Local Appellation Exploration: NorthCountry Farms, Hayfork

This is the third installment in a five-part series exploring the diverse range of environments for local cannabis farms in the Emerald Triangle. We are heading east to NorthCountry Farms near Hayfork in Trinity County, the Triangle’s most remote and sparsely populated component.

Click back to the first installment: Local Appellation Exploration: Whitethorn Valley Farm, for an in-depth treatment of Whitethorn terroir and more information on the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s CalCannabis Appellations Project, the agency tasked with establishing a process for licensed cultivators to establish cannabis appellations by January, 2021.

In the second installment: Local Appellation Exploration: Sunboldt Grown in Holmes, cultivator Sunshine Johnston tells us about dry farming cannabis in a well-known agricultural community near the Main Stem of the Eel River.

The legal framework for establishing appellations is still in the works, and it is important to remember this series was undertaken in the spirit of future appellation development. Each installment focuses on the varying environmental factors of local farms, plus standards, practices and noteworthy varietals.

I invited farmers to put words to their terroir – both the characteristic taste and flavor imparted to their cannabis by its environment and the complete natural environment in which their cannabis is produced. And we’re talking full sun, full term cannabis planted in some percentage of native soil.

Stay tuned over the coming weeks for the final two installments in the series – Sun Roots Farm near Covelo in Mendocino County and Moon Made Farms on the east side of Southern Humboldt.

NorthCountry Farms in Hayfork by Emily HObelmann

NorthCountry Farms in Hayfork

It’s a bit of a trip to get out to Hayfork from the Humboldt Coast, especially with the ongoing daily closure of Highway 36. My travel companions and I leave before dawn and as we approach the federal construction zone, the sky lightened with sunrise, KEKA Thunder Country setting the vibe. Once we’re in Trinity County, we take Highway 3 north, past Salt Creek, 13 Dips Road and a bunch of weed farms in plain view.

Destination: NorthCountry Farms, a permitted cannabis cultivation site in Barker Valley, slightly northeast of downtown Hayfork. Owner-Operator Adrien Keys and his partner Angelina Wright cultivate full term outdoor cannabis, and they have invited me out to experience some Trinity terroir.

While Trinity is by and large a rugged place, dominated by steep and forested terrain, the small town of Hayfork is more pastoral, set in a sprawling golden valley with an abundance of oaks and much agricultural history, as I later learn.

For one thing, settlers in the mid-1850s dubbed their village “Hayfork” because of the massive amount of hay production in the area. Furthermore, Hayfork settlers “supplied most of the grain and produce to the northern county mines.” (Trinity Pictorial: A Photo Essay of Trinity County, NCP Publications, Weaverville, 1975.)

The Susie Baker Fountain Papers housed at the Eureka branch of the Humboldt County Library contain a vast collection of clippings and materials on local people, activities, and history from 1850-1966. An entry dated August 30, 1856, references Hayfork, calling it a “fine range for animals.” The passage then refers to the “excellent soil” and fine produce at a ranch in the area, saying, “We found their crops of corn, potatoes, melons and all sorts of garden vegetables in a flourishing state; and their barley, which was harvested appeared to be an excellent growth.”

The NorthCountry Farms parcel is a beautiful and undulating landscape covered with pale perished grass, punctuated by graceful white oaks and scores of fallen acorns. It is indeed zoned for agriculture and hosted cattle for decades, but when Keys and Wright took ownership about three years ago, they inherited a grow mess from their immediate predecessor, including about 150 randomly scattered smart pots.

Adrien Keys and Angelina Wright

Adrien Keys and Angelina Wright

Keys and Wright don’t cultivate that way – their plants are growing directly in the ground within a consolidated 10,000 square foot plot. This is cultivation with a long view; their healthy soil and appropriate water use will translate into high quality and sustainable crops for years to come.

A patch of sunflowers is stationed just inside the entrance to the cultivation area, with throngs of attendant bees crowding the flowers. The garden has a certain peace to it; the exposed ground is a deep ochre color, indicating richness and brawn. The cannabis plants are cheerful and lively, filled out but more on the compact side. It’s like, they were at my level, as opposed to being monstrous and hyper-fertilized.

This location comes in at about 2,500 feet in elevation. Average rainfall is close to 40″ per year, but high elevation snow is what counts here, serving to recharge groundwater for a solid water supply in the summer.

