Jerry’s Seed Swap 2024: a free event crucial to continuing cannabis culture
On January 27th, 2024, cannabis breeders from around California converged in the small town of Hopland in Mendocino, CA for the second annual Jerry’s Seed Swap hosted by the eponymous Jerry Munn. Seed swaps are a crucial part of how cannabis genetics changed hands in the past and still hold that sacred spot in cannabis culture today. In the view of many of the attendees, anything that increases the amount of cannabis sold on the market that was grown from seed is a win for the industry both legal and legacy. The purpose of the seed swap is simple: Swap seeds. To that end, attendance was free.
A big friendly giant Benjamin F. Grant aka BFG had a five gallon bucket full of Willy G’s Lebanese – which was sourced from Bekka Valley. This one might have won based on (4) and suffice to say I was ecstatic to add that to the collection, and I’m happy to report that it’s already been shared with other breeders in the week since the event. That’s the spirit of the seed swap – it doesn’t stop when the event ends.
Note the bag that says Hardy’s. If you’ve smoked on GDP but don’t know the story of Hardy Church and Salmon Creek Big Bud… this is exactly the type of legacy genetics stories that will be shared by the Legacy Genetics Grant.
Last year, one of my seed swap highlights was trying some RCCxSSH #1 and RCCxSSH #2 by Higher Heights Mendo… This year, I made sure to buy the seeds of where that project had gone. Turns out, he’d added piff to the mix. It’s now SSHxPiff x RCCxSSH. Very excited to piff out on that haze some day. In case the acronyms aren’t well known… RCC: Robert’s Creek Congolese and SSH: Super Silver Haze.
Every event has that one table where a line forms and never dissipates. At this event, that table belonged to Fault Line Seeds who had made the drive from Nevada County. Eventually, I was able to chat with Fault Line Seeds and was blessed with Sholgar and Pure Kush as well as some seeds from an unpackaged set of seeds that were his most narrow leaf leaning and longest flowering. I felt so seen. At the table, I realized why this table had all the action. A small bowl was teeming with seed packs and had a small sign that said swap. People were coming up, dropping seeds, talking with the breeder, and getting personalized recommendations just like I did. Most every breeder whether a vendor or an attendee was down for this boogie, but having a sign to remind the high people clearly worked wonders.
Let’s talk a sec about the wide range of attendees. Besides all the families and non cannabis users that were there because in regions like this – seed swaps are a community event, I ran into BurninxByrd who had come up from even further in the other direction from LA. You already know that anyone taking the time to bring Emerald Triangle genetics down to LA – especially from this particular seed swap – is gonna have a leg up. I saw both licensed and unlicensed farmers come down from the hill to check out the latest genetics from around the Emerald Triangle – and I realized I was witnessing a concrete example of the legacy market leading the legal market. I mentally filed the insight for my cannabis culture research and set off for a doob and then some nonlandrace seedhunting.
To assuage my orange cravings, I got some Tangielicious seeds from Pride of the Lion Seeds from Potter Valley. Both autoflower and photoperiod. Very excited to grow those out.
Some breeders like Sticky Fields had flower examples of the seeds they were selling so potential buyers could check it out and experience the nose before deciding whether to buy seed.
Despite all the straight up dank cannabis seeds that I was able to either buy or trade for, some of my favorite seeds I got were purple plum and indian corn seeds from Rarebreed Jr. In cannabis seed collecting, genetics preserving – every purchase comes with the tacit admittance that you very well may never pop those seeds. These non cannabis seeds, I’ll pop for sure.
Joey Burger (The Humboldt Local) and Tamara Thorn (Heal Thyself Gardens) had their genetics out on display and I just have to reiterate how nice the smells were on the flower samples. I’d so much prefer 24,000 more 24K crosses than 24,000 LCG renames.
Hell, on the way out I even ran into Night Gardener Genetics, who said he hadn’t even gone inside yet because he kept having interesting conversations in the parking lot. Cue some parking lot conversations that further delayed our exit. It was one long and wonderful sesh.
TheUnicornPharm’s Sherbanger #22 was fire – yes I preferred it to the indoor versions I’ve had. Also, keep an eye out for Black Cat Genetics’ Dolly Parton. The gelonade is strong in this one. Being able to smell rosin and flower samples of available seedstock is next level and I predict that at future seed swaps, it will become more common. Yellow Passionfruit. Yum
Speaking of that YPF, The Golden Terp had some YPF crosses that looked absolutely delicious, and also followed a sane naming convention. Triple G Genetix.
