Remember that fairy tale where the woman spends her days trying to spin straw into gold?

Trimming weed is kind of like that. Long days sitting in one place, repetitive, and requires precision and a very specific skill set. Anyone can do a hack job to get the pounds trimmed but a good trimmer has finesse and can spot an imperfect nug in a bucket full of gold.

That year there was a lot of weed to trim and there was no way two of us could do it all, so the farm hired some locals to come in for a few weeks. I can’t remember their names, it’s been so long but the story begins on a pot farm, on the top of a mountain, in Humboldt County, California.

Our Crew: The growers were two women in their 20’s. They listened to podcasts and pop country while they worked long-ass days in the hot and smoky California sun. There were two trimmers on the property, also ladies, myself and my ride-or-die, Lauren. Even the dogs were ladies!

The main property had a farmhouse we all lived in. Lauren and I shared a room in the attic. For months at a time, we were never more than 6 feet away from each other. We slept 6 feet apart, we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together, and we spent every day from 10 am-midnight working side-by-side in the trim shed. A 10x10 school portable brimming with bins of untrimmed weed. There was a third structure we called the Plywood Palace, with hundreds of more totes to manicure, This is why it was decided to bring in some locals.

Their crew: Three generations of women piled in a bright yellow VW. It was a Grandma and her sister (we called them the Grandmas), Mom (Grandma’s daughter), and Mom’s daughter. We spent the new few weeks sitting in a circle in the Trim Shed, listening to the radio and chatting. We learned that Mom had moved to the Emerald Triangle to grow illegal pot. At the time I met them, she had been a local grower for over a decade, and a few years back she flew her elderly Aunt and Mother, retired nurses, to come live with her in Humboldt. She taught them how to trim, and paid them well to work for her. When her harvest was done, she would find safe, clean places for them to work for other local growers in the black market. Sometimes they even helped with the harvest.

One of the grandmas liked smoking a little weed while she worked. So we would take smoke breaks together. She told me that she had spent her whole life working as a nurse, 50 hour weeks. She lived in a small apartment and owned very little. When she retired she struggled to pay bills, and her daughter offered to fly her out to come live on the farm. Glowing and so proud of her daughter, she said it was the best thing that ever happened to her. In just a few years working in Humboldt, she was living comfortably, had bought her dream car (that bright yellow VW) and best of all she could leave money to her grandchildren in her will. She spoke of her daughter with such awe and admiration because as she rose up she shared her success. Everyone in this family was thriving together and working in weed! And trust me, the Mom did not need to sit in a sweaty trim shed for weeks trimming someone else’s weed. She was already black market rich. But she sat every day with the rest of us. Her level of hustle was inspiring. I can honestly say that it was the only time I’ve ever seen a California grower trimming.

There are powerhouse matriarchs in the cannabis community; women who continue to be the backbone of this industry. Women who ran massive farms in the cannabis prohibition era. Women who are willing to do any job anytime.Women who rise together. Women who live in old farmhouses. Women who don’t shower to save water for their plants. Women coated in sweat and kief. Women who smell like weed. We turn straw into gold.

They only stayed for a few weeks, and eventually more trimmers came in. But before they left one of the grandmas taught me a game she played as a child. “You walk around and look for faces on rocks,” she said as she picked up a piece of gravel from the driveway and put it in her pocket. “Oh, that’s a good one”. Grandma was super blazed, but still, these are women in weed.

Amanda Breeze

Cannabis Specialist

Amanda offers diverse perspectives and knowledge in all areas of the Cannabis Industry.

She has worked with master growers in British Columbia and Ontario, but most of her experience comes from a decade of working with legacy farms in the Emerald Triangle of Northern California.

@Emerald.temple.Living

www.emeraldtempleliving.com