Sensi Magazine NorCal - January 2021

DREAM ON

The power of positive planning

HEALING TRAUMA

Reclaiming psychedelic medicine

NORCAL JANUARY 2021

STAYCATION Getaways for when you can’t get away

BUD & BREAKFAST

A safe space for all women

Cannabis Consciousness Connections The Key

that Unlocks your depth

The Cannabis Cons to those ready to perception of all lim your vision and vis Also visit TOSABl WWAGlobal.com W you are not sure y connecting with yo medicine to gift yo THROUGH the illus

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sciousness Experience is accessible travel into the void through the mitations! We invite you to expand sit SriandKira.com to learn more. lueMountain.com home of the World Summit, March 2021. And, if you understand the consciousness ou now, then begin by inviting your ou the conscious choice to BREAK sion! Together we are better!

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NORCAL SENSI MAGAZINE JANUARY 2021

sensimediagroup @sensimagazine @sensimag

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FEATURES

28

36

Safe Space

Activist Jess Jackson cultivates a cannabis community at Copper House bud and breakfast.

Reclaiming Recovery Psychedelic therapy could help ease the constant wounds of racial trauma.

DEPARTMENTS

11 EDITOR’S NOTE 18 THE LIFE Contributing to your health and happiness 12 THE BUZZ TRAVEL Planning your News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop HIGH TEA CBD tea tours come to you.

HEMP CAN CHANGE THE WORLD Make hemp-

next vacation now is good for you—whether you take it or not.

RECIPE Warm up with an infused toasted toddy.

2021 VIBE What the new year holds

based goodies with this new cookbook.

FAITH, TRUST, AND… Try edible cannabis dust for THE SCENE a quick dose of calm.

Hot happenings and hip ON THE COVER Wildhaven in Sonoma hangouts around town PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT is the ultimate Juniper Ridge allCOVID STAYCATION Where sleepaway glamp. natural body products to get away when you PHOTO COURTESY OF WILDHAVEN can’t get away GUILT-FREE SLEEP Replace your old CALENDAR Virtual and mattress and sheets safe live events to keep with vegan bedding. you busy this January

44

56 THE END Flock over your friends and neighbors with The Fancy Flamingo.

J A N UA RY 2021

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©2020 KUSHLA LIFE SCIENCES, C11-0000591-LIC

ADVISORY BOARD

Aita and Associates Insurance Marketing, Inc Employee Benefit Specialists Canna-Envy DIY Cannabis Convergence Laboratories Cannabis Testing Laboratory Heartwood Mountain Sanctuary Eco-Retreat Center Humboldt Patient Resource Center Dispenary: Humboldt Humboldt Vape Tech Vape Accessories KC Financial Services Accounting Kushla Life Sciences Cannabis Formulation Red Door Remedies Dispenary: Cloverdale Sonoma Patient Group Dispensary: Santa Rosa Strictly Topical Inc./Sweet ReLeaf Pain Relief Topicals Trinity Outdoor Premier Properties Cannabis Real Estate Uleva Hemp Products Vaper Tip Vape Supply & Consulting Wana Brands Edible Gummies MEDIA PARTNERS

Marijuana Business Daily Minority Cannabis Business Association National Cannabis Industry Association Students for Sensible Drug Policy

EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder, CEO ron@sensimag.com Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder, Editor in Chief stephanie@sensimag.com Mike Mansbridge President mike@sensimag.com Fran Heitkamp Chief Operating Officer fran@sensimag.com Lou Ferris VP of Global Revenue lou@sensimag.com Chris Foltz Director of Global Reach chris@sensimag.com Jade Kolb Director of Project Management jade.kolb@sensimag.com Kristan Toth Head of People kristan.toth@sensimag.com EDITORIAL

Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor doug.schnitzspahn@sensimag.com Jenny Willden Managing Editor jenny.willden@sensimag.com Leland Rucker Senior Editor leland.rucker@sensimag.com Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large robyn.lawrence@sensimag.com Helen Olsson Copy Chief Jamie Evans, Tracy Ross, Mona Van Joseph Contributing Writers DESIGN/PRODUCTION

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak, Josh Clark Designers Neil Willis Production Director neil.willis@sensimag.com PUBLISHING

Nancy Birnbaum Market Director nancy.birnbaum@sensimag.com Gina George Media Sales Executive gina.george@sensimag.com Toni Malvesta Media Sales Executive toni.malvesta@sensimag.com Sam De La Paz Media Sales Executive sam.delapaz@sensimag.com

J A N UA RY 2021

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Magazine published monthly

by Sensi Media Group LLC.

© 2021 Sensi Media Group. All rights reserved.

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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I N S TAG R A M @sensimagazine is home to exclusive photos and content.

Though we couldn’t celebrate in typical fashion

this year, I’m happy to (finally) welcome 2021. In December, pandemic-weary Northern California counties returned to strict lockdowns and reimposed stay-at-home orders due to worsening COVID-19 cases—just in time for the holidays. Though it wasn’t the 2020 ending we’d hoped for, this dark winter feels on-brand for this pandemic year.

Early on, I naively believed we’d return to normalcy by early 2021. While the coming vaccine is a light at the end of the tunnel, the road back to “before times” is long.

Californians remain jobless, sick, even hungry—with only a tiny stimulus in sight. Meanwhile, beloved restaurants across the Bay Area are shuttering in droves. Since the pandemic began, 70-plus have closed in San Francisco alone. Even classic destinations like 92-yearold Alfred’s, San Francisco’s oldest steakhouse, and the renowned Cliff House recently threw in the towel. While the places we eat aren’t everything, they are part of what makes a city ours, and the closings add a bit more sadness to an already tough year.

Despite all the hardship and heartache, I’m looking back on 2020 and seeking the good. My greatest lesson: rediscovering what really matters. I’ve spent the last decade traveling the world—rushing from place to place, flight to flight—but connecting little and resting less. A year ago, I couldn’t have imagined a life without constant globe crossings and airport lounges. But since the pandemic began, I’ve slowed down, slept, crafted, rediscovered my roots, and taken bucket-list trips into Zion National Park’s Narrows and atop Yosemite’s mighty domes.

I became a more engaged friend, partner, and citizen of the earth—something I’d lost amid life’s hustle and bustle. Some things haven’t improved; I’m still a terrible cook with an insurmountable number of unread emails, but I’ll work on those during the next global pandemic.

For now, my first 2021 wish is simple: let’s skip tired resolutions to hit the gym more and eat less sugar. Instead, reflect back on 2020 before stepping into the new year. Send me an email and share what you learned, what good came out of it all, and what you’re hoping for in 2021.

While we aren’t out of the pandemic woods yet, the future looks bright. Our team at Sensi NorCal is kicking off this year with a wanderlust-fueled feature on COVIDsafe California staycations. When you need a break, use this guide to plan a restorative getaway or work-cation nearby. If you’re content staying home, treat yourself with a CBD-infused hot toddy (see page 25) and curl up on the couch with our January issue.

I became a more engaged friend, partner, and citizen of the earth— something I’d lost amid life’s hustle and bustle.