Topographically, Barker Valley is one in a series of southerly-trending valleys running perpendicular to Highway 3, leading toward a ridge of hills to the north. Hayfork Bally is also due north and measures 6,000+ feet, perceptibly influencing the environment. South Fork Mountain to the west is one of the longest continuous ridgelines in North America, a significant geographical split serving to block wet weather from the coast.

The temperature swings here tend toward the extreme, with end of summer temps ranging from the low 30s in the morning to the mid-90s by late afternoon. Keys and Wright find these extremes to be a positive form of stress, helping to minimize pest and disease problems. The extreme summertime aridity minimizes botrytis and powdery mildew, as well. The extremes also stunt the plants to some degree, hence their more compact size.

Wright calls their garden “super clean,” with their main pest management strategy pleasantly limited to the deployment of beneficial bugs this season. Thrips were a factor this season, but since they’re not very strong and they don’t travel well, “we just blasted them off the plant with well water,” Keys says. No big deal with the arid climate. Plus, the plants were totally into it.

The native soil is decidedly clay, and to prep for their first season, they turned it out with a skid steer. They mixed in some amendments and a large amount of compost and found their seemingly dismal clay soil has a raging appetite for organic material. It’s actually quite lively, chewing up compost with a fierceness and boasting the borderline idiosyncratic ability to both retain water and drain well.

This past year they mulched heavily at the start the season with straw and “chopped-and-dropped” cover crops. Over the winter they plan to cover crop with more legumes, with Wright saying, “We really need to generate a lot of biomass here because the soil can take it.”

Their garden includes Lemon Sugar Kush, Mother’s Milk, Blueberry, Key Lime and Pineapple varieties. Their CBD-rich Ringo’s Gift plants are earmarked for a North Bay manufacturer named Cosmic View, whose product line includes topicals and tinctures infused with wild-crafted or organic herbs in Northern California extra virgin olive oil.

Wright and Keys have a line of Durban Poison crosses they’ve been working on for years, a line selected for this environment. One such stabilized cross is dubbed Ikanbe, a 1:1 strain named for the Zulu word for remedy or cure – an homage to the native people of South Africa.

Their Durban Poison and Pineapple will be made into rosin, which Keys describes as one of the cleanest and most natural expressions of cannabis “coming straight from the flower and into the pens,” a true expression of terroir.

Their garden also includes a Purple Mango heirloom strain from Hyampom, more of a rarity since Trinity heirlooms are not as freely circulated as they are in Humboldt or Mendocino counties. People have been growing here for a long time, Wright says, but they were more like loggers back in the day, not so much back-to-the-land hippie types. “They have a different style.”

“It was never Garberville,” Keys adds.marijuana koalas

And that cultural divide exists to this day. The remoteness of Trinity contributes to this gulf, of course. So does its sparse population – there are more people in Arcata than in Trinity County. “The people in Denny don’t know what’s happening in Hettenshaw, or care,” Keys says.

Another big difference between Trinity and its Emerald Triangle counterparts is its lack of cannabis infrastructure. Trinity doesn’t have a cohesive business advocacy group akin to the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, and it doesn’t have distribution companies, manufacturing facilities or testing labs.

Trinity County did pass a manufacturing ordinance in August, and Planning Department Administrative Coordinator Rachel Wood tells me via email that manufacturing applications are open through the Conditional Use Permit Process. However, as of November 28, she is not yet aware of any applications, but one distribution applicant was set to go before the Planning Commission on the 29th.

All of this means that Wright and Keys have to work harder to get their product out. They have to find people who appreciate and understand boutique production (like Cosmic View), and that’s not necessarily what’s happening with out-of-area buyers.

“We get solicited endlessly for trim, but we can’t just grow just trim. It’s maybe a third of our total harvest,” says Keys. When a distributor or retailer says they only want to work with the small craft farms, but they need 2,000 pounds… That doesn’t make sense. Small farms are actually small farms; boutique is actually boutique.

While they are finding that some business entities need a reality check, the prospect of a formal process for appellation development offers a promising opportunity for community connection. Cultivators are going to have to work together; this will be way to rekindle relationships that have come and gone over the years, to put them into a format that’s going to have more legs.

Wright says there is a high concentration of permitted farms in their area – “Hopefully we can come together.” And so they are actively engaging licensed cultivators close to home and in the broader community, starting a needed discourse about what local appellations could look like.

