1st Cured Cup celebrated the best in well cured cannabis flower

Joey and Tamara of the Thrive Community Homestead hosted the 1st Cured Cup in Lake County, CA this past Saturday May the 20th. As the name suggests, the Cured Cup celebrates the oh so crucial post harvest processing that corporate cannabis likes to rush. Twenty well cured cannabis flower entries, ten judges, one first of its kind event. Made by farmers for farmers, the Cured Cup can be seen as a reaction to the boof – and I’m glad it’s here.

1st Cured Cup awards first cohort of winners

The group of ten hand selected judges spent hours going over the entries and eventually decided on three winners – and the scores were close. Joey Burger posted the results of the historic cannabis event on Instagram:

“The first ever Cured Cup was a major blast. Thanks to everyone who made it such a wonderful day. Big smiles and high vibes. Huge congratulations to our top three Cured Cup winners: @cannabis.fine took home First Place with 13 Ghosts bred by @aficionadoestates and @leostonehumboldt. @heartrockmountainfarm took home Second with Lemonhead OG bred by their very own @prideofthelionseeds. @naturalcuriosity420 took home Third with Strawberry Meltshake bred by @purelymeltyseedco. You can rewatch the Livestream of the days festivities by joining the $6 Supporter Tier on the Thrive Patreon at the link in my bio or www.patreon.com/thrivehomesteadcommunity. Huge Thanks to our Sponsors: Livestream Sponsor @northamericanorganics Prize Sponsors: @aeromixer @twistertrimmer @jerome_baker @leafygreenglass Fam Sponsors: @resin_ranch_extraction @biologiccropsolutions @moon_valley_cannabis @thetriminator @eco_brewers @heal_thyselfgardens Massive Thanks to our awesome Vendors: @black.cat.genetics @littlelakevalleyseed_co @solventless_sanctuary @new_paradigm_farms @cha.education @canndo_attitude @terpperps2.0 @staefli_farms @alabassembly @crtfd @unclebiggsbotanicals @reeferrangers @upliftedmindz @naturalcuriosity420 @_velveteen_dreams_ @saintetiennegrows @kenjana_extracts @cannamgardens @airoe_solventless @heartrockmountainfarm @prideofthelionseeds @upliftyomindright @saintetiennegrows @pheno.paradise @spiralsylph @lempirefarmaseed @cannabis.fine @will_ardz @terpedoutkitchen @tekitsuperfoods @triple_g_genetix Let’s do it again next year. Mulch Love #CuredCup”

Congratulations to all the winners and a heartfelt thank you to all the entrants that brought fire to the competition and another thank you to the judges for taking the time to evaluate them all. I got to whiff all of the entries and there were some nice smelling ones. Check out the winners!

Cured Cup Winner Cannabis Fine on his curing practices

In his award acceptance speech, Cannabis Fine told the assembled crowd that he had taken over a 25 year old organic legacy farm so dedicated to regerative practices that they paddle out to get their own seawater – and that is where the flower was grown. When describing the curing conditions, he emphasized that they harvest before the break of dawn and that the crop stays under basement conditions until it is ready to be presented – like at the inaugural Cured Cup. He proudly said:

“This is the first time the cannabis has seen light since it was harvested October 5th [2022].”

That’s right, the flower was seven and a half months from chop when it won the cup. Most strictly indoor cannabis consumers would turn their nose at flower with a SEVEN month old harvest date – yet 10/10 judges stuck their noses in the jar, rolled up a doobie, and voted that this was primo. At the same time, most cannabis users under the prohibition have smoked much, much older. In my personal experience, which I’ll promulgate time and time again, there absolutely is an art to curing cannabis that time-is-moneyed commercial interests willfully ignore. Enough about that, back to the show.

1st Cured Cup Seed Swappin

Besides a cannabis competition, Cured Cup was also a seed swap (and a Dead show featuring Lovin’ Dead) so I had brought my little credit union. Very much in keeping with the culture of Grateful Dead concerts, I was gifted Chem Dog lineage seeds by El Jefe Gardens while flying high. One was Chemdawg 91 crossed with an 80s Afghani – literally and figuratively connecting me to a part of cannabis history I wasn’t even alive for. Seriously. Shout out to the breeders going backwards in time, genetically, and preserving heirloom cultivars and domesticates. Every seed pack is an infinite bag of possibilities but I’ve seen the set theory proofs and some infinities are undeniably larger than others. This is a great example of that.

I traded some Piff x Honey Banana seeds – an ongoing project to find a hashing piff/haze that yields for rosin – that I had gotten from Russ at Cannabis Horticulture Association for some Afgoo crosses. Afgrape and Afglue – woo hoo.

1st Cured Cup Chillin

I was very glad I didn’t miss the cultivation panel. If you don’t want to miss it, the livestream of the event is available on Thrive Community Homestead’s Patreon. Still looking forward to the hash panel, too.

Besides The Ganjier Grounds’ own Ganjier Alex and his partner sharing some infused watermelon jerky and a piece of some mountaincultured chocolate, I only ate tacos all day. Cured Cup featured dem dankalicious terped out munchies from Terped Out Kitchen. How dank? We went back for thirds and saw familiar faces in line every time.

There were many non food booths set up all around the event. Walking around, I hit some of the booths and congratulated recent Emerald Cup placers like Lempire and Heartrock Mountain Farms. I met the warm faces behind many brands I had only seen online or heard of in passing. I got to chat with Resin Ranch, Staefli Farms (and their Garlic Breath), Airoe Solventless and their Grapefruit Z smell journey, and so many more. I ended up sitting for a lot of it and I missed lots of booths but special shout out to Etienne for finding me in the crowd. I had so much fun loafing around and smelling new stuff – don’t I always. One particularly cool experience was checking out a pheno hunt by Black Cat Genetix. I ended up taking the #24 home because it had that flat, musty (non haze) smell and corresponding high that I have only found a few times from up north and never anywhere else. Maybe it’s a particular terroir expression but it doesn’t smell like any terpene I know of and the high is motorcycle maintenance levels of zen.  

On the opposite end of the high spectrum, fellow Ganjier Lena of Cannam Gardens graciously let me hit some of her sour diesel hash out of a three hole sidecar. There’s something magical about heating the quartz wand and watching the bubbles on the hash when you make contact. Hash also made it into the VIP lounge hookah near the end of the event and many puffs and good times were had.

Just a thought, but maybe next year, there can still be a category for 2022 full term to evaluate the long cure. Very much looking forward to the aged hash portion of this competition that is bound to come. The possibilities, and that everyone is thinking them… that is the inspirational afterglow of cannabis community events like this that moves the culture forward. The width and breadth of genetic variety in flower and hash and rosin present was mindbending. A true connoisseur’s delight and I’m already looking forward to the next one. I heard one attendee that had driven from several hours away say that the event reminded them of the Emerald Cup of many years ago when it was still held at Area 101. As far as I can tell, there’s no better compliment that can be paid to a first time event in Cali. Thanks Joey and Tamara for hosting! For anyone interested in attending these well cured and curated private events at Thrive Homestead Community, join their Patreon for more info.