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For nearly two decades, the Emerald Cup (EC) has honored the very best of Californian sungrown cannabis. The festival underpins the heritage of small-batch craft cultivators in Northern California, infusing it with the best of music, art and cannabis. The community-focused celebration has evolved from the first event in 2004, held at Area 101 in Laytonville, into a prestigious cannabis awards show and product exposition in Sonoma and, most recently, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Founder Tim Blake, a self-described \u201cold-school outlaw,\u201d has become recognized as a custodian of cannabis culture. His support of small farmers in their time of need is unwavering; his recognition of the need to integrate with the biggest current cannabis players such as Cookies is visionary. And the fact that he\u2019s doing all this while encouraging and engaging in progressive conversation with government departments is a testament to his passion for the plant and his relentless drive for education and innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to this year\u2019s Emerald Cup Harvest Ball<\/a>, which takes placed Dec. 10-11 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California, Blake spoke to Cannabis Now about the cup\u2019s evolution, lessons learned from previous years and what we can expect from the action-packed event.<\/p>\n One of the Emerald Cup\u2019s core pillars is to recognize advocates who campaign tirelessly for cannabis. Previous winners from the community include SweetLeaf Joe, Eric McCauley and Pebbles Trippet. One of Blake\u2019s fondest memories of the cup was in 2013 when Dennis Peron<\/a>, the father of medical cannabis and legendary activist, agreed to accept his Lifetime Achievement Award on one condition\u2014that he could also be married on the stage. Blake remembers it as \u201cthe most incredible moment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey called up and said, \u2018We\u2019re gonna take your award, but we\u2019d like to do a marriage ceremony on the stage,\u2019\u201d Blake said. \u201cI thought, \u2018We\u2019re gonna do a gay marriage ceremony on the stage at the Emerald Cup because if Dennis asked, we\u2019re doing it.\u2019 And then we went ahead and did it. What an incredible part of history to say we were part of.\u201d<\/p>\n Blake recalls when he first heard \u201cprominent people such as Cheech\u201d were coming into the industry. When Willie Nelson was nominated, he wanted the award\u2019s title changed to the Willie Nelson Award<\/a>, which, Blake says, \u201cmade it much easier to get higher-profile people.\u201d The 2022 recipient, Woody Harrelson, is well-known for his Hollywood hits and cannabis and hemp advocacy.<\/p>\n For this year\u2019s awards ceremony, Blake and his team brought the spirit of the Emerald Triangle down to Los Angeles on May 14. The event coincided with the opening of Harrelson\u2019s new West Hollywood-based dispensary, The Woods, and they appeared together on the front page of LA Weekly<\/em>. Blake\u2019s voice reveals all the love and admiration he has for Harrelson as he discusses the energy and support the actor has shown sungrown farmers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe invitation to the dispensary read,\u00a0\u2018Woody Harrelson, Tim Blake and the Emerald Cup invite you to the opening of The Woods,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Oh, my God, what an incredible thing for him to do\u2019,\u201d Blake says. <\/p>\n \u201cHe started by telling us that we could only bring 100 people and we were thinking, \u2018Who can we invite?\u2019 We had all of our contestants and all of our sponsors. And then it pushed out from 100 to 200 people. On opening night, we overran the place. Woody had to pull back to the lounge with all the stars. He left our party early and I thought we\u2019d done something wrong, but it turned out Paul McCartney had called him up and wanted to party with him.\u201d<\/p>\n The following day, Blake says, the NorCal farmers met on the corner of legendary Los Angeles intersection Hollywood and Vine for a press photo-op before \u201cwalking en masse to the Montalb\u00e1n Theater and taking a picture with Pebbles Trippet<\/a> in the middle of them. That was a wonderful moment, and our small farmers realized that they, too, belonged in LA.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After that, at the awards ceremony, Harrelson was up on the stage to receive the award, and according to Blake, \u201cHe looked over at us and said, \u2018You had more friends than I did at the opening last night!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe was up on that stage doing stand-up for 20 minutes; he made joke, after joke, after joke,\u201d Blake recounts. \u201cIt was just amazing. [Woody] said, \u2018You know, these are my people. This is my community.\u2019 Because he felt it. He\u2019s protested before, he\u2019s humble, he knows the scene. It was really touching. I love Woody forever for that. I can\u2019t thank him enough for doing what he did.\u201d <\/p>\n More love for Woody was in order.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really proud that Woody looked into who we are and realized the Emerald Cup is an integrity-based, community-oriented show for the people, for small farmers, for sungrown cannabis\u2014everything we are fits with him,\u201d Blake says. \u201cHe\u2019s evangelizing for small farmers; he\u2019s putting his name on the line. He\u2019s the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n At its core, the Emerald Cup celebrates the best sungrown, heritage, small-batch craft flower and its farmers. Sadly, since 2016, a brutal combination of taxation, licensing and market conditions has led Northern California\u2019s cannabis community to an existential crisis. To show their support for the farmer\u2019s plight<\/a>, Blake, along with Michael Katz of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance; Genine Coleman of Origins Council; Chris Anderson of Redwood Roots Distribution; Nicholas Smilgys of Mendocino Cannabis Distribution; Traci Pellar of the Mendocino Producers Guild; and Brandy Moulton of Sovereign 707, created the Small Farms Initiative, which debuted at last year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, we ran a lottery system and gave away 