Here’s to a better, brighter 2021,

Jenny Willden @jennywillden J A N UA RY 2021

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HIGH TEA EXPERIENCE

Whether you’re having a ladies’ getaway or a romantic weekend in Sonoma County, upgrade your experience with the new High Tea Experience from Happy Travelers Tours. The $125 package is for guests age 21 and up, and includes three CBD-infused, loose-leaf teas brewed tableside and paired with a tower of CBD sweets and savory delights.

Expect British-style finger sandwiches, infused scones and chocolate cups, and a few non-infused treats to keep things balanced.

Stay in Sonoma County and the whole experience is delivered to your accommodations for (safely) enjoying with your quarantine crew. If you’re feeling adventurous, add an educational Trimming and Rolling Package for $15 per person. Learn how to trim CBD flowers and assemble a CBD flower smoking device; you’ll receive a commemorative “Trimming Certificate” upon course completion.

Happy Travelers Tours / happytravelersweedtours.com

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF HAPPY TRAVELERS TOURS

Stay in Sonoma, and the CBD tea tour comes to you.

CONTRIBUTOR

Jenny Willden

BY THE NUMBERS

30 WINERIES

Number of wine sellers destroyed or damaged by wine country’s destructive Glass Fire

PHOTOS (FROM LEFT): COURTESY OF HEMP CAN CHANGE THE WORLD / MYMILLIGRAM BY CHINGIMAGES.COM; STYLING BY SURFACEHAUS

SOURCE: azpbs.org

CARBONNEUTRAL COOKING

Learn to make hemp-based goodies in a healthy new cookbook.

Designed as a 100 percent carbon neutral project, chef and hemp farmer Shadi Ramey’s new book, Hemp Can Change the World, is the world’s first cookbook printed on hemp paper—and one of the first printed on hemp in over 100 years.

This self-published guide is packed with vegan recipes incorporating hemp, including hempbased drinks, hemp tabbouleh, and a strawberry rhubarb crumble.

The recipes combine Ramey’s love of Ayurveda, herbalism, and ethnobotany to create healthy, healing consumables even paleo and keto dieters will love. Plus, one dollar per book sold goes to the Last Prisoner Project, an organization seeking to rectify damage done by cannabis incarceration and prohibition. One percent of sales goes to 1% for the Planet.

Hemp Can Change the World / hempcanchangetheworld.com

$73.6 BILLION

Mondo Magic Sprinkle this edible cannabis dust for fast-acting anxiety relief.

Elevate your mood and reduce your anxiety with Mondo, an all-natural, California-made cannabis powder available in THC and CBD varieties. This fast-acting edible is made by simmering cannabis compounds in coconut oil and blending them with cacao butter.

You can feel the effects in five minutes.

Get a functional high from the THC variety or euphoric vibes from Mondo CBD. With no THC and zero psychoactive effects, Mondo CBD powder is a workday-friendly antianxiety supplement. Sprinkle it on yogurt or ice cream, blend it in a smoothie, or eat it on its own for a simple treat.

Mondo CBD / bit.ly/yaymondo

Estimated legal medical marijuana market size by 2027 SOURCE: grandviewresearch.com

80

PERCENT California’s 2020 tax rate on wholesale cannabis SOURCE: cdtfa.ca.gov

4,852

YEARS The age of Methuselah, a bristlecone pine in California’s Inyo National Forest—the oldest single organism alive today SOURCE: usda.org

“The bad news is time flies.

The good news is you’re the pilot.”

—Michael Altshuler, motivational speaker

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THE BUZZ

BILITIES

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

1 NEW YEAR, SAME YOU, FRESH PURPOSE: The arrival of 2021 is a chance to make a change. The year in our rearview torpedoed everything we thought of as “normal,” and there’s no going back. Not that we want to—the old normal and even the new normal isn’t good enough. We all were grinding away, but we weren’t making progress. And we’re all about progression.

2 MOVING ONWARD: It’s the only direction into the auspicious year of 2021, known as the Year 5 in numerology. According to Astrofame’s summary of Year 5, “We often feel freer and more able to make changes that we have been thinking about for a long time. We will pursue new initiatives and could even feel like we are growing wings. Curiosity and desire for freedom will be present, as will the desire to go beyond our limits.”

3 BORN AGAIN: According to Pinterest Predicts, an annual notyet-trending report, in 2021, we can expect “routines to be remixed.

Expect regular to be reinvented.” Pinterest says 2021 will be a rebirth, not a reset. “After the plague came the Renaissance.”

4 PLANT POWER TO THE PEOPLE: We’re at the beginning of a new Renaissance—a modern period of cultural, artistic, political, and scientific rebirth. At Sensi, we spent the past year undergoing a transformation to better serve our founding purpose: to break cannabis out of the chains of stigma, to be the bridge that connects cannabis with the mainstream, to tell the stories of the plant and of the people impacted by the plant, to stir people’s curiosity and their desire for freedom to use the plant—and inspire demands for the freedom of people suffering in prison because of cannabis prohibition.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JUNIPER RIDGE

5 MUSIC MAKERS: This modern Renaissance will provide relief … releaf … ReLeaf. As in, Sensi Presents ReLeaf, the Compilation Album Volume 1, a Benefit for Last Prisoner Project is the next bold step in Sensi’s journey, part of our rebirth. It’s the first release from Sensi’s new record label, and we are so excited and honored to introduce it to you. In the coming months, we’ll have ongoing coverage of the album and the artists who lent their talents to the project, and we’ll also shine a light on the important accomplishments of the Last Prisoner Project—both in the magazine and on the newly rebirthed sensimag.com.

GO NATIVE

Wild-harvested body-care products highlight California plants.

Say no to chemical-laden soaps and perfumes, and make the switch to Juniper Ridge, an Oakland-based company using sustainably harvested plants to craft all-natural body products. Its techniques for creating natural colognes and body sprays date back a century and feature in-house steam distillation, tincturing, and infusion.

Focusing on plants native to the West Coast, Juniper Ridge brings the smells of Northern California home in its newest collection: Sierra Forest.

Encapsulating the unique scents of Yosemite Valley, Lake Tahoe Basin, and Sequoia National Parks, this blend channels warm, woodsy flavors inspired by the region’s cedar, pine, and fir trees.

When you’re stuck sheltering in place, bring the outdoors in with this Sierra-scented body spray, body wash, and essential oil. If incense is more your vibe, try the Douglas Fir varietal to bring home the campfire smell—without burning down the forest.

Products are packaged in renewable sugarcane bioplastic bottles, so you can feel good knowing your purchase won’t contribute to plastic pollution.

Juniper Ridge / juniperridge.com

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Congratulations to the 2020 Feast of Flowers

WINNERS! Light Dep: Sativa 1st place - Full Moon FarmSPK (Sour Patch Kids)

2nd place - hilltop RanchPineapple Upside Down Cake

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Cannabis Co.- Ice Cream Cake

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3rd place- Canna Country- #3 GH7

Light Dep: HYBRID 1st place- Xotic Flavorz- Mac 1 2nd place- SoHum Royal- Orange Cookies/High Octane

3rd place- Humboldt Redwood Healing- White Runtz

Full Term: SATIVA 1st place- Whitethorn Valley Farms- Night Owl 2nd place- Sunnabis- Surfin Bird 3rd place- Hogwash PharmsMountain Medicine CBD 1:1

Full Term: INDICA 1st place- Savage Farms- Savage Zittles 2nd place Huckleberry Hill Farms- Mom’s Weed 3rd place- Whitethorn Valley Farms- The Fool Full Term: HYBRID 1st place- Sunnabis- Green Dragon 2nd place- Full Moon FarmBlueberry Muffin Gelato

3rd place- SoHum Royal- Orangia

Concentrate: 1st place- Bizybee Farms- Gelato (live) 2nd place - Old Briceland Cannabis Co. Willy’s Kush Cake (live)

3rd place- Huckleberry Hill Farm- Mom’s Magic (live)

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THE BUZZ

VOX POPULI

Question: What COVID-canceled event are you most looking forward to returning to?

