of the Eel River, with no additional water needed. This is called dry farming, and the farmers refer to themselves as terroirists (from the French word terroir, meaning earth or soil), who allow for the place to be expressed in the flower they grow.

Cereceda’s crops are also grown by the cycles of the moon, not uncommon among farmers. In fact, the historic Farmer’s Almanac still provides moon cycles as a planting guide, as lunar cycles affect plant growth, just as the moon’s gravitational pull creates the tides of the oceans, it also creates more moisture in the soil, that in turn promotes growth (almanac.com).

“Wanderlust was inspired by sailing on the ocean,” she explained. “The word implies an urgency to be moving - to not settle in one place.”

From its website, Wanderlust is a hybrid of Blue Dream and Agent Orange, with flavors of lemon-lime zest and fresh Douglas Fir needles, finishing with a splash of orange juice. The smoke is medium bodied with a dense velvety richness. A 10-week strain, its delicate flower is sensitive to the cold.

“Redwood Summer is named after the campaign and initiative from 1990, to stop the clear-cutting of all old-growth redwoods,” she shared.

The backstory to the Redwood Summer campaign is heartbreaking and personal to the region. Began by Earth First! the movement was led by Judi Bari during the Timber Wars that continued into the 1990s, and ended when Bari and her partner Daryl Cherney were seriously injurred, after a pipe bomb was planted in their car.

The cultivar is a tribute to Bari and the movement that continues to educate and protect the old growth forests.

Delphina was created by crossing Purple Nepal with Rebel Moon (aka: NorCal Diesel). Cereceda uses this cultivar to make old-school, solventless, bubble hash, as it yields high quality resin. A sweet and savory aroma, it’s spicy, and the smoke is likened to breathing in the forest floor - delivering a deep state of relaxation and euphoria.

“Delphina is a Greek woman from Delphi, Greece, where the Earth Goddess Gaia was first celebrated,” she said. 

According to author, Darian West, the Oracle of Delphi was considered the most influential woman of the ancient world from 800 BC until 393 AD, when her last recorded entry predicted the end of the Roman Empire, stating, “all is ended.”. Delphina proclaimed Socrates the wisest man in the world, predicted the rise of Alexander the Great, and foretold the death of Nero.

Farmer as Influencer

Small cannabis farmers have a hard time getting out of the illicit market. For the most part, they can’t afford licensing, can’t move product, distribution is weak, taxes are high, ordinances are unreasonable and/or ill-informed to begin with, causing undue hardships.

“Everyone is codependent in this space,” Cereceda informed. “The handshake deals don’t work anymore. The days of your best buddy distributing for you are over.”

For the first time in history cannabis farmers are feeling the brunt of growing the world’s most illicit and beloved herb on the planet. Just as with food farmers, they aren’t getting a living wage, with no subsidy from the U.S. Government to bail them out when times are hard, or the price per pound is too low to pay the bills.

“Everyone is borrowing on us and we’ve been way too complacent about it for far too long,”’ she concluded. “On the other hand, this product - this cash crop, is from Mother Earth, and the fact that we are doing as well as we are up here is just amazing to me. We need to own our right to be here and work smarter.”

For more information on Sunboldt Grown visit, www.sunboldt.com 

Follow Sunboldt Grown on Instagram @sunboldtgrown

Walter Wood & Judi Nelson

Sol Spirit Farm & Sol Spirit Retreats, Trinity County, California

Trinity County sits at the top of the State of California, the third county of what comprises the Emerald Triangle, that includes Mendocino and Humboldt counties. Trinity is the more rustic and rural of the counties, with a population of just under 13 thousand, and a large population of cannabis farmers up in the hills.

Walter Wood and Judi Nelson have been farming off the grid on the same spot on the south fork of the Trinity River in the Northern part of the Emerald Triangle for more than 20 years, and consider themselves to be homesteaders.

“Homesteading off the grid means doing everything yourself,” Walter laughed. “It means when the power goes out or the water stops flowing, we deal with it. We aren’t connected to the city water, like some of the larger growers. We make everything happen ourselves by our own hands. That’s really the crux of being a craft cannabis farmer - how hands-on you are in every step of the process.”

Their home is a product of their local environment. The straw bales that comprise the main house were sourced from 120 miles away, the earthen floor was made from the ground beneath, and the trees were felled from the property.

Homesteading, he said, also means living a righteous and sustainable life, keeping the footprint as small as possible, being mindful of the earth as a precious commodity to be cared for. 

His personal inspiration for working on the land began when he was very young, growing up in Los Angeles.

“My grandparents gardened one acre in Los Angeles,” he explained. “My grandfather was a horticulturist and a etymology hobbyist, with a large bug collection under glass. When they were getting older I cared for their fruit trees, which included avocados and oranges. It gave me a strong connection to the earth.”