A particularly great experience for me was my first time trying Ethiopian anything – Whatever Ital Foundation had in the pictured prerolls was a brilliant head high that was so refreshingly different from anything available on the legal market. That’s the kind of cool stuff that you can find at a seed swap in 2024 but not in a dispensary. I feel bad for custies that have never experienced this. I feel bad for those that have quit weed because their access to the cultivars that were right for their endocannabinoid systems are no longer readily available. I just want to emphasize that they’re still out there, being preserved by real stewards of the plant, you just gotta meet them. And yes, there are those like Mama K who turn those plant medicines from their inflorescence form to tinctures and salves and ensure that a wider range of individuals can benefit from interacting with this plant.
At this point in time, if you want to experience unique highs, you have to seek them out. Cheese is a good example. Something I remember from the East Coast and Europe that I figured should be around. I’d been searching for it on the legal market and just failing.
Fittingly, the best random gift of flower that serendipitously appeared as it does at these events was some cheese… The miles-high wild boar chili man was gifting prerolls of UK Cheese out of a clearly not just for show shotshell bandolier. One sniff of that doob tube let me know that that rare nose that I thought had barely made it to Cali was in fact still around. It was the perfect nightcap.
When I was shared some, as instructed, later on – I felt that nostalgic cheese high. The one where my dimples stay indented for an hour. The one where I laugh like I’m ten years old again. Cheese, after all, is one of those special Skunks that made a worldwide impact and was first popped not even in this country. UK Cheese. The cultivar name tells us so much and highlights former “strain naming conventions,” the name dates the cultivar and we can see that its UK origin is front and center. That it’s being grown in Mendo still, is cannabis culture doing its thing.
This cannabis culture is a global thing. The fact that I was able to score landraces from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Panama, Ethiopia, Congo, and more while in Mendocino is a testament to that. Whether whatever is hybridized here should be sent back to the regions they came from is a discussion for another time but my plea of an answer for y’all to consider is: “NO!”
I’m excited to attend more seed swaps and hope that the enthusiasm shared here can inspire at least one reader to follow the sterling example set by Jerry and host their own free seed swap for their local cannabis community. I’m also excited that Jerry’s Seed Swap is a recurring event that the community can count on to pop up. See y’all next year.
PS: If these words and pictures aren’t doing it for you. Colleen King has a primo short form video recap of the event. If that doesn’t do it for ya… Jerry’s Seed Swap was filmed by Chad at Emerald Triangle TV and is available through Emerald Triangle TV along with many other archived cannabis culture events for a small monthly fee of $4.20.
PPS: If you’ve smoked GDP and driven by the chrisreward.org billboard on the 101 and didn’t realize there’s a connection there, too… please stay tuned.
Jerry’s Seed Swap one day takeover of the Solar Living Institute
I’d driven past the Solar Living Institute dozens of times in the last few months but never stopped. After all, the gate was always closed. When Jerry of First Cut Farms announced that Jerry’s Seed Swap was happening at an undisclosed location in Hopland… I was excited because I had such a blast last time and something just told me that the “Solar place” is where it’d be. In fact the event’s address had to be kept secret until the day before the event for security reasons, and unfortunately these measures did stop at least a few people from attending. On Saturday morning, I drove four hours down from Cal Poly Humboldt with a car full of Cal Poly Humboldt Cannabis Studies majors to attend Jerry’s Seed Swap the second. If you missed the first Jerry’s Seed Swap in 2023, here’s a recap article. On that drive down, we identified specific rare cultivars we were keeping an eye out for, and wanted to find seeds of: Skunk topped the list, as did my yearly quest for Cheese on the west coast. Such are the thoughts on the way to a seed swap. At the gate, securitah let me in after I said the secret password, an answer to the query: “What event are you here for?” I barely found a parking spot because the lot was packed. While circling around I saw a group of Ganjiers seshing near the entrance. A good sign in my book. This year, the venue was a highlight for everybody that brought family that might have needed something to do besides talk cannabis genetics for hours on end. The Solar Living Institute offered plenty of things to look at if you got bored of cannabis seeds. I saw many people go and take walks around the grounds but I couldn’t bring myself to leave the hubbub for even a second. I’m still a seed swap noob, prone