WORD OF THE MONTH

EN·THE·O·GEN (n)

JAMIE EVANS Author and Founder, The Herb Somm, San Francisco

___________________

I’m looking forward to culinary cannabis popups and infused dining experiences that celebrate cannabis as a gourmet ingredient.

A psychoactive substance, typically JAMES ZHENG MAYA ELISABETH MARCIA GAGLIARDI derived from plants, that Health Transformation Coach, Founder, Om Edibles Founder, My Milligram is ingested to produce a Zheng International, Union City Oakland San Francisco non-ordinary state of con___________________ ___________________ ___________________ sciousness for religious I’m sad that our biggest Definitely The Emerald Hall of Flowers. As purposes or spiritual company convention, Cup. It’s such a wonderful someone obsessed with enlightenment. (See Unleash, was canceled time to get together the latest cannabis “The Road to Reclaiming this year. Looking forright after harvest, as a products, I love the new Recovery,” p. 36.) ward to it returning and brand and an individual, products and brands missing the hugs and and celebrate the most to discover there. But high fives from friends amazing herb in the really, I look most all around the world. world. forward to throwing my own events again.

Sleep Safely

PHOTO COURTESY OF AVOCADO

Replace tired mattresses and sheets with chemical-free and vegan bedding.

We spend almost a third of our lives in our beds (maybe even more in COVID-19 times), but few of us think about the chemicals beneath us while we sleep. Start the year fresh with an Avocado natural sleep system handmade in Los Angeles, California. The brand uses organic materials and rubber from its own farms to craft its nontoxic mattresses, bringing clean transparency to a long dirty industry. It is also one of only three mattresses to be certified as chemical- and fire-retardant free. The best

part? There’s a one-year trial period to see if the mattresses live up to the hype.

If a whole new bed’s not in the budget this year, upgrade your current mattress with an Avocado topper in latex or vegan varieties. Support your head with Avocado’s natural latex pillows, then top off your bed transformation with the company’s 1,000-thread-count cotton sheets.

Avocado / avocadogreenmattress.com

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PHOTO BY KRISTOPHER ROLLER, UNSPLASH

Happy Plan Americans finally have reason to (cautiously) dream about travel again.

TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON

If you’re wondering how has stirred up some wanderlust in you, you are to be a good traveler in not alone. And stoking the time of COVID-19, look to the words of an- the fire of your passion for travel is so much cient Chinese philosmore than just a guilty opher and author Lao pleasure—it’s an exerTzu. Among his many cise shown by science to notable wise quotes is boost your mental health this one: “A good travand emotional well-beeler has no fi xed plans ing. To which we sing, and is not intent on “Dream on, dream until arriving.”

Fact is, we don’t know your dreams come true.”

There’s some good when we’ll be able to news for globe-trotters: travel freely again, but Although most people there’s reason to be have back-burnered their optimistic we could be leisure travel for now, catching flights (not trip planning doesn’t feelings) sometime need to be canceled too. in 2021. In November, “According to researchwe learned that one ers, looking ahead to of the candidates for your next adventure a COVID-19 vaccine, could benefit your menmade by Pfizer and BioNTech, was more than tal health,” writes Erica Jackson Curran in Na90 percent effective in tional Geographic. “Even preventing volunteers from contracting the vi- if you’re not sure when rus—news that sparked that adventure will be.”

To back that idea up, a dim light at what we Curran points to a 2007 hope is the end of the study published in the very long tunnel we’ve Journal of Experimental been wandering in our Psychology. Researchers masks since March. at University of ColoraIf all the wandering

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PHOTO BY ROBERTO NICKSON, UNSPLASH

THE LIFE

do Boulder found that people were happier during the planning stages of a vacation than they were after taking one. Put another way, we’re likely to enjoy the anticipation of a trip more than we enjoy reminiscing about it afterward, a theory that was seconded and thirded by later studies. According to findings by researcher Jeroen Nawijn published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, travelers planning a vacation reported being happier than people who aren’t dreaming of their next escape. That 2010 study found that all vacationers experienced a significant boost in happiness during the planning stages of a trip.

“For most,” the researchers concluded, “the enjoyment starts weeks, even months before the holiday actually begins.”

We all could benefit from some more enjoyment right now. The global pandemic has taken a toll on American’s well-being, as multiple global surveys and reports have shown.

One study revealed that Americans are experiencing the lowest levels of happiness in 50 years.

And according to results of the latest Ipsos survey on global happiness released in October, the J A N UA RY 2021

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PHOTO BY ATLAS GREEN, UNSPLASH

THE LIFE

prevalence of happiness is down more than nine points in the United States compared with last year. Of those surveyed, 25 percent reported being “not very happy” and six percent saying they are “not happy at all.”

If you can relate, now’s the time to start planning your next escape. A new poll conducted by the Institute for Applied Positive Research backed up earlier studies, fi nding that simply planning a trip can help boost happiness and alleviate stress. According to the institute’s founder

Michelle Gielan, “Booking a trip—even just getting it on the calendar—might be the very thing we need to restore our emotional immune system after months of mounting uncertainty and stress.”

If your bank account is laughing at the thought of booking a vacation, first applaud its sense of humor. Then reassure it that dreaming of getting away at any point in the future is not an exercise in futility: planning for life returning to normal can be a comforting activity amid all the uncertainty. Just because

Just because you couldn’t swing a trip in the immediate future doesn’t negate the positive impact that anticipating a vacation can have on your mental health.

you couldn’t swing a trip in the immediate future doesn’t negate the positive impact that anticipating a vacation can have on your mental health.

This is a long way of suggesting you go start a Pinterest board or two to populate with photos of whatever exotic paradise catches your wandering, lusting eye.

Because one day—perhaps one day soon-ish— you can be on your way to finding it. There’s no time like the present to plan your future escape.

It’s all but guaranteed to bring joy to your world this holiday season.

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q u a l i t y

+

p a s s i o n

HUMBOLDT

+

i n n o v a t i o n

VAPE TECH

Our most popular item … and a great holiday gift

The Hyperion USB chargeable Wide-mouth fill port for easy loading Easy to clean Compatible with all Sequoia Coils

H U M B O L D T V A P E

T E C H

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THE LIFE RECIPE

HONEY NOTES Shoot for a target dose of 15mg CBD / 2mg THC per drink (using full-spectrum infused honey from the Cannabis Drinks book) or your preferred dose (using commercially made CBD or the THC alcohol tincture of your choice).

If you don’t have supplies to infuse the honey at home, simply substitute regular honey and add your favorite unflavored alcohol tincture (not oil!) at your preferred dose into the warmed glass before mixing, then follow the directions as noted.

