Philosophy of Passion

Talking Trees Farms

As many of you know, here at the Emerald Magazine we often provide our readers with profiles of local, independent businesses in the burgeoning cannabis industry. At times, the highfalutin tone can distract from the core truth of the people we interview. That being: these businesses, though still fringe and shrouded in lingering paranoia, are normal.

That’s right. Normal. Yes, cannabis is still illegal for a little while longer. Yes, it has been played like a political football by communities throughout the country deciding to either embrace or vilify it. Yes, many people are still unfairly jailed and persecuted for having any affiliation with the plant, even more so if you’re a minority. To change how cannabis and its business owners are treated takes baby steps in consciousness. Like any food joint, bar, coffee house, distillery, apparel store, or wood shop, these people in our community provide us with a product that people want. Cannabis has the added benefit of being scientifically proven to carry health benefits, unlike liquor and greasy burgers.

My better-late-than-never epiphany celebrating the utter normality of cannabis aligned perfectly with meeting the owner of Talking Trees Farms, a sweet-natured and warm man called Craig, who told me some of what makes his business special while participating in the industry’s tussle to be seen as
ordinary.

“We practice gratitude in relation to the cannabis plant,” Craig began, “I don’t think that there’s such a thing as a master grower because there’s no way to master something that’s always changing. Talking Trees embraces that every plant has a personality, and from our perspective, it’s all about a connection to the plant and the land, and then our intuition is what guides us towards what every plant needs. I come from a family of six kids, and we all have shared bonds, but there’s a specificity that makes each of us who we are. Parenting is a good approach to how we farm. We farm from the heart. It’s a connection and a passion.”

When asked about what sets their farm apart from others, Craig went on to say, “I wouldn’t say that we do so much different, but we’ve put a lot more focus on yielding Rosin, which is an organic dab made from the pressed flowers. It’s very comparable to a BHO dab, except there’s no solvents used. In comparison to say C02, you’re retaining almost all the terpenes because you’re not solvent processing it. It’s the most natural rendering of dabs. But aside from all of the products, we focus on our legitimacy. I mean payroll, insurance, expansion, all done, though, with a philosophy of passion. However, we’re just trying to be realists amid this market. Keeping through-lines of legitimacy so that we don’t have to, I mean, just do the bullshit dance anymore. It’s both a passionate and loving endeavor, with our feet firmly rooted in the reality of our world.”

The undercurrent of my interview with Craig was deep, one of the most earth-rooted I’ve had in my time conducting these talks. But the clear-eyed realism of his business sense balanced the splendor of fostering natural connections to self and land. The more the public can honor and have gratitude for our natural surroundings and this plant, while de-stigmatizing its distribution and use, the sooner it seems we too can apply our passions to even greener pastures.

Talking Trees has products available at Humboldt Patient Resource Center in Arcata, Harborside in Oakland and CBCB in Berkeley, among other places. Follow them on Instagram at Talkingtreesfarms. It’s the perfectly, wonderfully normal thing to do.