MEND Season 1 - Episode 20

Pass It Along...

We were excited, this week, to speak with Siobhan, a 2nd generation cannabis farmer and one half of the YouTube duo The Grow Sisters.  She and her husband own Blessed Coast Farms, Humboldt’s first permitted cannabis farm, where she is proud to plant into the native soil along the Van Duzen River.

Legalization ended her days dodging helicopters on a dirt bike, and brought her a sense of liberation.  Now she can be honest about who she is, what she does.  She recognizes that being such a public advocate for her farm and cannabis cultivation may place her head on the chopping block, but the work needs to be done and she recognizes her well-placed position as an advocate. 

This is farming; practices and techniques are not secret, nor should they be.  Siobhan stresses the importance of sharing this knowledge, exclaiming, “This is how we survive!”  The coveting of farming knowledge is a black market thought and now we must grow into this new realm of legalization and transparency together.

Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties have been growing cannabis for decades, Siobhan describes it as generations.  No county is, perhaps, as known for its quality of cannabis as is Humboldt.  This is our strength and Siobhan urges us to get involved, step in and represent ourselves; suggesting, I believe, that as we move forward into compliance and legalization, our future lies in our history.  

To find out more about the resources we discuss, check out:::

Blessed Coast Farms

California Growers Association

Info on the Mendocino Appellation Project

MEND Season 1 - Episode 13

Raised in These Hills...

This week we speak with Iris:  a woman born, raised and now raising a family in the hills of Humboldt County.  When Iris was a child, her father was ‘busted’ by the infamous CAMP, Campaign Against Marijuana Cultivation, and given the option of 1 year of jail time or losing his land.  He chose to keep his land and spent the next better part of a year in prison.

She recounts to us:  the details of growing up in the marijuana culture as a child, the advantages and disadvantages of herself and those around her; knowing the safe house in the neighborhood, the one with no marijuana on the property, where the kids could flee to when CAMP came flying, learning all of the local plants and trees, as well as not having even a phone for many years.  And how she appreciates the openness of her parents, and recognizes the sad fate of too many of her peers whom, as she says, “Feel very big, very early.”

Iris acknowledges the benefits of marijuana cultivation in her earlier years, but tells us the big WHY she no longer participates.  It’s not the threat of jail, "That part wasn’t scary".  She tells us how, as an adult, just two plants helped get her family set.   What her community is doing to integrate the outsiders coming in, and poses the very important question of why Humboldt has alarmingly high numbers of childhood trauma and neglect.

This week we recognize not only the beauty of rural living, but the darker sides of growing up in an outlaw community.  Perhaps it is only through looking at these shadows that we can hope to understand how to come back into the light.

MEND Season 1 - Episode 11

Outlaw Farming - A New Twist on Things

This past week we had the great pleasure of sitting down with Carl Stanley.

Carl is the former pastor of a cannabis-friendly All Faith church in Eureka, CA, an educator in sustainability and self-sufficiency, founder of Manabu Farms, and an advocate for “outlaw farming”, which is perhaps not what you may think it is.

We spoke with him via phone from Flint, Michigan where he resides in an effort to help the local community with the water crisis before heading back to his beloved Humboldt County.

He speaks about the many services the church provided for the community here, the why’s and how’s of becoming Producers rather than Consumers, outlaw farming, his work in Flint, and offers his thoughts on how cannabis can help Humboldt County become a self-sustaining community.

Some of what we loved about speaking with Carl was his passion for the work that he does, but also what his origin story of Humboldt implies.  He came here as a ‘traveler’, what many might describe in not too polite terms as a transient.  The stereotype of the Humboldt transient juxtaposed with the amazing work that Carl has done here in this community and elsewhere is an interesting and important part of this story; and one could argue yet another stitch to further mend the way we relate to ourselves and to each other.

To find out more about Carl, or the work that he does, or how you can become more energy-independent and reduce your monthly bills, check out his work on Facebook.  

