News

Cultivating Authenticity with Rebel Grown
By: Jack Riordan of Beard Bros. Pharms
“Hey man, I know I can grow great organic herb, and that’s great, but so can a lot of people,” admits Dan from Rebel Grown Seeds, “but what I do have is so much passion, and enthusiasm to make it that much more exciting for the consumer and they can believe in the pride and the effort that my community has put in way before I even got there. So companies like The Emerald Cup need to exist because they don’t just support themselves and their families, they support their communities and their neighborhoods and the other farms there and the ideals that have always been there.”

Ridgeline Farms: The Cannabis Growers That Brought the Emerald Cup Back to Humboldt
By: Jimi Devine at Cannabis Now
Ridgeline Farms has won some of the biggest awards in cannabis in recent years, all while working to stay afloat as they watch a sea of their small farmer peers fail to make the bar set by cannabis legalization in California…

Emerald Cup Spotlight: Sun Roots Farm
By: Direct Cannabis Network
Sun Roots Farm is a small family run homestead in Mendocino County specializing in food and medicine. Established in 2015 by Forrest Gauder and Patricia Vargas our belief is that, when the land thrives, we all thrive. The farm serves as a place of learning and reconnection to our greatest teacher, the Earth…

Nikki & Swami: A Cannabis Love Story
Seshin’ With Nikki & Swami: A Cannabis Love Story
By: Jack Riordan of Beard Bros. Pharms
In the era of the 24-hour news cycle and so much division here in the U.S. and around the world, it is too easy for many people to fall back on indifference in the absence of love. Those of us with a deep and honest relationship with cannabis are blessed, however, as this enchanted plant is rooted in love, as is the culture that has sprung up around it. The Emerald Cup is a celebration of both the plant and the people and at the heart of it all in Mendocino County you find Nikki and Swami, a couple of old school hippies turned…

Festival Update: When & Where, Tastings & Sharing, Weather Improvements, Festival Experience
By: Jim Lewi aka Indica Jim, Co-Producer of The Emerald Cup
As we “spring ahead” and full-season cultivators prepare for their year, the Emerald Cup team is deep into planning our 2019 event and want your input. Here are a few things to know…

CULTURE FROM CHAOS: KEVIN JODREY OF WONDERLAND NURSERY TALKS AUTHENTICITY & LEGACY
By: Jack Riordan of Beard Bros. Pharms
Growing up in the late 1970’s and early 80’s exposed Kevin Jodrey to a rugged upbringing on the streets of Oakland Beach, Rhode Island. Days and nights full of fistfights and big money back-alley deals began at an early age for Jodrey who caught his first felony cannabis case in 1983 for cultivation and distribution when he was…

Cannabis and Polyculture
By: Briceland Forest Farm
Our cannabis culture has always at its roots been one that defies being boxed. The legacy market, by necessity. created a diverse array of techniques, strains and farms. The push to enter the regulated market as homogenized cookie cutter products is huge. Regulatory agencies, distributors and to some degree customers want us to turn this bright tapestry of small farms and homesteads into a…

EXPLORING THE ROOTS OF THE CANNABIS CULTURE WITH MEAN GENE OF FREEBORN SELECTIONS
By: Jack Riordan @ Beard Bros. Pharms
Reputation is everything in the Emerald Triangle. Relationships dating back decades form the fabric of this incredibly unique region and the cannabis culture that defines it. For those of us who don’t live in Northern California…

Emerald Cup Award Spotlight: Ridgeline Farms
By: Direct Cannabis Network
Ridgeline Farms focuses on quality over quantity, family values and environmental stewardship in their owner-operated Cannabis Farm. They care deeply about cannabis, growing it with natural and organic techniques that both produce the highest quality product and…

Emerald Cup Award Spotlight: OM Edibles
By: Direct Cannabis Network
They are entirely passion driven and motivated by their love and connection to the cannabis plant. They believe that Cannabis is a superfood, something that you can use all parts of, and they also believe that when Cannabis is combined with…

Emerald Cup Spotlight: Newell’s Botanicals
By: Direct Cannabis Network
Newell’s Botanicals is a small company of social entrepreneurs with a mission to regenerate ecosystems and detox your cosmetics cabinet. Newell’s Botanicals initial focus was on making natural and organic skin, body, and hair care products and distributing them at…

Emerald Cup Spotlight: The Humboldt Cure
By: Direct Cannabis Network
The Humboldt Cure started as a family grow tradition, spanning over four decades in the world’s most renown region of craft sun-grown cannabis. With this on-going family tradition, they have mastered the craft of cultivation and harvesting which is no surprise they have become…

For us it is clear: the future, as was the past, is regenerative.
By: Jesse Dodd
Respect to all of the seed stewards out there! The health of our future, medicine, food and native ecosystems is stored in seeds. Growing cannabis from seed – under the sun, in living soil – is a great way to reduce the environmental impacts of cultivation…

Healthy Soil Equals Healthy Humans
by: Dragonfly Earth Medicine Plants and Humans are the descendants of micro-organisms and live in a symbiotic relationship on this planet. Since plants and humans have the same origins their similarities are vast. In modern times we have grown apart from our earthly...

Flower Judging for The Emerald Cup
By Nikki Lastreto If Swami and I were to count up the number of entries into The Emerald Cup which we have sampled over the past twelve years as flower judges, it must be way over 3000. Chances are we’ll be adding at least another 420 to that number by the time the...

The Emerald Cup: A Coming Together of Cannabis Culture Participants
By: Casey O'Neill I remember very well when Tim Blake asked me if I wanted to judge the Emerald Cup. This was in September of 2011, and it pretty well stunned me. I was thrilled with the opportunity, and thoroughly enjoyed myself with the process. This was when the...