Cozy Cocktail

PHOTO BY COLLEEN EVERSMAN, 2ND TRUTH PHOTOGRAPHY

Warm up on chilly days with this cannabis-infused sipper.

TEXT JAMIE EVANS

When it’s cold outside, nothing warms you up quite like a hot toddy. If you’re new to warm cocktails, this drink is a perfect introduction, especially after a long day on Tahoe’s ski slopes or if you’re battling a cold.

In this recipe, I’ve added CBD to a traditional toddy and incorporated toasted spices, spiced rum, full-spectrum infused honey, fresh lemon juice, hot water, and an array of spiced garnishes.

Get toasted with this heartwarming cannabis cocktail on a chilly winter’s day.

Toasty Toddy Recipe from Cannabis Drinks: Secrets to Crafting CBD and THC Beverages at Home / Servings: 1

INGREDIENTS

½ teaspoon whole cloves 1 cinnamon stick 4 semi-cracked cardamom pods 1 cup hot water 1½ ounces spiced rum (or whiskey if you prefer) 1 tablespoon fullspectrum infused honey (recipe in Cannabis Drinks) Dash of Angostura bitters 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice Winter spices and a lemon round, for garnish

to take on the spiced In a small sauté pan, flavors. Remove from toast the cloves, the heat. cinnamon stick, and • Use a fine-mesh strainer cardamom pods over to separate the solids medium heat. from the liquid and Continue to shake the pan, empty the spiced water or use a spatula to move into a warmed cocktail the spices around to keep glass. them from burning.

• Add the spiced rum, Remove from the heat infused honey, bitters, once the spices become and lemon juice to taste, fragrant and set aside. then give the mixture Add the water to a small a couple of stirs using saucepan and bring to a bar spoon until the a boil. Add the toasted honey fully dissolves. spices, then reduce to a • Garnish with winter simmer for 10 minutes spices and lemon round.

INSTRUCTIONS

•

•

•

•

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THE LIFE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mona Van Joseph is a professionally licensed intuitive reader in Las Vegas since 2002.

Author, radio host, and columnist, she has created the Dice Wisdom app and is available for phone and in-person sessions. mona.vegas

PHOTO BY JOZEFMICIC, ADOBE STOCK

2021 Vibe

the government), which will make it attractive to wait until that month.

The numerals in 2021 This is the year that you get what you want. add up to a 5 in numeroloTEXT MONA VAN JOSEPH gy, resonating to fast-moving communication, the The year 2020 was a vised unless it’s presented planet Mercury, and the Foundation Year designed (in writing or contract) to Norse God, Loki. It is the to show us what’s most benefit you authentically.

Year of Media—the truth important. It was spiritual Patience with yourself and and the trickster. Both awareness to our growth, others right now will do the truth and the manipand in many ways, we you a world of good when ulation of the truth in any were forced to recognize the energy shifts. issue will be present. Make and honor our priorities.

Make your plan for your own conclusions Isolation, loss, and money forward movement when and decisions on what you worries were (and still are this energy shift begins in know to be your truth. for many) center stage.

May. This will allow you Make the first quarter There will (still) be to attend a baseball game personally productive. Reholding back energy on or concert in July, the member, this year is about gatherings until the end of power month this year. connections and commuMarch and awareness of It will enable you to get nication. Do your best to money issues until April. that promotion or launch connect with people who People will be deciding a new beginning. The best you’ll want in your wheelwhat they want to do with month to retire would also house moving forward. their careers or finding be in July. There will be Connect with everyone ways to fill up their days in offers made to those close you’ve met on LinkedIn, the first quarter. Action in to retirement age in July especially if one of your the first quarter is not ad- (either by an employer or goals has to do with a new

HOROSCOPE

career opportunity.

Remember that nature abhors a vacuum, and the practical cleaning out of things in your living space will allow new things to present themselves. Make it a goal to have one drawer, one shelf, and one cabinet in each room empty so you are setting up the energy to receive. Hang all of the hanger hooks in your closet backward to see what you’re actually wearing (and decide in six months what you’ll keep or donate).

Spending time with ourselves in 2020 was to show us what truly makes us happy and purposeful.

This will be an action year as soon as you decide what that looks like for you. It’s truly that simple. Speak aloud what you want, and do not speak aloud what you don’t want.

MULLIGAN For the coming year, Mona is offering a 9 Day Energy Reset.

To learn more or participate, visit 9dayer.com.

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SAFE SPACE

Activist and entrepreneur Jess Jackson is destigmatizing cannabis and building a community where everyone is welcome at her Copper House Bud and Breakfast.

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Jess Jackson, posing here for #CurvyCannabis, has learned to lead from her core values, creating a space that empowers others to find inner contentment.

Jess Jackson wants the world to know her as a “community architect.” “That means I build, develop, sustain, and enhance communities,” says the 33-year-old entrepreneur. “It’s not a known career, but the name conveys that there’s a science behind building meaningful community. It takes intention and ties to the core of who I am.” Take Jackson’s ownership of Copper House Detroit, a “bud and breakfast” that caters to cannabis fans who love a good brunch in the morning. But Jack-

son does so much more to make Detroit a more inclusive place.

Read on to see how she juggles advocacy work, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training, education around fat bias in cannabis-focused marketing—all while following her purpose and dreams.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND. I grew up on Detroit’s southwest side, commonly known as Mexican Town. It was mostly Latinx and full of multilingual families that valued each other and com-

munity. I also experienced poverty around me and all the things that go along with it. I grew up in a single-parent household; my father battled addiction for most of his life. I did my undergrad at University of Michigan and eventually finished my MBA at the University of Delaware. My wife and I came back just before the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act (MRTMA) was passed, legalizing adultuse marijuana. I’ve co-founded two businesses since then—CopJ A N UA RY 2021

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Copper House hosts Curvy Cannabis, which, according to Jess, “challenges antifat bias in cannabisfocused aesthetics and marketing.”

per House Detroit and LOUD. Social, a content marketing agency specializing in community engagement, social media strategy, and visual design.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU USED CANNABIS? First time I tried it, I was 18. But ironically, the first time I bought 32

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a joint, I was 16 and I didn’t even smoke it. I hadn’t come out yet and was looking for a way to connect with a friend who was bisexual. I ended up giving the joint away and never had the desire to try again until I was in college. Then a combination of a taxing campus climate and privileged normalization

made me think it could be a viable way for me to treat my anxiety.

YOU’VE CALLED CANNABIS AN EQUITY ISSUE. WHY? On the legal side, it’s because of injustices that communities have faced due to criminalization. The other problem is that cannabis is

there are so many other expenses to get up and running. My aim is to navigate this process in a way that’s equitable. First, I’m going to go through the process of starting a small business and then I’m going to create a pathway for others to do it. It’s about honoring communities that are often overlooked.

TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT COPPER HOUSE. It’s an intimate and cozy community-activated space. We host overnight bookings, lifestyle photography shoots, intimate dinners, and parties with the cannabis community at heart.