Keys and Wright are finding that some people are worn out from being mired in the permitting process for years, but on the whole, people are excited about the prospect of being able to focus on more agricultural elements of cultivation, to do research that’s specific to their properties and methodologies.

A process for appellation development is on the horizon, and cultivators like Wright and Keys are giving some serious thought to their systems and varieties, to what exactly makes their farms and cannabis products unique. Cannabis cultivators with small farms are in this business because they love growing herb, because they are committed to crafting memorable products.

Keys puts it succinctly when he says their cannabis can be characterized by their high, dry and mineral-rich environment. The expression of their Barker Valley terroir is only compounded by the leanness of their operation – their moderate water usage and organic, unprocessed inputs.

“It’s completely different herb.”

Sugary bud

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Emeral
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Emeral
5 years ago

Come take a suck on this siskiyou klamath weed, rock your hayfork appellation all to shit. Plants stay compact only if your growing a indica kush. I’ve seen 16ft tall plants in that area. Have fun smoking dead predator bugs on your weed. You guys dont look like farmers. Lmao and only in hayfork. That’s so far from sunboldt shively it’s sad. Also I would be testing that weed because of the chemicals and pesticides sprayed by fellow neighbors heavily in that area I know for a fact, just cause your organic doesn’t mean your weed is. There is probably more pesticide use in hayfork for the amount of people than many other grower communities other than the pines. I bet your shit comes back with trace elements of carbofuran and eagle 20. Test it before you sell it on the black market, we all know there is to much weed in cali and you tools r just standing behind your I’m legal card now lmfao, straight tools. It’s Ok though I know tons of people who just sell it all on the black market while standing behind there permits lmfao trust me no club in SF or LA would ever buy yo outdoor from hayfork lol. And if they did you wouldnt be surviving with a 10,000 square foot garden lmfao. But really test it b4 u send it out of state. I bet its dirty not that your dead head buddy on the east coast cares. Straight tools u 2 r. Where r they from again? Lmfao

LGR
Guest
LGR
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

When your up there surrounded beautiful mountains, and scenic rivers, and a tight knit community half full of drunk meth and heroin users that would stab you over $10 dollars, and your just down on your gold panning luck, and the fish aren’t running that year, and you haven’t sold a bear gall bladder in almost 6 months and you finally hitch hike your ass down to Eureka to apply for welfare; these nice ‘dead head folks’ will probably still be in an industry that’s a distant memory to you and your community, maybe they’ll see you spare changing, they’d probably kick you a nug, and wish you good luck. Of course it won’t be one of your coveted ‘river strains’. Who cares where there from, this is America. Lmfao.

KSOne
Guest
KSOne
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Emeral you’re lost brother. Why come on this local area news website to trash on people you don’t know and shamelessly self promote? Haters gonna hate I guess. These are good people, involved in the local community. Don’t let your anger get the best of you, smoke some of your river strains. One Love.

Jason Coughenour
Guest
Jason Coughenour
5 years ago
Reply to  Emeral

Agreed

Willie Caso-Mayhem
Guest
5 years ago

I thought it was a good read a hope them success.

T
Guest
T
5 years ago

Does siskiyou-klamath weed mean methamphetamine?
It almost sounds like you used to know a guy who had a friend who knew someone who grew weed. But no, you’re talking about meth right?

itscrazy
Guest
itscrazy
5 years ago

This series is well written journalism. I’m enjoying reading it. It’s very interesting reading about the different areas and their farming methods.

Matthew Meyer
Guest
Matthew Meyer
5 years ago

I love the focus on small farms, terroir, and specific cultivation techniques.

It would be great to read more about soil in here, though, given the focus on terroir. Which soil series are these folks working? What kind of ratios of base minerals are they working with, and how might these impact the flavors and chemotype expression of their plants?

There’s a soilweb overlay you can use with Google Earth that is great for discovering which series are in which area, and then you can study the characteristics of that soil. Of course, nothing is as revealing as getting a soil test.

Please keep writing more of this kind of thing, it’s great to see what people are doing.

Zoltan
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Matthew Meyer

Many words but soil additives mean salmon health.maybe next advertising of self reinforcing drug will give more useful info.

Rod Gass
Guest
Rod Gass
5 years ago

This edition helped to bring me back home. The sparsely populated mountainous terrain does indeed produce unique cultivars. The individual solar exposure, the micro climates, from the Earth water and the farmer’s desires to be outliers are all complimentary to the finest grows anywhere.