23 booths and told people they could share them,\u201d Blake says. \u201cNext thing you know, we had 50 farmers in there, all for free. It was a tremendous success and really highlighted the plight of the small farmers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Harvest Ball is ramping up its support initiatives this year with sponsorship support from Harborside and Urbn Leaf. 200 farmers have been invited to the Harvest Ball to get their products directly in front of buyers in a direct sales \u201cspeed selling\u201d environment. Eight booths have also been given to social equity brands from the Bay Area along with the small farmers. A \u201cspeed meeting\u201d industry opportunity has also been arranged for small, craft and heirloom farmers to present their very best products to buyers and merchandisers, Blake explains. The Emerald Cup Buyers Club Meet & Greet is scheduled on December 9 at the flagship Mercy Wellness\u2019 new consumption lounge space.<\/p>\n The inability to offer direct-to-consumer sales significantly impacts local farmers\u2019 income options. Blake compares it to the early days of alcohol prohibition and how it took more than half a century before breweries and vineyards could sell direct to consumers at their cellar doors. It\u2019s about giving farmers a chance to survive, he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big topic of conversation at this year\u2019s Harvest Ball; we have panels on what we need to do to save these small farmers,\u201d Blake says. \u201cOne of the main issues is direct sales.\u201d<\/p>\n Blake acknowledges the historical animosity of the Emerald Triangle farmers who were devastated by the big groups that advocated for taking that cap off the small acreage as outlined in Prop 64, the 2016 initiative that legalized adult-use cannabis in California.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bill was specifically written to prohibit anyone from growing more than one acre of cannabis for five years,\u201d he says. \u201cThis was done with the knowledge that if large-scale farming was immediately allowed, the small legacy farmers wouldn\u2019t have time to get established or deal with the rapid price decreases that were inevitable. Two months into legalization, Governor Gavin Newsom went back on his promise and allowed large-scale farming, with support and advocacy from larger stakeholders. It created an extinction event for those legacy farmers in the Emerald Triangle and throughout the rest of the state. There\u2019s a lot of anger and bitterness and resentment, which we have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he knows there has to be unity and that by coming together, they can make it work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can to give back to the farmers,\u201d Blake says. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve always been about.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Department of Cannabis Control<\/a>\u00a0caught some heat for its \u201cheavy-handed\u201d actions toward attendees and exhibitors at last year\u2019s Harvest Ball. In true Blake style, instead of \u201ccalling them out\u201d as he was encouraged, he chose the path of restoration and unity. Over the past six months, Blake, his team and the DCC have formulated a plan to allow vendor sampling in the Craft Cannabis Marketplace.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sat down with them and said, \u2018Look, if you want to end events and you don\u2019t want anybody to do events, then continue like this because nobody\u2019s going to feel comfortable coming to the events,\u2019\u201d Blake said.<\/p>\n This year, the DCC will have a discreet booth at the show so they can \u201cinteract with farmers and talk to people and brands.\u201d A panel titled \u201cA Conversation With The DCC: How We Can Work Together To Make Positive Change\u201d is also scheduled for Sunday, December 11, from 12-12:45 pm as part of the EC session in the garden annex.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to work with the governor; we need to work with the DCC; we need to work with corporations,\u201d Blake says. \u201cEverybody must come together, get around the table, and work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n And, according to Blake, it\u2019s not just for the Emerald Cup, but for every event moving forward. <\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s a farmer\u2019s market or somebody else\u2019s event, we\u2019re doing the work so that these can go about reasonably so everybody can have a good time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re attending this year\u2019s Harvest Ball, be sure to download the new app to learn more about the DCC\u2019s panel. The app also allows you to create your own schedules for the two-day event, so you won\u2019t miss any discussion panels or your favorite artists performing live on stage. The app will also let you curate your favorites list as you navigate your way booth-by-booth through the Craft Cannabis Marketplace\u2014an absolute must to secure the world\u2019s most highly sought-after seeds and clones, as well as the newest cannabis products.<\/p>\n One factor that makes the Emerald Cup so crucial to California\u2019s cannabis market is its continued strive for excellence and education. For the 2022 awards, Blake and his team modified the judging process to reflect the advances of cultivars and chemovars. According to Blake, Alec Dixon, one of the co-founders of SC Labs, was the driving force behind the creation of the Emerald Cup Cannabis Classification System powered by SC Labs and PhytoFacts.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, Alec started telling me, \u2018Tim, we got to break up the way the judging gets done because it can\u2019t be done this way,’\u201d Blake said. \u201cMark Lewis had been working on this system for quite some time, and so it\u2019s kind of a merger of us coming together. We\u2019re trying to reframe the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the bonuses, Blake says, is that it allows for \u201call these different terpene profiles a chance to be recognized.\u201d The new\u00a0cannabis classification system<\/a>\u00a0separates and judges entries based on terpenes, flavor and effects. For Blake, it\u2019s an excellent opportunity to educate the public about the nuances between different cultivars, encouraging them to learn about terpenes profiles instead of just going to the strain with the highest THC level. That factor alone has never won the cup. