the HARVEST issue
the art of dry farming
leafmagazines.com
PHOTO BY TOM BOWERS
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e’re cruising between the Redwoods on the famed Avenue of the Giants, a stretch of road that paces Highway 101 along the Eel River in Southern
Humboldt. If you’ve ever wanted to visit Endor, this is it. “Take a left up here, and be careful, or you might miss it,” says Chrystal Ortiz from the backseat. She’s not lying – dwarfed between the vast trunks, the narrow road may as well have been a secret portal to Narnia. We turn. “This is a summer road,” says Ortiz. “They close
Owner Jane VanderLinden
NOV. 2021
it when the water gets too high.”
As the owner of High Water Farm and Humboldt Herb and Market dispensary in the famed heartland of America’s Cannabis cultivation community, Ortiz is a specifically qualified guide. Especially where we’re going. We steer down onto the banks of the Eel River, following a road that in other seasons would be riverbed. We cross a makeshift bridge barely wide enough to fit our car, and continue on our river rock paved path. Ortiz is taking us on a guided tour of the Eel River Valley appellation – a cultivation region where specific conditions combine to create a bioregion that allows Cannabis farmers to practice the traditional art of dry farming. In the early 20th century,
