Night Light of the North Coast: ’Tis the Harvest Season

A starry October sky over flowering cannabis plants: it is the 2020 harvest season in Humboldt County, California. Photographed at Schackow Farms.

A starry October sky over flowering cannabis plants: it is the 2020 harvest season in Humboldt County, California. [Photographed at Schackow Farms by David Wilson]

The girls are all grown up, beautiful young blossoms in their prime. They’ve overcome tremendous obstacles in their young lives, and now they are ready spread their wings and change the world. Where did the time go? Harvest season has arrived in the Emerald Triangle.

From seedlings, you nursed them and protected them. You watched as their genders showed. You sent the boys off to boarding school, hopefully before any mischief occurred — boys and girls are trouble when mixed together. Unwanted things happen. Unexpected seeds will completely derail a young life.

You fed and nurtured them as they grew, guiding them through each new challenge. Like a mountain lion protecting her young, you held predators at bay. You trapped mice and rats, and your heart hurt when you lost girls to them anyway. You fenced out the deer, hoping it would also keep the wild pigs from rooting up your babies. Sometimes it didn’t work.

You protected their tender roots from the subterranean threats of gophers and moles with sonic deterrent spikes, and found that they aren’t 100% effective. You supported them with netting or with ties when their branches became long and the winds picked up. When the rains came, your redoubled efforts kept most of the sopping bud-laden branches from breaking. You sprayed the girls with expensive organic compounds to keep the mildew off… but watched as the devastating mold spotted here and there anyway.

Through it all, you stayed awake at night worrying about navigating the complicated bureaucratic details of the legal cannabis industry, and about whether you would lose the farm to it if you weren’t perfect. You worried about people coming to rip you off. And would there be enough water in these years of drought? Would you have to order water trucked to you just to get by? What about the crazy wildfire season roulette wheel, would a disaster land on you? Will insurance even cover the farm from wildfire next year?

There’s more work for you as you prepare to send your girls out into the world, maybe into the medical profession, or perhaps recreation, but you find yourself already looking to the challenges of next year…

To read previous entries of “Night Light of the North Coast,” click on my name above the article. To keep abreast of my most current photography or purchase a print, visit and contact me at my website mindscapefx.com or follow me on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx .

A starry night above budding cannabis plants at Schackow Farms. A close focus on the plants allowed the stars of the Milky Way to blur into prismatic shapes. Nestled among the buds to the left, Saturn (above) and Jupiter, the two brightest white points, sink into the west. In the sky at right, portion of the Milky Way floats above the horizon.  Photographed at Schackow Farms, Humboldt County, California. October, 2020.

A starry night above budding cannabis plants at Schackow Farms. A close focus on the plants allowed the stars of the Milky Way to blur into prismatic shapes. Nestled among the buds to the left, Saturn (above) and Jupiter, the two brightest white points, sink into the west. In the sky at right, portion of the Milky Way floats above the horizon. Photographed at Schackow Farms, Humboldt County, California. October, 2020.

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34 Comments
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Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago

🕯🌳Tis also the season for traveling trimmers to inter our County. Isn’t this what people were bitching about at the beginning of summer and the high Covid count? Be careful people or we’ll back on a lockdown.

Plamdemic Didnt Work
Guest
Plamdemic Didnt Work
3 years ago
Reply to  Willie Bray

Harvest started around September 15th…. guess its harvest for Sativas, Nobody gives a rats ass about the above commenters Covid Fears. Get over it already!

10 toes
Guest
10 toes
3 years ago

Harvesting that smoke filled and burnt smellin weed this year ….

Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago

🕯🌳I’ve already ran into 9 trimmers in Fortuna that are here from out of the county looking for work, so beware.

cutomorrow
Guest
cutomorrow
3 years ago

the new (legal) green industry, hope it’s successful

stuber
Guest
stuber
3 years ago

Don’t hire them, they will go away. Hire local, keep us safe.

Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  stuber

🕯🌳I’ll second that and that’s what I told them and got into a screaming match with two of them on main street in Fortuna. You need to explain about the local hiring to a couple of places on main street.

Green Shirt
Guest
Green Shirt
3 years ago
Reply to  stuber

Lots of local people could do with a job and lots of new legal homegrowers could do with advice, wisdom, and a chance to thank you for the many, many years of service.