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not what we\u2019re looking for,\u201d Blake says. \u201cIt\u2019s got to be something unique. It\u2019s a wonderful learning and educational experience. It\u2019s a wonderful process to recognize all the different varieties and cultivars and let them win. And it\u2019s just been such a wonderful process to teach people about.\u201d<\/p>\n The Emerald Cup has undergone quite a transformation and is barely recognizable from the inaugural 2004 event that was \u201ccompletely illegal,\u201d according to its founder. Back then, it was purely a flower contest, with a handful of Emerald Triangle friends and farmers coming down from the mountains to show off their choice picks from that year\u2019s harvest, with many hiding their identities to avoid prosecution.<\/p>\n Without Blake\u2019s knowledge, hash debuted in the cup the following year, in 2005. Back then, hash could land you in jail for up to five years; this was still the Wild West of weed and extracts hadn\u2019t yet entered the fray. In the following years, the cup opened up to seed sales, tinctures and other categories as the market and product offerings continued to increase.<\/p>\n Blake recalls the introduction of concentrates that \u201ccome from nowhere; there wasn\u2019t even the word concentrate\u201d that changed the cannabis landscape. He fondly remembers when Frenchy Cannoli, the revered hashish evangelist judged the awards one year and said, \u201c\u2018That isn\u2019t hashish.\u201d And we said, \u2018No Frenchy, it\u2019s concentrates.\u2019 That was a whole learning curve for him, for me, for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n The cup had no vendors or sponsors in those early days. The first to get onboard was SC Labs<\/a>, one of the industry\u2019s original testing labs. \u201cPeople wondered what the heck they were doing there,\u201d Blake says. \u201cThe first year the cup tested concentrates, there was a 75% fail. Within two years, we had that down below 5% because people realized they couldn\u2019t get away with that anymore. It was really good that the testing cleaned it all up.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, the cup has more than 40 categories, almost 50 with the inclusion of the awards\u2014a fact that Blake calls \u201cmind-boggling.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been so many industry changes over the last 20 years, so many different issues that have been dealt with as we\u2019ve gone along the path, it\u2019s really been something to see,\u201d Blake says. \u201cTo watch that evolution has been an incredible thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Blake\u2019s daughter Taylor started helping her dad at the Emerald Cup in 2006 and about eight years ago, she started doing it full-time. \u201cEverybody loves her so much and that she\u2019s side by side with me,\u201d Blake beams as he talks about his youngest child. The proud father says that Taylor plans to continue the family business.<\/p>\n \u201cShe can handle any part of the show,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m so proud that she stands with me and we do the cup together. And as I get older and retire, she\u2019ll take the reins\u2014the show\u2019s in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Blake believes that the federal legalization of cannabis will take place over the next couple of years and when it happens, the plant has a bright future\u2014not just in California but worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCannabis was a key aspect in just about every society in the world until it was demonized in the 1900s,\u201d Blake says. \u201cMost countries will soon legalize cannabis as well and we\u2019ll see it in their people\u2019s daily lives in one form or another, creating healthier, more vibrant cultures.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And even though the farmers are having a very rough time, Blake focuses on the positive angle in the way only he can.<\/p>\n \u201cWatching cannabis go legal across the country so quickly, and across the world and then following that, the plant medicines and all the psychedelic medicines, it\u2019s like, OK, we don\u2019t have people going to jail. We have mainstream media or people embracing this; we got plant medicine coming in,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so the good that it\u2019s done has to outweigh people\u2019s personal needs. Because, at the end of the day, it\u2019s about society and what we need to do for our world to heal it. And with cannabis and plant medicines, we\u2019re healing the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The post The Emerald Cup Harvest Ball Becomes Epic Event in 2022<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
For nearly two decades, the Emerald Cup (EC) has honored the very best of Californian sungrown cannabis. The festival underpins the heritage of small-batch craft cultivators in Northern California, infusing it with the best of music, art and cannabis. The community-focused celebration has evolved from the first event in 2004,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":59137,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,50,99,16683,100,5153,3848,9987,2903,16684,1066,15903],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59138,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59136\/revisions\/59138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Montalban-Theatre.jpg\")
<\/a>The Emerald Cup Awards<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Swami-and-Tim-Blake.jpg\")
<\/a>Small Farms Initiative<\/h4>\n
![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tim-Blake-Emerald-Cup.jpg\")
<\/a>Working With The DCC<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tim-Inspects-Jar-of-Cannabis.jpg\")
<\/a>The New Cannabis Classification System<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Woody-Accepting-Award.jpg\")
<\/a>The Emerald Cup Today<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tim-Taylor.jpg\")
<\/a>The Future of Cannabis<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: The Emerald Cup Harvest Ball Becomes Epic Event in 2022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"