HOW SUCCESSFUL IS IT AND HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO GET GOING?

a plant that’s been used by communities of color for thousands of years, yet these same communities are disproportionately affected by criminalization and prohibition. I am a proponent of automatic expungement—the erasure of crime records. Let’s clear these Black and brown communities who’ve been

disproportionately targeted and criminalized, and have lost access to jobs, education, housing—a full life. Then, as we think about the industry, there’s so much regulation that businesses have to follow in order to be viable and legal. Just to apply for a micro-business license in Michigan costs $6,000. Then

We’ve been listed on Bud and Breakfast (budandbreakfast.com) since December of 2018, and we had our first guests on January 11, 2019. How did it go? At first, we were only doing a few things here and there but weren’t putting a lot of energy behind it. But in October, we started hosting CuriosiTea parties with Anqunette Sarfoh. She helped us build our market, and we were booked and sold out for months. I’d call us successful, because so far, we’ve been able to meet all our revenue goals, build community, and are currently working on a basement studio expansion. But this is just a prototype. One day, I want a larger bud and breakfast, in a historic building that represents Detroit culture. COVID-19 hit us like everyone else, but we’ve learned [things]—like how to run a hospitality business in a pandemic.

We stopped business completely from March to June, but while J A N UA RY 2021

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Jess (at left) and Cara Jackson have created a welcoming vibe for all at Copper House.

we were empty, we built up our backyard, upscaling it into a garden oasis. Our goal has been to break even and reinvest all profit into the house. We’re not super lucrative yet, but I’ve been able to meet the people I need to meet in my dining room, and that is powerful.

HAVE YOU HAD SIGNIFICANT PUSHBACK FROM ANYONE? The most significant moment for me was when I faced professional loss because of my involvement with cannabis. I come from an educational background, and I’ve done a lot of work with nonprofits.

I’ve also been affected by addiction, so I understand the concern with making a product that you’ve learned to be a drug more accessible. There’s some hurt to restore, and I feel educated enough to challenge people’s beliefs. There’s so much good cannabis can do. For someone addicted to opioids, it can help them heal. Our communities have been using it to heal for

centuries. So, I think resistance can be alleviated by having very real conversations and developing collaborative solutions.

YOU DO A MILLION DIFFERENT THINGS—HOW DO YOU JUGGLE THEM ALL? DOES IT INVOLVE CANNABIS? I started this journey as a means of community care—I said, ‘Our community needs a space that’s safe and welcoming, so let’s open our home.’ But what I’m learning is that I also need my own self-care and time. It’s a balancing act. I make sure I incur something for me every day, because when I don’t, I notice my reactions are very high. I pay attention to my moods, and then I do what I need to do to balance myself. I love sleep; it’s the best gift for me. So, it might mean that on a Saturday, I sleep all day. And I don’t shame myself for being unproductive. I also like a smaller amount of self-care practice daily. I try to do moments of breath work. I like to dance in front of my mirror. I’m

a dreamer, so ideating is a form of self-care for me. And I journal. My @jesshuman [Instagram] platform is a lot of my own venting—I publish publicly because I’m community-centered, and I want to model that we are all human—our emotions exist. I’m vulnerable publicly to help others not feel alone.

HOW CAN WE ALL TAP INTO THE MEANINGFUL THING THAT FUELS US? The best way is to know yourself. I think that a lot of times people take external influences on who they are and don’t really know who they are. I use a lot of astrology, but I’m also in talent development. I understand how I work, what my assets are, and what I’m not great at. I also know my values and where I will draw the line. So, know yourself, be honest about what you value, and then look for opportunities to feed those values in your work. When you lead from your core values, you’ll feel purpose in everything you do.

A B O U T T H E AU T H O R

Tracy Ross is the managing editor of Sensi Michigan

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Psychedelic therapy could help ease the deep, constant wounds of racial trauma, but stigma and the movement’s unbearable whiteness keep people away.

TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

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THE ROAD

ORIGINAL PHOTO BY BEN SCOTT, UNSPLASH

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n her vision, NiCole Buchanan is lying on a mat on a dirt floor, watching the woman sitting across from her morph into her ancestors through multiple generations, women she recognizes as legacies of her own history. They tell her they have survived brutal lifetimes as Black women so that she could be. They tell her she’s doing everything they’d hoped and dreamed.

In Jamilah George’s vision, she’s riding a lapa (an African skirt) like a magic carpet, looking down at her ancestors working the plantation fields. A face that looks like hers turns toward her and reaches out a hand, and George pulls her up to the lapa. As generations of her ancestors pass by below, she continues to reach down and pull them up until her lapa is full of beautiful Black women from her lineage, all holding hands. “I’ve never felt so much warmth and support in my life, ever,” she says.

Buchanan, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University and founder of Alliance Psychological Associates in East Lansing, Michigan, and George, a Detroit native who is studying the potential of psychedelic medicine to heal the psychological effects of racial trauma while pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Connecticut, shared their psychedelic experiences during an emotional segment of “Black Lives Matter & Psychedelic Integration: Pathways to Radical Healing Amidst Ongoing Oppression.” The webinar, sponsored by the Chacruna Institute (a nonprofit that provides education about psychedelic plant medicines) in

November, is one of many such events that have come online recently to explore how entheogens (plants that inspire non-ordinary states of consciousness and spiritual enlightenment) may be able to uproot and heal deep, embedded scars from generations of systemic racial oppression.

Oyi Sun, an Atlanta-based martial arts master and coach who produced the 2020 Detroit Psychedelic Conference, explains it this way: “The white man has been selling trauma for generations, and here’s the terrible part—we’ve been programmed to receive it. And when you’re dealing with earthly trauma, entheogens are the best therapists in the world. There’s been a spiritual suppression going on for over 2,000 years, and now with the help of entheogens, there’s about to be a renewal of spiritual power.”

Sun stepped in to run the conference, with the theme “Entheogenics in Urban Environments: A Journey into the Mysteries,” after its founder, Baba Kilindi Iyi, died in April. Kilindi, one of the world’s foremost experts on psychedelic science and healing and the master of mushroom megadosing, was often the only Black presenter—if not the only Black person—at conferences and events on the psychedelic circuit, and he created the Detroit conference to bring the conversation home. “The faces that look like Kilindi—the brown faces—have not been represented in the entheogenic community,” Sun says.

The conference took place at the Bushnell Congregational Church, a prewar Colonial Revival building on four acres in Rosedale Park, over a long weekend in August. Diverse speakers from around the world J A N UA RY 2021

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shared their expertise on everything from subatomic particle research and hyperdimensional realms to psychedelic justice, culminating in a memorial for Kilindi that Sun describes as “four hours of emotions, laughter, speakers, heart pouring, drumming—and more drumming and more drumming and more dancing and martial arts exhibitions.” It was a template for future events, Sun says, and they’re already brewing in Oakland, Denver, and Portland, Oregon (where voters recently legalized psilocybin for therapeutic use and decriminalized possession of all drugs).

a scab keeps getting ripped off a wound, the wound can never heal.

“If someone is assaulted, for most of us, that happens once, then you have some time to heal,” says Undrea Wright, who co-founded The Sabina Project last year to provide Black-led psychedelic education, training, and harm reduction. “For people of color, we don’t have any time to heal because when we come out of ceremony, reality is still there.”