Farming for Health

Walter’s foray into cannabis began in 1992, when he was 20 years old and working for Los Angeles Water & Power. Diagnosed with a permanent back injury, he was Initially prescribed, what he refers to as, “heavy duty painkillers.” That’s when he discovered cannabis to be a better choice.

“Just by smoking cannabis it greatly reduced the spasms and pain much better than the pills,” he shared. “Without the plant the pain becomes unmanageable. I never found pharmaceuticals to help me nearly as much as the natural, healthy product I can grow myself.”

His cannabis prescription has been updated for more than 20 years under California’s Medical Cannabis program that began in 1996, making California the first state legal for medicine in the country.

The Grateful Dead, Weed & Romance

In 1995, shortly after Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead passed, Judi and Walter met at his memorial in Los Angeles. 

After the event Judi wanted to attend a Rainbow gathering down in Mexico and someone asked Walter if he could work on a bus for the group of nine to travel there together.

“We never found the gathering,” Walter laughed, “but we had a great time together and smoked a kilo of bud in no time, as we trekked down to Michoacan and back. The entire trip took three and a half months - long enough to get to know each other on a bus in close quarters.”

During the trip Judi and Walter became a couple, and eventually ended up in Baton Rouge where Judi was working as a temporary traveling Physical Therapist.

They immediately noticed a serious lack of cannabis in Louisiana, with Walter educating himself by reading Ed Rosenthal’s 1990 version of the Marijuana Grower’s Handbook.

“There were no grow shops or specific equipment for growing available at that time, so I went to the hardware store and bought two porch lights, one 250 watts, the other 150 watts, then made a homemade hood, and I immediately became addicted to growing cannabis.”

After a stint in Arkansas looking for land and another relocation with Judi’s work, they were pulled over with guns drawn and arrested for a dirty pipe, clean glass pipes, and glass blowing parapheniala Walter had been working with - misdemeanors, all.

With no scent of cannabis in their 1972 Westfalia hippie van and only the scent of incense burned, with Walter’s dreadlocks down to his waist, the two felt they were definitely profiled in the conservative state. 

Walter pleaded guilty so Judi wouldn’t lose her Physical Therapist license. In court, the newly graduated officer’s admission that he learned incense is used to cover up the smell of cannabis, combined with a lack of evidence to pull them over in the first place, they were released with $2,500 in bail and no time served, and Walter losing his driver’s license for six years.

The experience scared them off the road, and helped them make the decision to relocate to the more progressive State of California. They landed initially in Humboldt County in the City of Arcata - otherwise known as 60s by the Sea, and began growing in a residential neighborhood in an attic space in a 500 square foot house.

But growing indoors wasn’t sustainable and soon the Wood’s would be called into the woods.

Life on the Farm

They hadn’t even looked at the farm they now call home due to rumors of meth use from its tenants and a lack of water on the property.

“We had been looking for a couple of years and this place had been for sale the entire time,” Walter said. “Without a source of water we didn’t feel it would work for us, but after a 200 to 300 foot hike up the hill found the end of a pipe, we were hopeful. It wasn’t at a spring, but then we found a hand dug trench in two or three inches of water. Hand digging trenches on the side of a mountain just isn’t done any more.” 

This find told them that back in the 1930s, when it was common to hand dig to a spring, water was there, with the pipes long abandoned. After they purchased the property they received a deed to water rights to the stream that had been dug out long ago.

“Water is everything,” Walter said. “We also practice rain water catchment, but we would have never bought this place without access to a spring.”

Sol Sprit is an organic, sustainable, and regenerative farm, producing award winning grown in the sun, craft cannabis.

“Our intent has always been to source as much of our calories from the farm, living off the land as much as we can,” he added. “Practicing regenerative farming techniques makes all the difference to the quality of flower we produce - and the food we grow for ourselves and our guests.”

According to Green America.com, regenerative agricultural practices include using cover crops, reducing tiling, rotating crops, spreading compost, and moving away from synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and factory farming.”

“We also practice what’s called Intensive Rotational Grazing, with our chickens and pigs, conditioning the soil as they graze,” Walter added.

The farm has won many awards, including from The Emerald Cup, The Grow Off, and WeedCon. Important to note, The Emerald Cup has never awarded a farmer for a high THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), but for the overall profile of the plant - meaning the complex bouquet, derived from the sun and the rich, loamy soil to the north.

“Earth Conscious Cannabis,” is its slogan, with Walter stating that most of the regulations under the legal market seem out of step with the farming of, and the harmless nature of the plant.

Growing in native soil, Walter said, allows the plant to fully express the terroir that’s made the region famous and the flowers fragrant. Cultivars such as Sol Cookies, Sol Shine, Mother’s Milk, and the classic Sour Diesel don’t disappoint.