Growing the best cannabis ain’t no competition it’s a way of life. A means of survival.

Groba dude trustafarian osnt
Guest
Groba dude trustafarian osnt
5 years ago

Hayfork! Hayfork, Hayfork, Hayfork!

My favorite!

Good luck with your precious marijuana! Too special for me… Pretty flowers though…

You will be selling it at the farmers market, $15/lb, very soon…

Trinity County is about to be an abandoned area, but enjoy it while you can!

small fry
Guest
small fry
5 years ago

Ignore these ignorant haters in here.. they are just jealous! Nice story, thanks for sharing! When people start to realize most of the mass farmed Corp. weed is industrialized gaggable shwag garbage, farms like this will be rolling in it! I am not a big fan of the permit process, but I wish these small farms luck!

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  small fry

Me too.

Tim
Guest
Tim
5 years ago

Thanks north country farms for putting love into your land . Don’t listen to cranked – out haters . Your following the righteous path . One love jah 🌞

Kevin
Guest
Kevin
5 years ago

I would also like to here more in-depth talk about their native soil and what amendments they put in , as this is what terroir is all about. I liked the detailed descriptions of the landscape and location. Maybe I’m wrong but I feel like it takes more than 3 years of land remediation to native soil before we can talk about terroir in cannabis grown there.

Emily
Guest
Emily
5 years ago

The terroir thing doesn’t really apply to cannabis in my opinion. When your talking grapes, you’re talking a very (very) deep rooted perennial plant capable of expressing different characteristics due to the different soils deep below the ground. Most pot plants aren’t very deep rooted and don’t express much different character due to soil types I would think. I realize terroir also refers to climate, and that is something that is unique to the different areas in humboldt. Anyway, I’m not a fan of the bullshit sales gimmicks but I am a fan of growing in native soil and not in greenhouses, so I applaud these guys for doing it the right way.

Black Rifles Matter
Guest
Black Rifles Matter
5 years ago
Reply to  Emily

Agree with 👆🏻

Zoltan
Guest
5 years ago

Thc wants NPK,and timing of feed and water.protection from drying and wind.i had swiped ,maybe,100 lbs of inlandsea plankton,good for food production,but it ,apparently does not make pot growing better.now organic is bio solids.pot does not help IQ, but buys expensive things.that I’ve noticed.and potentiating it makes turpitude extreme,like diacetylmorphine or pills.

Scooter
Guest
Scooter
5 years ago
Reply to  Zoltan

Trying to make a point about IQ with essentially no punctuation is an interesting way to communicate. Good luck with that.

J Dubbs
Guest
J Dubbs
5 years ago
Reply to  Zoltan

Holy shit, what a mess comment.

Patrick
Guest
Patrick
5 years ago

Biomass? Call it what it is: manure. Nuthin tastes better than bud grown in shit!

Jason
Guest
Jason
5 years ago

All you dumbfucks talking shit about hayfork, it’s the same shitty drug problem here as all over this state, and I know for a fact a lot gets taken to clubs and also know for a fact our weed is bigger, stickier, and better looking than humbolt and mendo shit

Virginia Hill
Guest
Virginia Hill
5 years ago

Terroir is a nice marketing term…. cannabis is not grapes. It’s all about the curing process. You can grow your Instagram plants ALL year but if your end game isn’t on point …. all you have is rope.

Nicole Skibola
Guest
5 years ago

We are so proud to be working with Adrien & Angelina. They are true stewards of the land, grow us beautiful terpene rich, medicinal plant material and are lovely humans. Thanks for writing this story about them!
Nicole, Cosmic View.

Kris Spohn
Guest
Kris Spohn
5 years ago

Nice write up!

Really excited to know Adrien & Angelina, as friends and cultivators, they are great! And it is a completely different herb. Cannabis has always meant many different things to many different people. One thing is for sure, the conversation around cannabis is growing beyond the “Reefer Madness” days.

Terrior is just one interesting subject up for debate in cannabis. Terrior is more than just a nice marketing term.

Modern anxieties about the soullessness of manufacturing and its products, it seems as if product and place are drifting apart. Creating identity, place and practice for quality products is worth the effort.

We are producing the rosin with A + A, looking forward to 2019.

Kris, Rozen