Casali


is a line of “luxury convenience-oriented products” (CO2-extracted vape pens and machine-made pre-rolls, for example) with moderate levels of THC for those who “want to enjoy themselves and actually be social rather than get super high.” Edwards is bewildered when he encounters cannabis purchasers who are seeking the highest amount of THC—a request he likens to ordering Everclear at a cocktail bar. “I’d rather hear them ask about the terpene profile [the aroma of cannabis] or the pesticide-testing results. Or about how much to consume for a desired effect. But going straight for the highest THC? I don’t get it,” says Edwards, who favors the first-glass-of-wine euphoria that comes from a half-joint of grapefruity Romulan. “My business partner [Josh Malgieri] and I don’t embody the typical stoner—and neither do our products. We want to bring integrity to the cannabis industry and change its reputation.” The company’s less formal family-style


meals are held at a local winery whose location and identity is withheld until


DISCOVER!


payment is confirmed—$50 per person. Sensory stations allow you to smell the products, and vaporizing stations let guests take in the flavor of the greenery without getting high. (The low heat of the machine ensures that the cannabinoids—the active compounds—stay intact.) The fancier prix-fixe meals include jars of cannabis flowers to smell paired with wine for each course. Erin Meyer, Edwards’s fiancée and a local sommelier, helps with the matchups: Citrusy Kosher Sour Tangie goes well with dry sparkling blanc du blanc, for instance, while Cherry AK and a young, tannic pinot noir both have a bitter, jammy palate. (If you missed the July 20 dinner, a harvest party is scheduled for mid-November. Email info@sonomacannabisco.com to get on the event’s list.) Edwards says all kinds of


“curious people” attend the sold-out affairs. “Our motto is ‘All are welcome here,’ and we think it’s our duty to welcome new consumers to cannabis.”


But cannabis didn’t always have such a hip


following. For many established members of the community, who farmed under the decades-long prohibition, the change in attitudes toward marijuana and its use is a godsend. Johnny Casali of Humboldt County’s Huckleberry Hill Farms, also part of the Flow Kana cooperative, knows the devastating effects of the century-long ban. When he was 20 years old, Casali was arrested for cultivating cannabis next to federal land, and he served six and a half years at the federal Lompoc Prison Camp in Santa Barbara County and then two and a half years at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada,where he participated in a drug-rehab program. “While this was a big, awful thing,


the opportunity to really share with people what I truly believe in and what


I love doing.” –Casali


“I finally have


especially for my family, it gave me a new, positive perspective on life,” says Casali. Now in his sixties, he operates on the right side of the law having received a permit to farm 5,000 acres of fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, honey and FruitLoopz, a high-terpene strain that gives you a giddy, enjoyable high. “I’m just happy that I finally have the opportunity to really share with people what I truly believe in and what I love doing” he adds. But Casali’s farm is just a small part of


a larger machine that is booming in rural Northern California and across the country, as more states vote to legalize the plant. Adds Steinmetz, “At the end of the day, we’re developing a sustainable agricultural model around the small farmer that can be replicated around the world.”


Find more weed-friendly events at timeout.com/san-francisco/cannabis. 29


July 26–October 10, 2017 Time Out San Francisco


PHOTOGRAPH: TOP RIGHT: COURTESY FLOW KANA; CENTER LEFT: RYAN YOUNG


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