Hire local if you can. You might be surprised which of your neighbours are willing to help and just how many “discrete imbibers” have been secretly appreciating your hard work.

Lone Ranger
Guest
Lone Ranger
3 years ago

Too funny , like Burgerking and Mc Donald’s is to heart disease, smoking and weaking the lungs is too COVID-19, can’t make this shit up. Puff puff cough cough ,you’re gonna be just fine.

NorCalNative
Guest
NorCalNative
3 years ago
Reply to  Lone Ranger

Donald Tashkin at UCLA has decades of research funded by NIDA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse. NIDA’s sole mission is to prove cannabis causes harm.

Tashkin believed cannabis smoke caused cancer and set out to prove it. What he discovered was that cannabis-only smokers had a protective effect due to cannabinoids. Also, tobacco smokers who were also tokers had less cancers than tobacco-only users.

So, despite the very nasty and toxic smoke, the cannabinoids are protective in a way tobacco is NOT.

So, your cynical attempt at humor is just PROPAGANDA.

Cannabis also has the ability to manage the Covid 19 cytokine storm.

Lone Ranger
Guest
Lone Ranger
3 years ago
Reply to  NorCalNative

Its cool bud, puff puff , its all good. I didn’t know there was bad smoke for the lung and there is good smoke for the lungs. Whatever puts money in your pocket bud.

Rio
Guest
Rio
3 years ago
Reply to  Lone Ranger

I have to have a cigarette first thing every morning to open my lungs

Taint-O
Guest
Taint-O
3 years ago
Reply to  Lone Ranger

Lone ranger: I didn’t know this was a high school locker room bud. I think you sat on a cactus branch again.

Lone Ranger
Guest
Lone Ranger
3 years ago
Reply to  Taint-O

I did , and started to tear up a bit, but got some organic cocaine and my sinuses are clear and healthy now.

Matthew Meyer
Guest
Matthew Meyer
3 years ago
Reply to  Lone Ranger

Many surprises await, when you actually do science.

Here’s the WaPo writeup of the Tashkin research mentioned above:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/05/26/study-finds-no-cancer-marijuana-connection/ea496081-b529-4948-9960-9e725a376e5a/

“The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.

The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.”

Rod Gass
Guest
Rod Gass
3 years ago
Reply to  Matthew Meyer

Thanks Matthew and NorCalNative.

Donald Tashkin, pulmonologist, is a veteran of 30+ years studying cannabis. His published work and research is available. He advised to little respect way back in the 215 campaign. Turns out … he was ahead of his time concerning cannabis acceptance.

Now, I’d seriously entertain his resurgence back into the show and tell he pioneered 25 years ago. This covid-19 protection is a big, very big deal. How to correctly medicate with cannabis has gotten trampled under the hooves of the herd mentality of recreational legalization which is taxed and promoted by corruption.

They’ve attempted to kill the goodness we provided by wholesome cultivation. They stole from those of us who actually understood and worked hard to produce the medicinal grade cannabis.

Recreational marijuana legalization was a mistake. I’d like to cancel the corrupt government taxation and replace with the old-time ways.

Festus Haggins
Guest
Festus Haggins
3 years ago

Tis also the season for your homies from points south that you sell your black market weed to are on their way with some friends . Only this time they may not have those big bags of $100 bills ( mostly funny money) this time maybe coming with some fire power and just take what they want for free.

Bill
Guest
Bill
3 years ago

Another pathetic romanticized account of the marijuana industry!! For shits sake folks, wake the f*#@k up. These grows are absolutely and without question ruining our community. The illegals are destroying our environment and community without any regard to others. The legal grows are not much better, putting greenhouses on our local ridges with grow lights 24/7, generators running all hours, traffic from employees on roads not intended to be used all year long.

The most hilarious one is the trucking of huge amounts of “soil” into our remote areas to grow an agricultural crop! Now that is ridiculous, how can the Board of Supervisors and Planning Department approve of and permit a grow to be agricultural when you have to import the soil to raise the crop???

What a bunch of loons, to think this is sustainable and that it is a good thing for our County and community.

Used to live there
Guest
Used to live there
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill

Well said, Bill

Free lunch matters
Guest
Free lunch matters
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill

Amen to that Bill. So sick of growers.

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill

And the worst symptom may be the paranoia. Nothing more annoying than a twacked out dope fiend.

