Huckleberry Hill Farms
As a young boy, Johnny Casali of Huckleberry Hill Farms was taught by his mother to grow and care for plants, cannabis included.
“My mom was an incredible teacher. Her cultivation techniques gained her the reputation of being one of the best growers in Southern Humboldt. She taught me that TLC is just as important to cannabis as water and sunlight, and that TLC begins with harvesting living soil. I can still remember her saying that. Just as you eat your vegetables in order to grow strong and tall, a plant needs nutrient-rich soil to reach its full potential.”
Casali is a 2nd generation cultivator from southern Humboldt. In 1992 when Casali was 22 years old he was arrested by law enforcement for cultivating cannabis and spent much of his 20’s in federal prison. Those were the days of mandatory minimum terms of 10 years in prison for anyone caught with 1,000 plants.
Today, Huckleberry Hill is an beautifully landscaped legacy farm, create with intention and purpose. As a legacy cannabis cultivator and long time community member of Humboldt, Johnny has made a beautiful space to share important stories as well as provide world-class cannabis.
The Hemp Connection
Hemp Connection, the first hemp clothing store in the US, product of the marijuana underground, opened to the public in 1990 in Garberville California, followed later in the year by Ohio Hempery. The store has a homey quality with a natural courtyard outside the store and informational library inside, as befits a meeting space connecting international travelers on the 101 cannabis trail.
The original proprietor, Marie Mills, was a back-to-the-land trailblazer who came to the area in 1980 in search of a home, camped out deep in the woods in the Siskiyone Wilderness and learned how to cultivate cannabis by doing it. Ten years later she opened the first public hemp outlet with the intention of building a cottage industry from scratch, sewing and dying all clothing she sold in the store piece by piece with her industrial sewing machine, environmental dyes and home washing machine, largely with imported hemp.
The Hemp Connection sign controversy involved a threat to evict the business and remove the sign. The local Establishment, Chamber of Commerce and a few local businesses, formed a Design Review Committee, whose purpose was to force the removal of the large visible sign towering 30 ft over Garberville in the heart of the Emerald Triangle, sporting the words ‘Hemp Connection’ and a large marijuana leaf. Planning and Building sided with Marie’s right to keep her sign unchanged. Attorney Ed Denson got the review committee disbanded as a self-appointed group, unauthorized to make those kinds of planning decisions. Marie Mills prevailed and the town honors her prescience and persistence, as well as the region’s ‘most photographed sign’.
The Hemp Connection
Hemp Connection, the first hemp clothing store in the US, product of the marijuana underground, opened to the public in 1990 in Garberville California, followed later in the year by Ohio Hempery. The store has a homey quality with a natural courtyard outside the store and informational library inside, as befits a meeting space connecting international travelers on the 101 cannabis trail.
The original proprietor, Marie Mills, was a back-to-the-land trailblazer who came to the area in 1980 in search of a home, camped out deep in the woods in the Siskiyone Wilderness and learned how to cultivate cannabis by doing it. Ten years later she opened the first public hemp outlet with the intention of building a cottage industry from scratch, sewing and dying all clothing she sold in the store piece by piece with her industrial sewing machine, environmental dyes and home washing machine, largely with imported hemp.
The Hemp Connection sign controversy involved a threat to evict the business and remove the sign. The local Establishment, Chamber of Commerce and a few local businesses, formed a Design Review Committee, whose purpose was to force the removal of the large visible sign towering 30 ft over Garberville in the heart of the Emerald Triangle, sporting the words ‘Hemp Connection’ and a large marijuana leaf. Planning and Building sided with Marie’s right to keep her sign unchanged. Attorney Ed Denson got the review committee disbanded as a self-appointed group, unauthorized to make those kinds of planning decisions. Marie Mills prevailed and the town honors her prescience and persistence, as well as the region’s ‘most photographed sign’.
Cafe Flore
Cafe Flore is hallowed ground for cannabis history legalization. In 1974 Brownie Mary met Dennis Peron at Cafe Flore over a shared joint on the patio. Dennis Peron is the Father of Medical Marijuana and Brownie Mary is known as The Angle of Mercy, and compassionate mother-figure to ‘runaway, HIV positive’ LGBTQ ‘kids’.
Dennis Peron was the leader of Proposition 215: The Compassionate Use Act which re-legalized cannabis in the United States. Brownie Mary provided cannabis-infused brownies to AIDS patients to stimulate their appetite and help with depression when no other medicine was available. Cafe Flore has been an iconic community gathering place in the LGBTQ Castro District for decades.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Cafe Flore is where members of the community gathered to share information and trade notes about managing the horrific ailments of HIV/AIDS. Community healing was paramount and present and Cafe Flore served in that capacity, with cannabis at the center of it all.