Now more than ever, local farming matters. Here’s why.
Forget about Christmas and New Years—at Solful, we celebrate a different kind of holiday. The kind that’s carried on the breeze, not marked down in the calendar. One that brings sunshine, not end-of-year sales. And right now, even if it doesn’t seem like it, Mother Earth is celebrating all around us. That’s right—it’s harvest season! The plants are flowering, the leaves are changing and we’re bringing exciting new strains into the store for you to enjoy. Read on to learn why we love this time of year and you should too—and to discover why this time around, harvest season matters more than ever.
The Emotional Connection to Cannabis
Harvest represents the culmination of a year of work for our partner farmers, but it’s more than that—it’s also the time when we feel most connected to our cannabis.
It’s an emotional time of year. As one of our partner farmers from Alpenglow Farms puts it:
“If you have kids, you’ll understand. It’s bittersweet in the beginning, like the end of summer. When the kids are starting to go back to school, and the house is empty. When the plants grow to their full potential, you form a bond with them, and you see all of your efforts manifest into the fruition that is the cannabis flower.”
At Solful, we spend our harvest navigating the winding back roads of Northern California, meeting growers, discovering new strains and remembering why our values are so important to us.
The Importance of Local Farming: Connecting with Mother Earth
Relationships with local farmers matter—and now, as fires disrupt our communities and force our friends and families out of their homes, we’re reminded more than ever that it’s our responsibility to maintain Mother Earth’s delicate equilibrium.
We live up to that responsibility every day with our commitment to sungrown cannabis. What does that mean? It means that we offer cannabis grown with clean water and natural sunlight. It means less wasteful electricity use and a deeper connection to the earth that gives us the herb. And it also means that we get the best cannabis from some of Northern California’s best growers, some of whom have roots in the industry that go back decades.
Nostalgia and Innovation: California’s Cannabis Renaissance
We believe in the power of cannabis to heal, not just our bodies but also the earth. Our partners’ sungrown cannabis farms operate at a smaller, more intimate scale, and are more community-focused and better for the earth than indoor growing. In this unusual harvest season, every time we look out the window we’re reminded of just how important that is.
“I know each and every plant on my farm and the individualities of each. So do the consultants at Solful. The work we do is more crucial now than ever, in regards to keeping things sustainable, local and personal. We advocate for sustainability, small farms, and the support of communities where these farms live.” — Craig Johnson, Alpenglow Farms
These are small-scale farmers who know their crops intimately, and they’re happy to introduce us. That’s what we mean when we say we believe in muddy-shoe sourcing.
Our relationships with these farmers lets us bring you the best product, harvested and dried by a loving, careful steward. And the generations of farmers and generations of plants guarantee that you’re getting the best flower in the world, grown and cured by some of the world’s most expert cannabis horticulturalists.
It’s farm-to-shop sourcing, but it’s so much more than that. The benefits of producing cannabis on this small scale are endless. You can grow the best cannabis in the world, but if you dry, trim, or process it wrong, it won’t be any good. That’s why our partners use a curing and drying process that they adapt strain by strain and even plant by plant, ensuring that every gram is prepared to perfection by the time it reaches our shop. The attention to detail is incredible. Our farmers don’t work strain-to-strain, or even plant-to-plant—instead, they’re often evaluating trichomes, the tiny glands that carry most of the plants’ THC, and checking the frostiness of each bud for ripeness so that they can harvest at the exact right moment.
We could go on about the incredible partners we work with and the unbelievable attention to detail, care and passion that they bring to everything they do. But in the end, harvest season is about more than producing the world’s best cannabis. By celebrating harvest season, we’re honoring Mother Earth. And we’re building a holistic process of healing and growth that, for us, represents what the cannabis industry should strive to become. One of our partner farmers from Moonglow Farms said it best:
“By harvesting we pay homage to the plants, transitioning from cultivation to drying and curing this beautiful flower. And of course, we simply love consuming cannabis and can’t wait to try out this season’s flower.”
Our thoughts are with all of our friends, customers and partners affected by the fires in Northern California and beyond.
Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest updates from Solful, including special relief offerings for people affected by the fires. We’ve got some new strains ready for you in the shop and tons more, coming soon (keep your eye out), courtesy of our incredible partners who are out harvesting as we speak.
Most of all, stay safe. We’re here for you and we hope to see you soon.