FOREST MAGIC | The secret to Humboldt Farms’ fantastic flower

Sun-grown in the thick of Northern California’s wild beauty by local cannabis masters.

Humboldt County is a full-sensory experience. This unique place where ancient redwood trees stand boldly, embracing the wild waters and winds of the North Pacific swell, transports you into a timeless wonder. A carpet of fluorescent green moss at your feet. Tiny mushroom fairy villages along your path. Majestic owls, hawks and eagles greet you. All of life, wild and pure, flourishes in the filtered sunlight spilling from the canopy of primordial trees.

It is deep within in these forests where Humboldt Farms grows their premium flower.

Entrenched in the cannabis world’s most legendary location, the Northern California producers of flower and extracts are as authentic as any outfit you’ll find in 2019. The collective’s 15 farms are all family-run by growers who have at least 10 years of experience cultivating cannabis locally. Each farm has less than half an acre of grow area for an emphasis on quality over quantity and to maintain sustainability over consumption.

“Our whole operation is outside in the sun, no electric lights involved. Every garden is located within Humboldt County proper, deep in rugged terrain, down dirt roads,” says Humboldt Farms co-founder Zach Rubin. “When you look at other cannabis farms in the market today, they’re being assembled on large pieces of agricultural land, in flat, on-grid locations, or under electric lights.

“What you get with Humboldt Farms,” Rubin adds, “comes from this natural, majestic, magical garden.”

Humboldt’s storybook gardens.

You can sense the reverence for the area’s sublime aura in the company’s whimsical packaging. Flower jars and preroll, rosin and cartridge boxes all shine with fanciful images of Humboldt County.

Humboldt Farms also highlights the local artists and ‘magic makers’ of the area whom co-founder Dominic Gabriel says “alchemize the beauty of this place with their own light to create our vibrant community.”

Humboldt magic isn’t all mystical talk.

The bud of the Emerald Triangle, which, in addition to Humboldt county includes Mendocino and Trinity counties, has long been prized as being the world’s best, thanks largely to the area’s natural advantages. Humboldt County sits on the Pacific coast nearly 300 miles north of San Francisco. Hot summer days and cool nights encourage growth, while moderate elevation discourages mold. Hills and gullies offer plenty of discrete areas in which to grow.

These conditions attracted the back-to-the-land hippies to the region some half-century ago, when Humboldt County’s reputation for world-class cannabis first started to be forged. After decades of area farmers operating in the shadows, California citizens voted in November 2016 to legalize cannabis for adult recreational use.

Aside from the technical bureaucratic requirements, Humboldt Farms hasn’t changed a thing in over 20 years of farming. Their deep local roots have empowered them throughout the legalization process, allowing them to preserve their authenticity and deliver exemplary products to the current marketplace.

Legalization has offered one golden opportunity, though—a chance to openly share the bounty and legend of this extraordinary, enchanting corner of the world.

“Legalization is giving us an opportunity to tell this story,” Rubin says. “If it continued to be illegal, we wouldn’t have this platform to tell this story of Humboldt County and the magic of this place.”

Gabriel, Rubin’s Humboldt Farms co-founder, is equally blissed to be standing out in the sunlight.

“We’re not only co-creating an excellent product,” he says. “We’re building a community of like-minded people who seek to expand their own human experience and who share our values; living a life that you love and respecting nature and the creatures and habitats of this beautiful planet we share.”

This story was created in partnership with Humboldt Farms.

[Product(s) named in this story are registered under California license M11-18-0000226-TEMP]