Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/648009
W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 | 7 3 Sarah Lee and Joanna Berg who own and operate Dirty Business Services in Arcata, and they are bring- ing the science of soil to marijuana farmers who have been denied much of the advances available to big agriculture. One of the True Humboldt famers tried their service, and now the divas have a deepening connection with the seven founding farmers of the cooperative. Lee and Berg are divas in name only. In reality, they are both honors graduates of Humboldt State Univer- sity, and they won a $25,000 grant in a local business competition (much like television's Shark Tank) to get their operation up and running. at was less than four years ago, and now their operation has hundreds of clients—and not just marijuana farmers. My visit to Dirty Business Services' Lee and Berg coincided with a scheduled visit to two of the True Humboldt growers, both with homesteads deep in the forest, about 30 miles out of town, on Horse Mountain. Dirty Business has done analyses of the farmers' soils, determining what nutrients the soils are lacking, and they've formulated some amendments that will help next year's plants. ey've brought along seeds for a cover crop, and they'll be around to help during the growing season, too. "People will hit a wall in July," Berg says. "Plants will turn yellow, and fungal infec- tions might be clogging the circulatory system." Lee and Berg offer solutions, but none of them will involve the application of chemicals. All of their amendments and concoctions are organic and sustain- able, which are distinguishing characteristics of the company, and something that's important to farmers who are looking to keep their medicinal products pure and safe. When their heavily loaded Toyota pickup finally manages to negotiate the rutted dirt roads that lead to Steve Dillon's farm, Lee talks about how things used to be. "When you're not in the city and you're in cowboy country, you can say, 'I'm gonna put a house here, and no one needs to know about it!'" And that's pretty much the approach Dillon had years ago. "But it's changed now," he says. "We are keeping up on our permits and inspections and water usage plans, and everything else that's part of the necessary price to be paid for legiti- macy." He shows us his inches-thick binder of official documents that prove he's toeing the line. Berg and Lee get busy working the soil, pulling out spent plants, showing the other workers how to work in their custom blend of amendments, then sprinkling the seeds for the cover crop. Dillon explains, "Part of what we're doing with True Humboldt is to [get everyone to] switch to organic and best-management practices. "at's how True Humboldt products are going to market," Dillon continues. "Sustainably grown, safe, pesticide- and fungicide-free, relying on the fact that there is a consumer that will pay a little bit more for a quality product." Zach Whyman is another founding farmer of the True Humboldt group, and his home and farm are in the same general area as Dillon's, off the back roads, behind locked heavy metal gates that keep out unin- vited guests. Like Dillon, he built his home with trees he felled and milled himself. "e people (who came to grow pot during the Green Rush of the past ten years), it was boom and bust. It was seasonal. ey'd grow the s--- out of it, leave their trash. But our generation wanted to home- stead and claim their space and be part of the land. It was … a new way of thinking, but one that paid tribute to the heritage farmers of Humboldt county." And True Humboldt is helping him along the way— with the paperwork, the standards and practices, even the soil. "We're wooing the professionals in," Whyman says. "We named it True Humboldt for a reason. We wanted to honor what has happened here, the way of life, the small mom-and-pop homestead." He pauses for a moment, then says simply, "It's profound." Back in her office in town, Chrystal would no doubt agree. "I see what pride is attached to the work. You know, herb isn't just a pile of turkey bags; you've got your name behind it, a test result behind it. I think there's going to be a change in our culture. One of the side effects of our outlaw lifestyle is the rugged indi- vidualism, the Wild West . . . Every single one of these guys is their own CEO, have their own everything. "It's part of our glory, and part of our downfall . . . maybe not our downfall, but there's so much value in working together. We don't have Salinas, we don't have the Central Valley, we don't have big ag land . . . [but] we have boutique, we have premium, we have intel- lectual property, we have appellations, we have genetics and we have wisdom." And that's the goal of True Humboldt, and the challenge: Go big, but find a way to stay true to small- town, down-home values. www.truehumboldt.com Chrystal Ortiz, Operations Man- ager of True Humboldt. Joanna Berg and Sarah Lee de- liver organic soil amendments to True Humboldt farmers. Steve Dillon at his cannabis farm on Horse Mountain, about 30 miles outside the town of Arcata. Plant beds being prepared for winter at Steve Dillon's farm on Horse Mountain. Rows of soil samples line a cabinet in the lab at Dirty Business Services in Arcata. ■cr