SUNSHINE DREAM
Skymint Farms is using the power of the sun to grow cannabis and build a better community.
In a 2015 TED Talk, SpaceX founder Elon Musk told his audience, “We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky called the sun. You don’t have to do anything. It just works.” That message stuck for James Barr, the head of operations of Skymint Farms, Michigan’s leading vertically integrated cannabis company and the state’s largest medical and recreational license holder, which aspires to become Michigan’s largest purveyor of regeneratively and sustainably cultivated sun-grown cannabis. “Even the best indoor grow lighting can’t compare to the natural light spectrum,” he says.
“Cannabis loves the sun and ex- presses itself very differently when farmed outdoors. Cannabinoid and terpene production is greater, and the plant is more resilient.”
Skymint cannabis is grown using the sun as the primary source of power and rainwater as the primary source of irrigation. Crop rotation, intercropping, and cover crops create a nutrient-rich living soil. Within the next two years, Skymint will incorporate grazing animals to make the farm truly biodynamic. Not only does it aspire to do right by the land and the environment but it also aspires to do right by Michiganders by cultivating community. Its cultivation site is in Lake County, one of the poorest counties in Michigan, and it provides nearly 30 year-round farm jobs on its rural acreage.
“Community is at the core of our company ethos,” says CEO and co-founder Jeff Radway.
“We wholeheartedly believe that cannabis has a meaningful role to play in bettering people’s lives.” Skymint is going a step further by partnering with Forgotten Harvest, a Detroit food rescue organization, to provide meal boxes to 2,000 Michigan families during the holiday season.
FREE TURKEYS
Cannabis companies offer aid to Michigan families.
Greenhouse of Walled Lake, a dispensary and provisioning center in Oakland County, is taking its “essential business” status seriously this holiday season by giving 10 Michigan families $10,000 each in gifts and food through its own contributions and by partnering with owner Jerry Millen’s five favorite cannabis brands, Kushy Punch, Ubaked, Chill Medicated, Green Doctor CBD, and Platinum Vape.
The goal is to help families struggling from COVID-19, but it’s also “to show the masses that cannabis and the people involved are good people,” Millen says. “We need to normalize cannabis, and the more we engage with the cities that allow us to operate and the families that live in them, the quicker we can squash the stigma of marijuana. We have been steady and even doing a little better during COVID-19, so we’re able to give back,” he adds.
COOK & STAY WELL WITH CANNABIS
Learn to prep CBD & THC in The Cannabis Apothecary.
In her new book, The Cannabis Apothecary, celebrated cannabis cookbook author Laurie Wolf shares her recipes and preparation tips for everything from body balms and massage oils to cannabutter and brownies. This essential cannabis guide covers buying and preparing both CBD and THC to improve your health and wellness. Learn the differences between strains and the benefits of using cannabis from Wolf, a lauded edibles expert with her own cannabis food-focused business called Laurie + MaryJane.
SENSI FANS: SHOW US YOUR ART!
We’re launching a new series spotlighting work made by the talented people in our creative community. Because we know that you, like us, are not merely sheltering in place. We’re Artists in Residence. Share your creative projects and tag us on Instagram, @sensimagazine, for a chance to be spotlighted in an upcoming edition or on sensimag.com.
1. THE MORE THE MERRIER
One in three Americans now lives in a state where recreational cannabis is legal, thanks to voters in New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota supporting measures to legalize the plant for adult use.
2. MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS
Supporters of marijuana legalization in Arizona outraised and outspent opponents 10 to one leading up to Election Day. In New Jersey, that number was 99 to one.
3. THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION
According to a new Gallup Poll released in November, 68 percent of Americans support cannabis legalization. That’s 5.5 times more support than five decades ago in 1969. If you’re a young adult American male with a college degree earning more than $100k, there’s at least a 74 percent chance you support legalization, according to the poll. If you’re Republican or attend religious services weekly, there’s a 52 percent chance you don’t.
4. MAGIC MONEY
David Bronner of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps wrote checks totaling more than $6.4 million toward drug-war reform campaigns this year, thanks in part to COVID-19, which has the soap business booming.
5. TRIPPING OVER NOTHING
Psychedelic mushrooms send the fewest people to the emergency room of any drug on the market, according to a massive report by the Global Drug Survey. Related: there are more than 100 varieties of psilocybin-producing mushrooms, aka “magic mushrooms,” aka the kind Oregon voters legalized in November’s election.
THAT’S A WRAP
Wrap festive packages with eco-friendly holiday ribbons and paper made from hemp and other renewable materials.
According to the Clean Air Council, approximately 30 million trees are used to manufacture the more than four million tons of holiday gift wrap Americans use each year. Fortunately, sustainable alternatives to traditional holiday paper, which usually can’t be recycled because it contains artificial dyes and additives, are becoming easier to find. Online retailer Wrappily specializes in making sustainable gift wrap from recycled newsprint with cheerful designs printed using soy-based ink. The company also makes eco-friendly cotton curling ribbon and biodegradable hemp twine in several jolly colors and patterns.
FRIENDLY FURS
PETA advocates won’t be tossing paint on these vegan coats.
Hemp fur is an innovative new material created by DevoHome, a hemp textile producer founded in 2008. A replacement for both real and synthetic fur, this sustainable plant-based material is made with a mix of hemp fiber and viscose— naturally hypoallergenic and purely organic. It’s also potentially super stylish, as the new range of coats show.
The line includes a winter coat that’s double-breasted with a comfortable hood, as well as double-sided: one side is a water-repellent cotton fabric; the other is faux fur made of hemp fiber. The coats are available in a range of colors and lengths, and though they generally come in one size, they can be produced to specific measurements.
