26December 2023
In 1937, the first poor sap was arrested for growing cannabis. Over a decade of consistent propaganda had worn down the better instincts of legislators already disconnected from nature, leaving poor Sam Caldwell to serve 4 years hard labor in prison for his sale of two joints. Any growers seeing this happen in Colorado in 1937 must have seen the encroaching tyranny, and many of them took their craft to the paradise nation of Hawaii, still not yet fallen to all the imperialistic cravings of the American Empire. Very little history of pre colonial cannabis cultivation in Hawaii exists, but some does!
Sir Joseph Banks is in the historical record, bringing seeds with him to trade as he voyaged around the globe. Whether or not Hawaiian cannabis had established itself into landrace form before captain Cook and botanist Banks showed up is lost to history, but it’s certain that what came to be known as landrace hawaiian cannabis comes from a conglomeration of genetics, stabilized in the most remote island chain on earth. I am of the opinion that as the surfers, soldiers, and natives mingled together through the 40’s and 50’s, cannabis played its age old role as peacemaker. These genetics, that became legendary, are a hidden gem in the history of yet another subjugated native people, their variety and strength becoming heightened by diversity.
When the corporation of USA made cannabis illegal in 37′ and started throwing farmers in jail, they solidified the power of the hippie movement of the west coast and the surfer culture of Hawaii, sending genetics fleeing from prohibition to the shores of peace and love. By the time the 60’s and 70’s were in full cultural swing, the same genetics that were prohibited in the continental USA had found a loving home in paradise, and more so they had become stabilized into what we now call Hawaiian Landrace. Those dedicated to the herb imported Kona Gold, Kauai Electric, and Maui Wowie back to the mainland, such that the names became important enough for the Hollywood propaganda machine to co opt into the scripts of cheech and chong.
Despite the continued raids and attacks on the Hawaiian growers, they stayed the course for the love of the plant, preserving and hybridizing the plant through the tyranny that came to their island in the form of operation “green harvest”. California was flooded with strong Hawaiian landrace cannabis, and 20 years later that state shook the walls of Babylon by making medical marijuana legal. That pure Hawaiian landrace quietly helped direct our cultural revolution, inspiring euphoria, peace, love, and creativity.
If you want to read more about this history, check it out here: Hawaiian Cannabis History
The point here is simple…legendary hawaiian cannabis is so strong and special because it has the deepest genetic heritage of any modern landrace, due to a massive open pollination brought on by imperialism coupled with refugee hippie/beatnik cultivators fleeing prohibition. An open pollination of tons of genetics, allowed to stabilize for over 30 years, most likely hybridized with existing native Hawaiian lineages dating back to time immemorial. This eventually became recognizable, independent populations from distinct island environments, like the power line weed of Kauai Electric. A thing of beauty, we should be so thankful for the warriors who grew this under threat of prison time, and remember their families that were ripped apart in sacrifice for these genetics.
Kona Gold is the Hawaiian variety I’m personally most connected with, as she provided me with deep spiritual healing at a moment of extreme anguish, and I’ll never forget it. I was recently divorced, heartbroken, and had just returned from a Christmas trip back home. As I dropped my daughter back at her mothers apartment, she clung to me and begged me not to make her go back, and it broke me. Returning to my ice cold home in suburbia, I had so much doubt and mental suffering. I had been subjected to a week of attack, my father insisting his opinion that cannabis was a crutch, that I was decieved, my mother insisting that cannabis would destroy my life if I couldn’t “let it go”. I walked into my house crying, and debated whether or not to smoke my troubles away with the Kona Gold that had been curing for 2 weeks. Eventually, the pain was enough to decide to test my hypothesis again, despite the parental cursings, and within 5 minutes of smoking the sweet sweet Kona, I was crying again but this time in love and understanding, I felt it all wash away as though I was sitting on the beach I would eventually visit on Oahu in 2023. The anger washed away into pity, the pain into smiles, and I remember deciding then and there, I will fight for the truth, especially the one that cannabis sativa is a sacred sacrament. I grew more and more Kona after that, deciding that her sweet high was better than any SSRI or whatever other big pharma option my parents and everyone else wanted me to take. I took the road less travelled by, and it has made all the difference.
Like Mulanje Gold, I had first bought Kona Gold from High Grade Seeds, a canadian seedbank, in 2011. I’ll never forget the first 2 Kona Gold girls I grew. They were completely different smelling than the critical mass and her hybrids we had been growing. There were two main phenotypes, one thinner leafed and smelling like limes and kiwi and lemons and all things tropical fruit, the other smelling deeply of grapes specifically with a fermented sweetness that came with the cure. I don’t see the grape pheno as often anymore, maybe because I was so drawn to the high that healed me with the lemon lime fruit phenotype.
Kona allowed me to knock doors, my occupation at the time, in Utah mormon suburbia, high as a Georgia pine and happy as a clam. I sold better with Kona Gold as my plant ally than with any other variety, so she quite literally allowed me to step out of the depression and into provider mode. The happiness she provided me was, and still is, contagious. 5 years later after the first time I grew her, I was head cultivator of our own farm in Oklahoma, and our friend Chizm sent me hundreds of pure Kona seeds, open pollinated and powerful. We had gotten high together for his first cannabis experience, and when we were high on the mountaintop, I waxed poetic about my favorite weed. Chizm repaid us 10 fold with pure heirloom seeds, and those became all american seeds and medicine that worked its way all over Oklahoma and other states, and eventually back home to Hawaii. Today, I’m down to 50 or so pure kona seeds, and I’m waiting for the perfect Hawaiian like environment to pop and preserve them, in open pollination of course;)
Until then, if you want the pure pure, you gotta pay big money for it, as other breeders charge a lot for her. This year’s open pollination had more Kona and Mulanje than any other landraces, as usual lol. I have selected out 5 pure Kona female hybrids we hunted out of the hundreds we put into open pollination, and offer them as a new years commitment to the plant I love. At $1 a seed, I hope we are offering these genetics for less than anyone on the market. Minimum pack size is 40 seeds for $40, and to sweeten the deal, I put a pure original Zion Train mother out into the field this year, so all orders over $100 get 15 free seeds from that cross. The Zion Train clone we have carried for 5 years now is a very hawaiian centric hybrid. They are going to be epic.
If you read this far, Jah bless and have a happy new year.