to faux pas, but this is the first time I showed up with seeds I’d made to share. Seeing people that I’d met at the previous year’s seed swaps was straight up cathartic. Unfortunately, the person I’d bought the seeds from which I’d expanded was not in attendance. I quickly realized that many of the other attendees only saw each other but once or twice a year – and as such each such meeting carried a lot of weight. A pack of seeds bought from a table at an event like this could end up going through a phenohunt that yields THE next big cut. Talking with the breeders there, it’s clear there’s a desire to not just match the market demand, but to lead it. This is true whether the breeders are focusing on bringing the best out of known heavy hitters like Rarebreed Humboldt does with Blueberry Chem91 or if they’re focused on bringing landraces from a certain region of the world to combine and search through like Ital Foundation does with the Ethiopian. Furthermore, I can’t help but be in awe of the breeders that have no interest in the legal market, that refuse to touch “cookie genetics,” and let me tell you there were some purists there.A high time collecting seeds at Jerry’s Seed Swap
When I buy seeds, I can’t help but have the little pokemon card collector in me run wild. I’m instantly drawn to the rarest stuff – the things that are only going to be available then at that moment on that table. Landrace rarity is always a relative thing. There are some quantifiable factors though. Here are a few (unranked) to put in your pipe and smoak:- The longer ago seeds were brought over, the rarer
- The more de facto or de jure prohibition that has happened in the country, the rarer
- The less colonized by Chinese and Europeans the country is, the rarer.
- The closer to Central Asia, the rarer.
A big friendly giant Benjamin F. Grant aka BFG had a five gallon bucket full of Willy G’s Lebanese – which was sourced from Bekka Valley. This one might have won based on (4) and suffice to say I was ecstatic to add that to the collection, and I’m happy to report that it’s already been shared with other breeders in the week since the event. That’s the spirit of the seed swap – it doesn’t stop when the event ends.
Note the bag that says Hardy’s. If you’ve smoked on GDP but don’t know the story of Hardy Church and Salmon Creek Big Bud… this is exactly the type of legacy genetics stories that will be shared by the Legacy Genetics Grant.
Last year, one of my seed swap highlights was trying some RCCxSSH #1 and RCCxSSH #2 by Higher Heights Mendo… This year, I made sure to buy the seeds of where that project had gone. Turns out, he’d added piff to the mix. It’s now SSHxPiff x RCCxSSH. Very excited to piff out on that haze some day. In case the acronyms aren’t well known… RCC: Robert’s Creek Congolese and SSH: Super Silver Haze.
Every event has that one table where a line forms and never dissipates. At this event, that table belonged to Fault Line Seeds who had made the drive from Nevada County. Eventually, I was able to chat with Fault Line Seeds and was blessed with Sholgar and Pure Kush as well as some seeds from an unpackaged set of seeds that were his most narrow leaf leaning and longest flowering. I felt so seen. At the table, I realized why this table had all the action. A small bowl was teeming with seed packs and had a small sign that said swap. People were coming up, dropping seeds, talking with the breeder, and getting personalized recommendations just like I did. Most every breeder whether a vendor or an attendee was down for this boogie, but having a sign to remind the high people clearly worked wonders.
Let’s talk a sec about the wide range of attendees. Besides all the families and non cannabis users that were there because in regions like this – seed swaps are a community event, I ran into BurninxByrd who had come up from even further in the other direction from LA. You already know that anyone taking the time to bring Emerald Triangle genetics down to LA – especially from this particular seed swap – is gonna have a leg up. I saw both licensed and unlicensed farmers come down from the hill to check out the latest genetics from around the Emerald Triangle – and I realized I was witnessing a concrete example of the legacy market leading the legal market. I mentally filed the insight for my cannabis culture research and set off for a doob and then some nonlandrace seedhunting.
To assuage my orange cravings, I got some Tangielicious seeds from Pride of the Lion Seeds from Potter Valley. Both autoflower and photoperiod. Very excited to grow those out.
Some breeders like Sticky Fields had flower examples of the seeds they were selling so potential buyers could check it out and experience the nose before deciding whether to buy seed.
Despite all the straight up dank cannabis seeds that I was able to either buy or trade for, some of my favorite seeds I got were purple plum and indian corn seeds from Rarebreed Jr. In cannabis seed collecting, genetics preserving – every purchase comes with the tacit admittance that you very well may never pop those seeds. These non cannabis seeds, I’ll pop for sure.