Psychedelic therapy, one of the hottest healing modalities to emerge in decades, shows a lot of promise in treating PTSD, and many see its potential for treating racial trauma

Ottawa, has found psychedelics to be highly effective at treating racial trauma. She is the clinical director of the Behavioral Wellness Clinic in Tolland, Connecticut, where she and her colleagues offer culturally informed ketamine-assisted psychotherapy as a means of treating racial trauma. They find that many Black people refuse to even consider it, because they can be “fearful of a psychedelic medicine and the vulnerability that comes with it,” Williams explained during a Chacruna Institute forum on diversity in psychedelic medicine in February 2020.

In 2018, Williams and three

The Pygmy tribes of Central Africa discovered the psychedelic properties of ibogaine, an indole alkaloid extracted from a rainforest shrub called Tabernanthe iboga, thousands of years ago and shared it with people who practice the Bwiti religion in West Africa. Still used as sacred medicine in Cameroon and Gabon, ibogaine opens doors to mystical experiences and communion with ancestors and spirits, often taking people on dreamlike journeys through their lives and offering transformative perspectives.

Ibogaine is being studied as a treatment for drug addiction (opioids in particular), and clinics offer ibogaine-assisted detoxification in Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Africa, and New Zealand. In the United States, ibogaine is a Schedule 1 narcotic.

PSYCHEDELICS AND RACIAL TRAUMA Racial trauma is a lot like PTSD— with symptoms like nightmares and hypervigilance—and it develops over a lifetime of injustices and abuses. But racial trauma is more insidious than PTSD because people of color continue to experience the same threats and humiliation that triggered them in the first place on an ongoing basis. When 40

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as well. “Right now, what’s taking up all the space for Indigenous and Black people is trauma, and the opposite of trauma is creative,” Sun says. “When entheogens come in and start clearing up that trauma, there’s going to be a void, and that void will be filled with creativity.”

Monnica T. Williams, PhD, an associate professor in the School of Psychology at the University of

colleagues published their findings from a methodological search of psychedelic studies from 1993 to 2017. In those studies, 82.3 percent of the participants were non-Hispanic white, 4.6 percent were Indigenous, 2.5 percent were African American, 2.1 percent were Latino, and 1.8 percent were Asian.

Selection bias is a factor in this, certainly, but just as importantly,

many people of color have little trust for medical trials (one word: Tuskegee) and illicit substances (two words: Drug War). They’ve been exploited and abused within the medical system and targeted in an immoral war that has decimated communities. Many don’t have the expendable time and money it takes to participate in clinical trials.

George was one of few Black participants in clinical trials for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat PTSD that were sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and it was anything but a healing experience for her. (MDMA is an acronym for the synthetic drug 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine, more commonly known as Ecstasy and Molly.) After her session with two white therapists, she was sent home with a white night attendant, but she continued to feel alone and terrified. “I remember feeling so lost, so out of touch with my body, and psychologically, I didn’t have control of my thoughts,” she said during the webinar. “I was scared to call anyone. How do I tell any of my Black friends I just did an MDMA study?”

“THESE MEDICINES ARE PART OF OUR CULTURAL BIRTHRIGHT, AND I BELIEVE WE LOSE MORE WHEN WE STEP BACK AND CHOOSE NOT TO ENGAGE.” —Monnica T. Williams, PhD, University of Ottowa’s School of Psychology

RECLAIMING PSYCHEDELIC HEALING Beyond the clinic, underground psychedelic experiences like ayahuasca circles have become a thing in communities across North America—and every one of those circles is overwhelmingly white, says Wright. The few people of color who do participate, he says, find it uncomfortable because white people often (wittingly or unwittingly) gaslight them. “If I’m in a space that’s supposed to be safe and available to my story, and people are telling me my story is not real J A N UA RY 2021

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or valuable, that I just need to move past it, now I have an additional layer of trauma,” he says. “This is the story we kept hearing over and over.

People of color had the wherewithal and learned about the medicines, finally found the circle—which is cost-prohibitive for most of us— then they had to do this dance in the circle. It can be retraumatizing.”

Wright and Charlotte James co-founded The Sabina Project because they recognized “how healing it would be to be able to share our experiences and extend access to these medicines with our own communities, especially during these incredibly challenging and isolating times,” James says.

People have been flocking to their workshops, trainings, and virtual ceremonies throughout the lockdown, seeking both community and information as they confront the demons of isolation.

“WE JUST WANT TO GUARANTEE THERE IS SOME SAFE, JUDGMENTFREE SPACE TO PROCESS JOURNEYS.” —Undrea Wright, Co-founder of The Sabina Project

The Sabina Project’s ceremonies are open to everyone, but integration circles are only for people of color. “We just want to guarantee there is some safe, judgment-free space, free of the white gaze, to process journeys,” she says. Fearing a judicial system that’s stacked against them, Wright and James facilitate only ceremonies with substances that are legal in the United States. Citing an ACLU study in Maryland that found African American men 900 percent more likely to be arrested for simple possession than white men, Wright says, “The consequences for us to do anything illegal are severe.”

Those consequences are why many Black parents warn their children away from all drugs, psychedelics included. Buchanan said during the webinar that when she was growing up, everyone knew the story of her father’s best friend Lonnie, who tried acid after he returned from Vietnam and went crazy. “Every Black community has one of these stories,” she says.

“What’s crazy,” Wright says, “is that most of these [sacred earth medicine] practices come from people of color. They convinced us to denounce these very powerful tools and replace them with pharmaceutical drugs that are killing us.”

“These medicines are part of our cultural birthright,” Williams said in her lecture last February. “And I believe we lose more when we step back and choose not to engage.

It is true that it has not always been safe for us, but I hope we can come together as a people, create our own safe spaces, and become empowered to reclaim psychedelic healing for ourselves, our loved ones, and our community.”

DOING THE MOST GOOD Support The Sabina Project by checking out its new merch collection.

They’ll pay that support forward by giving 5 percent of all proceeds to the Mutual Ceremony Fund, which provides monetary assistance for BIPOC looking to explore psychedelic healing work through The Sabina Project’s workshops.

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Winter Safecations Need a reprieve from the pandemic?

Try a California staycation filled with outdoor adventures.

TEXT JENNY WILLDEN

Flying to a tropical island or a faraway mountaintop ski retreat sounds perfect at this phase of the pandemic, but higher case numbers and new stay-at-home orders leave Northern Californians (relatively) confined to

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their local area. If you’ve finally finished Netflix (congratulations) and need an escape beyond your neighborhood, we have a few ideas. While we won’t recommend flying currently, consider booking these sanity-sav-

ing staycations now or for a celebratory post-pandemic stay down the road.

From cabins to glamping tents, these private accommodations keep you socially distanced from others while providing a safe way to celebrate

the new year and get away from it all. Some are classic California resorts, but a few are brave newcomers that opened during these challenging times. While a pandemic may seem like a lessthan-ideal era to launch

us they had been cooped up in their house for months and this was their first taste of fresh air.”

Wildhaven is set along the Russian River near Alexander Valley wineries and outdoor adventures aplenty, providing an easy escape for Bay Area locals. Unlike some glamping resorts, it’s affordably priced for anyone looking for a camp-like getaway without sacrificing the comforts of home.

“Our mission is to make it easier for Californians to spend a memorable night outdoors,” Barber says, “and we knew that a glamping getaway was a safer way to do this during COVID, better than heading indoors to a hotel.”