“Our hope is that the small, craft sungrown farmers products are realized for their quality sooner than later, so that we can survive corporatization and commodification of this sacred plant,” Walter added. “We can’t compete with big agriculture on prices, and they cannot compete with us on handcrafted quality - that’s a fact.”

In keeping with its environmentally conscious mission, Sol Spirit Farm’s products are all hand packaged using recycled glass containers, with ocean recycled plastic lids and compostable labels, with them winning First Place for the 2022 Emerald Cup for Eco Conscience Packaging.

Glamping to Sustain

Subsidizing the family cannabis farm looks a little different than the average American farmer’s subsidy from the U.S. Government. With no Farm Aid for cannabis farmers, many are getting creative in the way they use their space and the farm.

In an effort to open up to the community at large, while providing a much needed additional income, Judi turned a flat meadow into glamping grounds, offering up overnight stays in well suited bell tents, with real beds and linens. As a plus, each tent has its own private bath house nearby with hot running water and fluffy towels.

“All our meals are farm to table,” Judi said. “We use organic eggs, produce and livestock from the farm, and locally sourced goods from other farmers in the area.”

Zucchini noodles, marinara sauce, pesto and salads, all come from the garden. Nearby, the iconic Willow Creek peach farmers, Jacque and Amy Neukom’s dry farmed peaches along the Trinity River are used in cobbler.

“Our favorite is cannabis infused peach ice cream,” Judi shared. “I use our Blueberry Muffin flower (Humboldt Seed Co’s genetics) for the infusion. We don’t grow carrots on the farm, because up the road Willow Creek Farms grows the best carrots you’ll ever taste.”

Breakfast might include locally sourced fruits, bacon from their own sustainably raised (and loved) pigs, and eggs from their own free-range, organically fed chickens.

Stays include guided tours of the farm by Walter, a master cultivator, with guests enjoying seeing how the farm clones, plants, grows, harvests, and manicures their flowers for market. 

Guests can also take advantage of river rafting on the nearby Trinity River, or attending a Zumba, Yoga, or Pilates class for an additional fee. 

Judi has more than 25 years experience as a Physical Therapist and is an expert practitioner of Myofascial Release techniques and is also a Pilates and Zumba instructor, offering classes at Trinity Herbals & Wellness Center.

This past July Sol Spirits Retreats organized the Emerald Triangle Revealed Tour, a three-county, five day retreat that included stays in Southern Humboldt, on the coast of Mendocino, and working with vintners, other farmers, and 420 friendly stays, to not only bring people up to the Emerald Triangle, but to share the lifestyle that’s been hidden due to the failed War on Drugs for decades.

”The plant is sacred medicine, and it’s a huge part of our lives,” Walter said. “Our mission is to take cannabis out of the closet and grow some of the best medicine in a regenerative way, as part of a dynamic, multifaceted, small family farm. In opening up the farm to overnight stays, we hope that our guests will come away excited and inspired to join a regenerative future - or at least finally understand what our lives are all about up here.”

For information on Sol Sprit Farm visit, www.solspiritfarm.com 

For more information and to book a retreat at Sol Spirit Retreats visit, www.solspiritretreats.com 

For more information on Trinity Herbals and Wellness Center visit, https://www.trinityherbalsandwellnesscenter.com/

Ben Bickle

Prime Kind Farms, Oregon

Food, livestock, & hemp, this multi-generational farm multi-tasks

When Ben Bickle was growing up on his parent’s farm in Grants Pass, Oregon, he learned to grow food, cut flowers, raise livestock, and fell timber. Nearly everything they consumed came from the farm, the forest, the river or the sea. 

“I thought everyone lived like that,” he shared. “I was 17 when I realized that wasn’t the norm, and that people bought meat and produce at the store. The travesty is, most people don’t realize where food comes from, how its farmed, or how livestock is treated. They don’t think about what they put into their bodies and how it got there.”

Bickle’s father worked as an agricultural advisor for the State of Oregon for 36 years, also teaching ag at the local high school, where he and his wife met. His mom was an art teacher, retiring 12 years ago. His dad retired from both ag work and teaching in 2002.

Ask any farmer what its biggest export is and they might tell you it’s their children who leave the farm to find themselves in the world. That’s Ben Bickle’s story. 

“I left the family farm for Alaska when I was 19 years old,” he explained. “I loved snowboarding, and competed - traveling on the road for outerwear companies. I’d go to places in the winter where there was snow, then head to the rivers in the summer for fly fishing. It’s all still here in Oregon, but I got the traveling part out of my system.”

