In 2022, in the heart of late-stage capitalism, collaboration instead of competition in any space is rare and nearly a thing of the past. Farm Cut is aiming to change that. While other brands are vying for who has the best weed, the dankest ganja, the loudest buds, and calling everything else shwag, Farm Cut takes a different approach by working collaboratively to grow the very best.

Farm Cut is a group of five family farms found in the fertile, outdoor-grow-friendly regions of Northern California. It’s made up of Briceland Forest Farm, Down Om Farms, Emerald Spirit Botanicals, HappyDay Farms, and Whitethorn Valley Farm. Each participating farm focuses on regenerative and organic practices to cultivate cannabis with earth-friendly methods instead of farming in artificial conditions. The farms also offer local produce to their neighbors, which, in turn, cultivates a relationship of care and support within their community.

What also makes Farm Cut stand out among its peers is that they don’t trim. Yes, you read that right. The farmers don’t remove the small sugar leaves that surround the buds.

Daniel Stein of Briceland Forest Farm explains the reasoning behind this bold move.

“We actually don’t trim; Our process is that we buck it down off the stem after it’s fully dried,” he said of the process of running your hand down the stems to remove the buds. “The cure happens after it gets bucked down, and then when we’re ready to package, we take off any stems, bigger leaves, and just kind of brush it with gloves.”

The result of this method is incredibly fragrant and flavorful outdoor herb with an extra layer of protection from the elements.

Cannabis is prone to degradation due to factors such as light and humidity, depending on how it’s stored. Stein said Farm Cut’s anti-trimming method helps preserve the plant’s cannabinoids and terpenes longer than trimmed cannabis. Farm Cut presents the buds the same way the growers keep them in their head stashes, with the small protective leaves around the flower bud, the sugar leaves, still included.

“We are trying to do this in the way that farmers preserve and keep their weed,” Stein said. “When you trim it—I guess the best thing I can relate it to is, when you go to the grocery store, you wouldn’t buy a peeled banana or a peeled orange. It’s just ridiculous. They come with a natural, protective coat, and similar, that little bit of sugar leaf that’s on cannabis keeps it from hitting against other buds and moderates its moisture.” 

Stein suggests brushing the leaf material off before rolling a joint and then having the shake to throw into an edible. A win-win, all around.

Farm Cut only sells quarters and half-ounces instead of grams and eighths because more bud packaged together helps conserve the quality in terms of concerns such as moisture retention. To ensure that customers are still getting what they pay for, they overstuff the reusable jars with a bit of extra product to make up for the leaves that inevitably make it into the bag. This way, you’re still getting a mass amount of ganja goodness, and there’s plenty of product left when the leaves are removed. 

The special attention to preserving the life of the flower by not trimming isn’t the only thing that’s a key point for Farm Cut. They also make up a tight-knit community of cannabis growers. Because they all vouch for each other’s products, the collective of farms can increase their offerings to vendors by growing multiple strains at a time on different farms.

“This brand really came about from the friendship between farmers,” Stein said. “We’re all farms that share a lot of our ethos and how and why we grow. We’ve all either met each other as friends in life or through the cannabis industry, and we’ve all had these experiences of aligning with brands that don’t really represent us. They may help us sell flower or whatever, but they don’t represent the morals, ethos, and quality of what we want to bring into the world.”

The farms that make up the Farm Cut community are all independently owned. Each is a homestead for plants, farm animals, and multi-generational families.

“Gathering this group of farmers that represent the same things is very special,” Stein said. “We have vegetables, too. We’re farmers, not growers. We don’t come from the indoor growing industry. We come from a relationship with plants to the earth and feel a responsibility to take care of the earth and our community. And part of that with the food is learning to connect to the land we live on in a way that creates something higher-quality than what would be grown on an industrial farm.”

farmcutcannabis.com

This article appears in the June 2022 issue of High Times. Subscribe here.

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