Croptober 2023 in Full Swing
The harvest is not the same beast it once was.
Much of the billions of dollars that would flow into the small towns in Northern California every year has been lost in the years since legalization passed. Permit stacking here at home, Oklahoma flooding the East Coast market, and a poor regulatory rollout contributed a lot to the pain in both the underground and legal markets.
But there is still hope to be found in harvest season because of what it meant to the survivors. For those who have made it this far through the storm, the harvest is when the efforts of a year’s labor come to fruition. Many of them represent the last grasp of outdoor OGs holding on for the culture, as so much of California’s outdoor and mixed-light cannabis production has moved to giant facilities.
But not everywhere. People like Dashiell and Mariam of Barrett Farms, named for their dog, are more than willing to show you the heat coming out of small craft cannabis farms.
The pair told us the season started off with 10 feet of snow in the walkways between greenhouses, crushing three of the houses during the last week of March.
“April 11 we could start rebuilding them, and had them planted from the nursery April 30,” The pair told L.A. Weekly. “First round of deps had the coolest flowering weather we’ve experienced in 14 years of growing here in Dinsmore, our gardens range from 3,000-3,500 feet in elevation and we couldn’t have picked a better season to grow varieties specifically for resin.”
While they are able to get more runs out of their mixed light operation, they also are harvesting their full sun plants this month. All of it is benefitting from the cooler temperatures that help keep the plants resin loaded and juicy.
“The harvest has been great. We’ve been super happy with the quality of resin from everything we’ve planted,” Dashiell and Mariam said. “The fun part, post harvest, has been seeing the nuances different hash makers can bring out of the same starting material. One could bring out undertones of Gelato and sherb, while the other folks might have a funky, more gas-like expression.”
As Barrett Farms noted, this is one of the best times of year for hash. Getting your hands on the best outdoor material is the most commercially viable way to winning in a flooded concentrate marketplace. As the saying goes, when it comes to making hash: fire in, fire out. That means you’re only going to get the real heat if you’re using the best material.
One of the people famous for the quality of their annual material hunt is Marc Hammond from Kalya Extracts. Over the years, Hammond’s harvest quest has led to a stacked trophy shelf with Kalya firmly standing tall as one of the best legal hash companies in the world. He was quick to note just how awesome the year has been.
“An awesome year so far for norcal greenhouse and deps,” Hammond told L.A. Weekly. “More temperate weather has made the terps shine in a great way, making this an ideal harvest for hash. For us, a huge field of crazy looking Z is being chopped now, followed with rows of amarelo, starburst 36, triple burger, dol whip, goji og, papaya syrup and more exciting flavors trailing closely behind. Be on the lookout for the largest Z release that Cali has ever seen!”
We will be on the hunt for the harvest’s best offerings in the weeks to come. While we’ll start seeing the hash quick, the flower will take a little bit longer to dry and cure. That being said, if any farm wants to show us what they are up to we are always happy to take a look at your gear.
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