After being gone for about ten years, Bickle said he came back to the roost, following in his mom and dad’s footsteps, studying, then teaching fine art at the same local school they taught at, while continuing to work the farm. And, more importantly, to raise his own children in the sustainable lifestyle he’s come to love.

The only difference today is, he’s added Hemp, then cannabis to the mix, when it was legal to do so.

“The Hemp and cannabis is all me,” he added. “Mom and dad have come to understand it all - and though dad’s retired from farming, he comes over and helps often.”

Plants Over Pharma

As a young child, Bickle said he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and was prescribed the pharmaceutical, Ritalin.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Attention Deficit Disorder (also Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder ADHD), “... is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood.” Often lasting into adulthood, people diagnosed have a hard time focusing, paying attention, and controlling impulsive behaviors - often diagnosed alongside Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

As  cited in a PubMed report, Cannabis for the Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Report of 3 Cases, the subjects questioned were already using cannabis for the disorder, with all reporting, “subjective improvements in symptoms and on quality of life.” It was assumed and surmised by the doctors conducting the report, “that cannabis played a complimentary role in the therapeutic regimen of the 3 patients.”

Bickle credits his parents with being smart enough to reject the pharmaceutical, Ritalin, instinctively knowing that redirecting their rambunctious son to sports and farm work would help him focus.

“My day began at five in the morning,” he said. “I’d feed and care for the animals, tended to the food we grew, whatever had to be done before school. I learned a serious work ethic on the farm, and combined with sports, it kept me busy and out of too much trouble.”

He realized cannabis helped him focus just by smoking when he was a teenager, but kept it under wraps on the farm and within his conservative farming community for many years. Today, he has a better understanding of how its helped him over the years, with a better understanding of Hemp and cannabis as medicinal plants.

Food, Swine  & Weed

Oregon was the first State in the U.S. to decriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis in 1973, with a ticket given likened to a traffic offense - making it tolerated for decades. In 1998 Oregonians voted to add medicinal use of the plant; then finally legalizing it for adult use after several failed attempts on the ballot, in 2014.

Prime Kind Farm was founded by his parents in 1972, with Bickle running its medical cannabis and Hemp operation since 2008, in what he refers to as a polyphase farm. The definition of Polyphase is having or producing two or more phases of a certain thing. 

For Bickle, his use of two terms together with, “sustainable polyphase” farming is having or producing two or more phases of agricultural products being grown or raised in a rotation with the land, on what it can yield efficiently and effectively given the season or year. 

Many farms, he said, are monocultured, with Prime Kind Farms able to be highly diversified and non-stagnant as they can be.

“We run two acres of Hemp, while rotating our land use, sourcing all our own livestock compost as our only feed for the Hemp, from 75 to 150 head of hogs,” he said. “We aren’t allowed to feed the livestock Hemp, which is a shame, as they would benefit from it. All our livestock graze free-range on the farm.”

According to an article in GlobeNewswire.com, prior to the prohibition of hemp in the U.S. all livestock grazed on, what used to be called, “ragweed,” that grew wild across the plains. With a full cannabinoid and terpene profile, the grazing feed was loaded with beneficial compounds, that were then passed down to the consumer for optimal health.

Sadly, the 2018 Farm Bill, allowing farmers of America to grow hemp again, have restricted Hemp byproducts to be fed to livestock. This is something that makes little sense to Bickle and is an issue Hemp farmers are working to change.

Art & Ag

The apples didn’t fall to far from the family tree, as Bickle’s kids are showing an interest in art, as well as working on the farm.

“Just like my mom was, I’m the only fine arts teacher at the high school, so I’ve been able to teach a wide variety of mediums,” he said. “I teach eight projects per semester, including drawing, painting, digital photography, and sculpting.”

Bickle said they are definitely an art family, and will probably always grow cannabis on the farm, but to what degree depends on the market.

“Unless the market space for cannabis gets a little bit more understanding in realizing sungrown cannabis is more superior to indoor grown in a greenhouse, I’ll keep teaching art, and we’ll keep focusing on our food crops for our bread and butter,” he added.

For decades food farmers on the North Coast, stretching from Washington State to Northern California have been subsidizing with cannabis in order to allow them to be food farmers. In the case of the Bickles, adding cannabis when legal to do so, has added another much needed revenue stream, but it’s also added another layer of ridicule.

“Cannabis use still has a negative stigma attached to it,” he surmised. “As educators in our community, we’ve had to walk a fine line in farming legal cannabis. It’s added a whole other layer concerning education on the benefits of the plant, while we maintain respect as longtime, established food farmers and educators in the community.”

PubMed, Cannabis for ADHD, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35224434/ 

Hemp for Livestock, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/12/16/2354060/0/en/Hemp-Inc-Reports-Hemp-Used-as-Livestock-Feed-Unlocks-More-Potential-for-the-Cash-Crop.html