Artists, Surfers, Smugglers, and International Weed

The high mortality rate of heritage farms in legacy growing regions after the passing of Prop 64 has been gut wrenching to experience. The promise of protection and inclusion of small family farms as California lifted decades of prohibition was removed by the lobbying efforts of heavily resourced players eyeing monetary gains and powerful control of the emerging market. I have to once again reflect back on how cannabis is woven into California’s cultural heritage, and how important it is to preserve that history. The image above was from a calendar/ seed catalog put out by the Brotherhood of Eternal love back in the 70s. They were called the “Hippie Mafia” and most noted for their psychedelic revolution with the trafficking of LSD, but they were also a group of surfers based in Laguna Beach importing kilos of weed. This is where many of the landraces originally came in, typically with seed, which some planted in turn, starting a domestic road of cultivation, selective breeding, and hybridization. That’s when my mom grew our first plants, from some seeds she got from our family pediatrician in Laguna Beach, who also loved to smoke pot. This is also when many of our legacy farms got their start in the back-to-the-land movement and domestic cultivation.

Brian and I decided to seek out some of these old school varietals a couple seasons ago as we connected with breeders and globe-trotting seed hunters who had the same belief that the highs you experienced from these landraces back then were different, more complex, and varied by the cultivar. Gifted from their seed vaults, we have some old favorites with their feet firmly planted at Sugar Hill Farm. Our intention is to not replace the talented work of our current poly-hybrid breeders, but to venture back and see if we can capture something that we thought might be lost. For what it is worth, at the very least we are embracing the nostalgia of our youth and preserving something that is a bit more pristine and pure. In the harvest ahead we will be releasing some old school favorites like Panama Red, Maui Wowie x Haze, Big Sur Holy Weed, Acapulco Gold, and others.