Misanthrope
Guest
Misanthrope
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill

Yup, Bill. They truck in soils and yet still want to claim the Emerald counties have vineyard-like terroirs that justify the labelling of appellations for weed.

Utter bullshit.

Willow Creeker
Guest
Willow Creeker
3 years ago
Reply to  Misanthrope

It’s funny how people who are making money from an industry will, without fail, hold the industry in a good light and not see the negative effects. Opposite is true if you are on the other side, not making money, while others around you are crushing it. This will make you find faults with the industry and project every possible negative influence onto it. Human nature….

Misanthrope
Guest
Misanthrope
3 years ago
Reply to  Willow Creeker

Don’t need fish and environmental blood money.
Thanks anyway.

You go on “crushing it” while you can.
Like every other boom and bust, the Green Rush will fall.

Akasha
Guest
Akasha
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill

Well you don’t have that completely right. Bill, Yes there are some people who want to do mega grows and aren’t legal and don’t care about the environment. But you can’t group all illegal grows in that category. A lot of the illegal grows are just people that have been growing here for many years and can’t afford to go legal. They are just mom and pop farmers and they love the earth and they do things organically like they always have.
Legalization has not been good for the cannabis industry and it has been horrible for Humboldt economy. So many businesses have closed and the $ not flowing like it used to. When I talk to the people who have gone legal and I asked them how it’s going they say it’s not that great to be legal. They get nothing for their money and they pay a lot of money. They say legalization has only made things more difficult tons of paperwork tons of money and they get nothing for their money. You’d think they’d at least get help with distribution. Anyway Bill don’t act so high and mighty until you’ve walked in the shoes of a cannabis grower.

Farce
Guest
Farce
3 years ago
Reply to  Akasha

Akasha- Thank you! Many good people are still here, still doing good work. Despite Flow Canna and other corporate greed machines looking to capitalize and take over. Despite public agencies attacking and maligning them. Despite media hacks misrepresenting them. Despite hype and bad information and witch hunts.

NorCalNative
Guest
NorCalNative
3 years ago

David, liked the photo but loved the story.

Don
Guest
Don
3 years ago

.
And meanwhile my reality is having to put up with the neighbor’s stupid generator running all night, and wishing I could still see the milky way through their greenhouse light spill.

Not anti-grower, but mixed light is generating bad citizens.
.

Gimmie a break
Guest
Gimmie a break
3 years ago
Reply to  Don

That’s gotta be infuriating – especially if you value dark skies and enjoy stargazing. Adds another reason why I’m not happy with weed growers.

teratoma
Guest
teratoma
3 years ago
Reply to  Gimmie a break

I hear planting males as ornamentals might be the new fad. Everybody is entitled to six!

Bouquet Noir
Guest
Bouquet Noir
3 years ago

No boys allowed! Girls who consort with boys will never produce the big beautiful flowers which make them desirable. And any Hermaphrodites are to be routed out and expelled! In fact, we shall make clones from the girl deemed the most desirable so that all may conform and be elevated so that they are worthy to be sacrificed in fire. Burn, baby burn!

Mailguy
Guest
Mailguy
3 years ago

Puff puff live don’t pass that joint

Misanthrope
Guest
Misanthrope
3 years ago

My beautiful alevin girls and boys, despite predation and human impact you’ve made it to smolthood and are preparing to migrate out to sea. There, you’ll eat and grow into the salmon and steelhead that have been swimming up our rivers for tens of thousands of years. You’ve seen droughts, deluges, fires and famines, but you’ve survived for eons and grace us with your presence still.

But now when you return to spawn, sensing the chemistry of your origin tributaries by parts per billion in coastal waters that guide your way home, you’ll be met with new challenges. Some of your home tributaries will be drained dry by cannabis growers. Others that still contain water will be polluted with pesticides, rodenticides, and particulates from bulldozing forest – all for growing cannabis legally and illegally. It wasn’t enough that we’ve overfished your elders, that we’ve clearcutted your watersheds for our homes and offices, or that we’ve shit into the atmosphere to dry out the climate that provides your homes with needed rain. Now we’re literally shitting into your babies’ cribs – just to get high in the name of medicine.

Humans, we are all damned to hell for what we are doing.
Each and every one of us.
Sleep well.

Big Bang
Guest
3 years ago

Boom, well said.