Become a part of the Bill Free Group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/155362171643501/

Or find out more about the work and mission of Manabu Farms @ https://www.facebook.com/manabufarms2/

There’s also a website with links to his 300+ instructional YouTube videos on living the Outlaw Farmer lifestyle @ http://manabufarms.blogspot.com/

So much inspiration and food for thought here.  

We hope you enjoy.  

MEND Season 1 - Episode 10

Production, Pot Plants, Passions & Passports. (Oh My!)

Welcome to this - our Tenth episode of Mend!

This feels like a milestone for the two of us - as we intially envisioned compiling a grand total of 20 interviews for this - our first season of the podcast.   - so this would put us at the halfway point.

We’re continuing to enjoy the conversations and stories we unearth here so we’ll see how that number shifts as we journey forward.  

In this interview, we venture off the path we’ve trod thus far and sit down for a very candid and personal chat with Marie - a worker who has been on the production end of the cannabis scene, aka a “trimmer” for the past 8 years.  

We value deeply the perspective of the pioneers and originators of this tribe, but felt it necessary to examine some of the other aspects of this world as well.  

Here, you’ll gain a vivid portrait of a woman who has been able to  - among other things - travel, support her passions as a singer, a painter, and adventurer abroad.  She gives us a detailed accounting of the typical work day (a hint - not your typical 9-5) and season this particular job entails.  Plus get down to the nitty-gritty money bits - including how much one can make historically in this line of work - how that’s changing - and the great life she’s managed to carve out for herself as a result of this vocation - AND - living this fabulous life on a much smaller budget than you might expect.  

Marie shares with us how cannabis helped her overcome a debilitating addiciton to alcohol and cocaine in her early twenties.  We also dip into some controversial waters, too.  She shares her responses to those who see the Marijuana economy as one of Extraction - of merely taking without ever giving back.  

And we look toward what the future might hold for herself, but also the thousands of people like her who have relied upon this as a way of subsisting and bankrolling their dreams and passions in other walks of life.  

We’ve chosen to keep this talk raw and real.  

We don’t aim to portray perfect people here - but to provide a mic to learning, growing, imperfect folks - who are doing their best to navigate this time - with the tools at their disposal.  

MEND Season 1 -Episode 4

Before the Culture...

In this episode we interview a long-time Southern Humboldt resident and activist who tells us one of the origin stories of marijuana in Humboldt County as it relates to the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970’s.  

We learn how this plant helped provide opportunities for activists, at home and abroad, and supported the building of a solid, thriving community.

We reflect on the impacts of marijuana’s progression through Humboldt County's community through the years, and discuss (and sometimes lament) the frustrations of it's current trajectory.  

We hope you enjoy this glimpse into the life of an activist before marijuana took over the Humboldt scene.    

MEND Season One - Episode 2

A Brief History of Place

In this episode, we have the great honor to sit down for a lengthy & illuminating talk with Ms. Jentri Anders, Ph.D.  

Anthropologists sometimes get accused of "going native".  In this two-part episode we speak with a native who went anthropologist.  After dropping out of Berkeley, and society, Jentri Anders made her way to Southern Humboldt county where she spent the better part of 15 years living and working amongst the, as she calls them, "refugees".  

She eventually went back to school for her PhD in Anthropology, writing her dissertation on the people and society she was a part of.  Her book, Beyond Counterculture, The Community of Mateel, gives a unique and thorough perspective on life and people in the hills of Southern Humboldt before the marijuana boom.  

We are so grateful to begin this season with her story and perspectives on the formation of this unique community and the people known to many as the ‘back-to-the-landers’.

And to start off with this insightful and spirited entry into the land and people we'll be meeting along this path.   Enjoy.  

MEND Season One - Episode 1

The big WHY...

In this first episode of MEND, we turn the mic on one another. 

Anne & Amy chat the Big Vision behind the podcast.

The name.  

The power of storytelling.

Making ART.

The lost art of the campfire scribe.

And why we've chosen to launch ourselves from the pages of our own backyard..

Plus some snippets of prose and poetry (& Pot Farms, oh my!) to round it all out.