Joey Burger (The Humboldt Local) and Tamara Thorn (Heal Thyself Gardens) had their genetics out on display and I just have to reiterate how nice the smells were on the flower samples. I’d so much prefer 24,000 more 24K crosses than 24,000 LCG renames.
Hell, on the way out I even ran into Night Gardener Genetics, who said he hadn’t even gone inside yet because he kept having interesting conversations in the parking lot. Cue some parking lot conversations that further delayed our exit. It was one long and wonderful sesh.
Dope Smoke Shoutouts
The sesh did have a nominal peak. At 4:20, Lena of Cannam Gardens got the Quasar hookah going with some of her Moroccan Peaches hash and some of Jerry’s Vietnamese hash. The combination was epic, took me back to the Mendocino Craft Farmer’s Auction, and was another stark example of the tip toppest shelf product that unfortunately isn’t found on every dispo top shelf. If you couldn’t tell: I really like Vietnamese hash.
TheUnicornPharm’s Sherbanger #22 was fire – yes I preferred it to the indoor versions I’ve had. Also, keep an eye out for Black Cat Genetics’ Dolly Parton. The gelonade is strong in this one. Being able to smell rosin and flower samples of available seedstock is next level and I predict that at future seed swaps, it will become more common. Yellow Passionfruit. Yum
Speaking of that YPF, The Golden Terp had some YPF crosses that looked absolutely delicious, and also followed a sane naming convention. Triple G Genetix.
A particularly great experience for me was my first time trying Ethiopian anything – Whatever Ital Foundation had in the pictured prerolls was a brilliant head high that was so refreshingly different from anything available on the legal market. That’s the kind of cool stuff that you can find at a seed swap in 2024 but not in a dispensary. I feel bad for custies that have never experienced this. I feel bad for those that have quit weed because their access to the cultivars that were right for their endocannabinoid systems are no longer readily available. I just want to emphasize that they’re still out there, being preserved by real stewards of the plant, you just gotta meet them. And yes, there are those like Mama K who turn those plant medicines from their inflorescence form to tinctures and salves and ensure that a wider range of individuals can benefit from interacting with this plant.
At this point in time, if you want to experience unique highs, you have to seek them out. Cheese is a good example. Something I remember from the East Coast and Europe that I figured should be around. I’d been searching for it on the legal market and just failing.
Fittingly, the best random gift of flower that serendipitously appeared as it does at these events was some cheese… The miles-high wild boar chili man was gifting prerolls of UK Cheese out of a clearly not just for show shotshell bandolier. One sniff of that doob tube let me know that that rare nose that I thought had barely made it to Cali was in fact still around. It was the perfect nightcap.
When I was shared some, as instructed, later on – I felt that nostalgic cheese high. The one where my dimples stay indented for an hour. The one where I laugh like I’m ten years old again. Cheese, after all, is one of those special Skunks that made a worldwide impact and was first popped not even in this country. UK Cheese. The cultivar name tells us so much and highlights former “strain naming conventions,” the name dates the cultivar and we can see that its UK origin is front and center. That it’s being grown in Mendo still, is cannabis culture doing its thing.
This cannabis culture is a global thing. The fact that I was able to score landraces from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Panama, Ethiopia, Congo, and more while in Mendocino is a testament to that. Whether whatever is hybridized here should be sent back to the regions they came from is a discussion for another time but my plea of an answer for y’all to consider is: “NO!”
I’m excited to attend more seed swaps and hope that the enthusiasm shared here can inspire at least one reader to follow the sterling example set by Jerry and host their own free seed swap for their local cannabis community. I’m also excited that Jerry’s Seed Swap is a recurring event that the community can count on to pop up. See y’all next year.
PS: If these words and pictures aren’t doing it for you. Colleen King has a primo short form video recap of the event. If that doesn’t do it for ya… Jerry’s Seed Swap was filmed by Chad at Emerald Triangle TV and is available through Emerald Triangle TV along with many other archived cannabis culture events for a small monthly fee of $4.20.
PPS: If you’ve smoked GDP and driven by the chrisreward.org billboard on the 101 and didn’t realize there’s a connection there, too… please stay tuned.
Founder of The Highest Critic
Unpaid /r/trees mod
Certified Ganjier
Kine bud enthusiast
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