Before you get to see the buds, you have to look at the bugs ― the ladybugs, that is.
That’s how the farm tour at Autumn Brands in Carpinteria begins, with the admonition to pay attention not so much to the tall cannabis plants that fill these large greenhouses, but rather to the tiny insects and larvae that colonize them.
For Hans Brand and his adult children, Hanna and Johnny, the dream of building a successful company out of their greenhouses in Carpinteria depends on maintaining strict standards, many of which relate to government regulations while others are strictly their own, such as their insistence on raising their crops without the use of insecticide sprays. Hans likes to credit Johnny, who has a degree in agricultural science from Cal Poly, with the solution they’ve found. “You can use organic pesticides,” he told me, “but obviously, whatever you spray on the plants, it stays there. You can’t wash your weed.”