And Wildhaven welcomes all kinds of Californians. “We’ve had guests from all walks of life. Families love it since it makes it much easier to bring kids (there’s

very little to pack and set up). Couples love the romantic aspect of a cozy tent with comfy beds, a firepit to cook on, and a store that sells tasty local wines,” Barber says.

Wildhaven also attracts first-time campers who aren’t ready to commit to buying new gear, but who want to see how they like the experience, and seasoned campers who like to mix a glamping trip in between more hard-core backpacking trips.

PHOTO BY FRANCIS FRAIOLI

a lodging business, the gamble’s paid off for Ken Barber, co-owner of Sonoma’s Wildhaven. His safari tent-style glamping resort opened in the spring and is a rare pandemic winner.

“We didn’t know what the response would be to a new glamping destination launching a few months into the pandemic. We tested just a few tents to begin with, and the response was amazing,” he says. “People told

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PHOTO COURTESY OF WILDHAVEN

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Whether you’re eager to book a glamping tent, like Wildhaven’s, a redwood treehouse, or a cozy cabin, use this guide to plan a restorative local getaway that’s a quick drive for Northern Californians and in compliance with state pandemic orders.

COVID-19 NOTE: If you live in a county under a regional stay-at-home order or your home address is not in California, you may not currently be

able to book these propWhile some tents are erties. Read California’s more luxurious than COVID-19 restrictions others, all offer rain and before planning your trip. sun protection and are furnished with real beds Wildhaven, Sonoma with full linens, towels, Get your glamp on at lights, charging outlets, Wildhaven, a new safari heating, and ventilation. tent–style getaway in the Check-in is low-contact, heart of Sonoma County. and you can spend your Whether you’re a couple time outdoors along looking for a romantic the river instead of getaway or a first-timer crammed into a hotel wanting to camp without lobby. This experience is setting up all your own especially great during gear, Wildhaven is a per- these pandemic times as fect staycation solution. the only shared indoor

spaces are the restrooms and camp store.

Beyond your tent, relax with a picnic on the beach or roast s’mores around the firepits. Soon you’ll be able to rent a kayak at Wildhaven’s shop to paddle on the Russian River, but for now, bring your own tube or kayak if you want to get on the water.

Pedal by bike around Anderson Valley or into the towns of Healdsburg and Guerneville for some shopping. Find hikes with J A N UA RY 2021

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PHOTO BY MEGHAN YOUNG

DON’T GO IT ALONE If you’re not comfortable with a solo excursion, book a guided tour with Pacific Overlander to see the remote wilds of Joshua Tree and Baja California. Check pacificoverlander.com for last-minute deals on one-way rides.

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THE SCENE

PHOTO COURTESY OF SONOMA TREEHOUSE ADVENTURES

vineyard views in Healdsburg or book a guided horseback ride through the vineyards.

If sipping wine is more your speed, you’ll love Wildhaven’s location within 20 minutes of 200 wineries. Within three miles of the glamping grounds, find Anderson Valley favorites such as Silver Oak, Medlock Ames, Robert Young, and Alexander Valley Vineyards. Sonoma’s culinary hot spots are minutes away by car, or you can cook at camp on the outdoor grills. For imbibing on-site, stop by Wildhaven’s camp store for beer, wine, and treats.

ment, and camp stove.

Book your ride online, pick it up in San Francisco, and drive up to 150 miles a day with no additional charges.

LOGE Mount Shasta, Mount Shasta Escape to the mountains at this forgotten-motelturned-adventureoutpost beneath 14,179foot Mount Shasta. It opened in late 2019 and is ready to welcome local travelers seeking an outdoorsy escape.

Traditional hotel rooms are the safest winter option here and all are designed for adventurers with bike and ski racks built-in. There’s even a hammock for casual Pacific Overlander lounging. COVID Rentals, Anywhere protocols are followed Craving a Yosemite National Park getaway? Or when it comes to an overlanding adventure sanitation and safety. along the coast? Rent a Plus, LOGE has plenty Pacific Overlander 4x4 of outdoor social space and take your trip on the for gathering while stayroad (or off-road) withing socially distanced. out sacrificing comfort.

Cook your own meals There’s no better social on the grills or gather distancing solution than round firepits to thaw these fully equipped vehi- out and cook s’mores. cles, which come stocked Caffeinate for the day at with camping gear and LOGE’s Finlandia Cafe rooftop tents. Just bring and Taproom, the place along your sleeping bag for local Heritage Roastand pillow, and you’re ing Company coffee ready for an adventure. paired with pastries and The Pacific Overlander hearty oatmeal bowls.

While Shasta calls team thought of everysummit seekers in sumthing, including camp mer, winter brings skiers chairs, table, fridge and to Mt. Shasta Ski Park freezer, cooking equip-

and tubers to Mt. Shasta Tubing Hill. If you arrive unprepared, rent gear on-site, or skip skiing and borrow a cruiser bike for the five-minute ride into town. Bringing Fido along for the trip? His tail will be wagging as pups are welcomed and spoiled at LOGE. Book the “Treat Your Pup” package and receive a dog bed, bowl, and leash your furry friend can use throughout his stay.

Sonoma Treehouse Adventures, Occidental Zipline through the redwoods and sleep in a treehouse on the new Sonoma Treehouse Adventure overnight

extravaganza. Designed for the young at heart, the adventure begins with an afternoon tour across 14 ziplines that ends with a rappel down to the forest floor. From there, take an eco-tour through the forest to elevated treehouses built around the redwoods.

Every treehouse comes equipped with real beds, composting toilets, snacks, and dining furniture. You’ll be perched in an off-grid treehouse, so for obvious reasons, there are no showers. For safety, masks are required during the ziplining and eco-tour. Each treehouse is spread far apart from the others and connected J A N UA RY 2021

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THE SCENE

only by bridges, offering you space and privacy.

Dinner is delivered to your room, and you can dine inside your treehouse or out on the decks overlooking the forest.

Expect a multicourse meal with a cheese plate, hearty entrees for meat eaters and vegetarians, and rich desserts. Once night falls, the wind swaying these mighty redwoods will gently rock you to sleep.

Wake in the morning with coffee, french toast, and potatoes, then zip from the treehouses for a second tour through the trees. This memorable excursion soars 200 feet above the ground through the Sonoma redwoods on the fastest, longest ziplines of the entire experience.

Wylder Hope Valley, Hope Valley Channel Scandinavian hygge vibes at Wylder Hope Valley, formerly Sorensen’s Resort, a recently renovated property near Lake Tahoe in Hope Valley. When winter drops feet of snow on the Sierra Nevada Mountains, come to snowshoe or cross-country ski right on the property, and thaw out afterward in Wylder’s private sauna. Or hop in the car

and drive 16 miles to Kirkwood for legendary skiing and snowboarding.

Stop by Wylder’s Outpost to rent cross-country skiing or snowshoeing gear, and fuel up for the day at Sorensen’s Cafe. Complimentary cocoa and coffee are available for guests all day, but an après-ski stop is worthwhile for homecooked eats and spiced hot toddies. (Don’t miss the homemade pasta on the dinner menu.)

Wylder’s updated Wylder Hope Valley is a cabins feature a modern, snowy haven near Lake Tahoe. minimalist aesthetic and full kitchens. Each cabin stay includes a complimentary bottle of wine and a bookable time slot for a private sauna session.

