I’m thrilled and thankful to report that the fall rains have arrived in California. Of course, rains can be tricky during cannabis harvest season. As any farmer can tell you, it doesn’t matter if you’ve grown the biggest most beautiful, and dankest cannabis plants - it can all go to shit at harvest if you’re not on top of your game. And because I think it’s way more fun to be a cannabis consumer who understands what happens behind the scenes to produce that delicious sun-grown flower we purchase in the dispensary. I’m sharing a few more voices of harvest this week.

And if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, please rate and review the potcast wherever you listen. That one small action helps other canna curious folks find this highly responsible cannabis content which also helps me!

This week I want to spotlight Craig, my latest Potcast Patron. Not only did Craig make a generous monthly pledge (at patreon.com/casuallybaked), he also sent me this supportive email:

"Yo Jo! I am a huge fan of you, your potcast, and everything casually baked. I hope you realize how inspiring, insightful, and loved you are. I appreciate all you do. And the amount of love you put into creating content shines through. Never stop!”  -Craig G.

This Potcast Is Covered By MJ Relief

‘After the Show’ Notes

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Today I’m here with a book recommendation.

Growing up, I was always proud of my family’s ranch. And I’d joke that my dad treated the livestock better than he treated his own daughters. Our cattle have wide-open spaces to graze and roam. And the beef I grew up eating was our own.

Fast forward to my adulthood and living in California. Nowadays, preparing the menu for a dinner party is like navigating a landmine. So and so is vegan and gluten-free. Such and such is pescatarian and dairy-free. So many diets and eating styles to honor and many of them are guided by social principles rather than actual dietary restrictions. And I’ll admit when I’m hanging out with vegan friends, I’ve felt uncomfortable, maybe even ashamed that my family is in the ranching business. Even though, my family doesn’t have one of those disgusting factory farms with not a patch of grass in sight where the cattle are on top of each other nervously farting away methane gas waiting to be slaughtered and sold to your favorite fast food or restaurant chain.

It’s easy to lump all cattle ranchers into the same category - but just like Melanie Johnson mentioned in last week’s discussion - there’s an A to Z in every industry. Even cattle ranching. 

While reading Dirt to Soil, by Gabe Brown, which was a book recommendation from Daniel Fink of Down OM Farms, I was turned on to yet another book written by an environmental lawyer and vegetarian turned cattle rancher.

For decades it has been nearly universal dogma among environmentalists and health advocates that cattle and beef are public enemy number one. We have long been led to believe that livestock, especially cattle, erode soils, pollute air and water, damage riparian areas, and decimate wildlife populations.

In her book Defending Beef, Nicolette Hahn Niman argues that cattle are not inherently bad for either the Earth or our own nutritional health. In fact, properly managed livestock play an essential role in maintaining grassland ecosystems by functioning as surrogates for herds of wild ruminants that once covered the globe. Hahn Niman argues that dispersed, grass-fed, small-scale farms can and should become the basis for American food production, replacing the factory farms that harm animals and the environment.

The author―a longtime vegetarian―goes on to dispel popular myths about how eating beef is bad for our bodies. She methodically evaluates health claims made against beef, demonstrating that such claims have proven false.  She shows how foods from cattle―milk and meat, particularly when raised entirely on grass―are healthful, extremely nutritious, and an irreplaceable part of the world’s food system.

Grounded in empirical scientific data and with living examples from around the world, Defending Beef builds a comprehensive argument that cattle can help to build carbon-sequestering soils to mitigate climate change, enhance biodiversity, help prevent desertification, and provide invaluable nutrition.

Defending Beef is simultaneously a book about big ideas and the author’s own personal tale―she starts out as a skeptical vegetarian and eventually becomes an enthusiastic participant in environmentally sustainable ranching.

I’ve spent a lot of time the past couple of years exploring my personal feelings about my family’s ranching business and questioning how my sisters and I can improve both the health of the soil and the profitability of our operation as 4th generation land owners. And I’m proud to report there’s no shame in my game anymore. In fact, I’m pretty pumped about our future.

These days, I’m a sponge soaking up the knowledge of regenerative farmers and soil scientists and other really smart people who have had this figured out since before I was born. But the simple truth gets muzzled by the media, big ag, big pharma, and the oil and gas industry who make a killing manufacturing poisons and problems and then rolling out expensive solutions to “save us from ourselves.”

The only way to get off this crazy train is to educate yourself. Don’t read headlines. Dive deep. Come up for air, evaluate what you learned, ask more questions and then dive back in.

And if you still feel the need to do something radical to show your disdain for our food systems, I feel you. Go chain yourself to a plow or tractor sprayer. If that feels a little much, just get outside and grow a garden and shop locally. Support local farmers through your community’s CSA program where I promise you’ll find farmers using low and no-till farming practices.

To circle back to that diet thing. I want to be clear that there’s no one way to eat healthily. Genetically, we all have our own optimum regimen and I’ve got my hands full steering my own ship. You’ll certainly never find me trying to tell you how to do you. I’m all in for everyone doing it their own way - as long as it’s not a terrible idea, and then - I can’t lie. I might say something. But I won’t stop you. ;)

That’s why I trust my flower to OCB rolling papers. OCB goes all-in on the paper-making process to deliver sustainable textile papers - Flax, Wood, Organic Hemp, Bamboo. No matter which OCB paper suits your rolling paper diet, you can be assured OCB only uses natural acacia gum for an “always sticks” experience. And all OCB papers are vegan, GMO-free, chlorine-free, and dye-free. Of course, you must be 21 and older to buy OCB rolling papers and to follow the natural wonders of OCB on social @ocb_usa.

For you grown-up joint-rolling novices, I invite you to learn the craft alongside me. Catch the Roll With Me video series live streaming on the Casually Baked YouTube channel and the “Highly Responsible Canna Consumers” FB group with replays on the Weed Tube and IGTV.

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And because variety is the spice of life, I encourage you to sample the entire line of OCB products and let me know your favorite. Ask for OCB wherever you buy your papers. You’ll find links to the OCB special offer and Roll With Me in the Potcast show notes at casually baked dot com.