Whether you cruise to Tahoe or kick it locally in Sonoma County, these mini road trips can be just the ticket to keeping your cool in these prolonged pandemic times.

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THE SCENE CALENDAR

TOP: ZINFANDEL EXPERIENCE: SOCIAL ZINSTANCING

Start the new year right at these socially distanced and virtual events throughout Northern California.

TEXT JENNY WILLDEN

Wednesdays & Saturdays Central Park, Davis davisfarmersmarket.org

Outdoor Bingo Night Wednesdays Green River Brewing & Taproom, Winters

greenriverbrewingandtaproom.com

January in California is typically packed with winter celebrations and festivals, but as COVID-19 rages on, events are moving online (again) or being shifted to small, outdoor affairs. Support your local businesses and communities at these in-person markets or online events.

St. Supery #InJoy at Home Virtual Wine Tastings Jan. 14, 21 & 28 Virtual event stsupery.com

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

Wednesdays at Winn

Tuesdays, Thursdays & Wednesdays Saturdays Winn Park, Sacramento Ferry Plaza, San Francisco wednesdaysatwinn.com ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

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This new evening market in downtown Sacramento offers produce, locally made crafts, and food.

Order a tasting kit and join weekly tasting experiences in a dynamic 45-minute session.

Discuss wines and watch Chef Tod

Kawachi demonstrate a dish to pair with it.

Live Comedy at The Athletic Club Oakland Fridays The Athletic Club, Oakland theacoakland.com

Redding Artists on Market Fridays Virtual event visitredding.com

Watch local Redding artists work at 10 a.m. every Friday on Facebook Live.

Midtown Farmers Market Saturdays 20th Street, between J and L Streets, Sacramento exploremidtown.org

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZINFANDEL EXPERIENCE

Cultural Calendar

Davis Farmers Market

THE SCENE CALENDAR

TOP: ST. SUPERY #INJOY AT HOME VIRTUAL WINE TASTINGS BELOW: WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL

Dine Downtown Restaurant Week Jan. 8–24 Downtown Sacramento godowntownsac.com

mental and adventure film festivals goes virtual with online films and events.

Jessup Cellars Brew It Yourself: Art House Short Film Series 101 Beginner Jan. 16 Brewing Downtown Vallejo Farmers Market

Winter in the Wineries Passport

Saturdays Georgia and Marin Streets, Vallejo pcfma.org

Now–April 1 Participating wineries, Calistoga visitcalistoga.com

Napa Farmers Market

First Day Hike

Saturdays City of Napa Parking Lot (1100 West St.), Downtown Napa napafarmersmarket.org

Calistoga Farmers Market

PHOTOS (FROM TOP) COURTESY OF ST. SUPERY / WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL

Saturdays Washington Street, Calistoga visitcalistoga.com

Sebastopol Farmers Market Sundays Sebastopol Plaza, Sebastopol sebastopolfarmmarket.org

Old Sacramento Waterfront Wheel Now–Jan. 31 Waterfront Park, Old Sacramento oldsacramento.com

Jan. 1 Jack London State Historic Park, Glen Ellen jacklondonpark.com

First Fridays Downtown Redding Jan. 8 Downtown Redding visitredding.com

Various dates, Jan. 10–30 Mercurius Beer Lab, San Francisco brewityourselfsf.com

Learn the basics of beermaking and take home your brew at this handson class. All COVID protocols will be followed, and class size is limited to four.

Rodney Strong Vineyard: It’s All About the Cabernet!

Jan. 14 Virtual event rodneystrong.com

The Napa Murder of Anita Fagiani Andrews: A Cold Case that Caught a Serial Killer, presented by Ray Guadagni

Why is cabernet so popular? Taste and learn about the varietal at this virtual experience with Rodney Strong.

Make a reservation and purchase a kit to join in on tasting.

Jan. 8 Napa Historical Society, Virtual event napahistory.org

Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Virtual event jessupcellars.com

Zinfandel Experience: Social Zinstancing Jan. 21 & 28–31 Virtual event zinfandelexperience.com

This popular San Francisco event has transformed into a virtual wine experience.

It will be packed with tastings and seminars, showcasing new vintages, special reserves, and time with winemakers.

Bay Area Short Film Festival Jan. 23–24 Virtual event moviemakingbay.com

Watch and vote for a variety of short films made by Bay Area directors and amateurs. From comedy to horror to drama, a variety of creative short films will be screened.

Cannabis Meets Healthcare Jan. 26–27 Virtual event cannaone.com

Unified Wine & Grape Symposium Jan. 26–29 Virtual event unifiedsymposium.org

Crab Feed in the Vineyards Jan. 29 Hannah Nicole Vineyards & Winery, Brentwood Tickets on Eventbrite hnvwines.com

Jan. 14–24 Virtual event wildandscenicfilmfestival.org

One of the nation’s largest environJ A N UA RY 2021

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P R O M OT I O N A L F E AT U R E VA P E R T I P

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A

s any cannabis brand or business knows, bringing a product to market is a long and complicated pathway. One that’s cluttered with false starts, wayward turns, and a host of other pitfalls that can break a new offering even before it appears in public. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is help out there.

Vaper Tip is a one-stop-shop that offers a wide array of hardware and services that will help your business succeed. Its experienced staff offers consulting, advice, and a professional approach to solving the problems that most brands in the industry experience.

“The cannabis industry is full of do-it-yourself individuals, and that’s great. It drives innovation and product development,” says Michael “Fleck” Fleckenstein, the CEO and owner of Vaper Tip. “But sometimes they need help to realize their dreams fully.

That’s where we can help.”

Vaper Tip’s in-house branding and packaging services work with companies to ensure that their offerings are presented to consumers in eye-catching containers so that they stand out on the shelf. According to a recent survey from Lucid Press, having a consistent presentation of a brand can increase revenues by 33 percent.

To accompany its branding and packaging services, Vaper Tip also provides all the quality products to fill the packaging, all but the cannabis itself. It offers a selection of different concentrate jars, bags, vape carts, scales, mixers, and customer favorite, the Futurola machine with cones.

It also carries more than 70 strains of botanical terpenes from Calyxa Terpenes thus having everything customers need in one stop.

As the industry grows, so does Vaper Tip. Soon it will be expanding its offerings through exclusive distributors such as vapesupplydirect.com, which will offer its products, and kindidentity.com, which will be the home of its branding and packaging operations. For now, Vaper Tip welcomes all those who need help getting over the hurdles of design, packaging, and sourcing to give them a call or stop by their office in Windsor, California. Call today for a free quote; it could save you thousands of dollars.

Vaper Tip Branding, Packaging, and Hardware Experts 707-742-3804 J A N UA RY 2021

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THE END

GET FLOCKED

The Fancy Flamingo / $50–$85 thefancyflamingo.info

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE FANCY FLAMINGO

What the Flock?

demic, and the company now offers personalized “flockings” seven days a week in Napa Valley.

On-demand flamboyances of flamingos are landing Instead of ordering fl owers (again) or mailing on Napa’s front yards. TEXT JENNY WILLDEN a card, make at-home celebrations memorable with COVID-19 has shaken erings, it’s harder than sonalized signs, this yard in-yard flamingo flockup nearly every aspect of ever to celebrate birthgreeting rental service has ings. People of all ages our lives, from how we days and show you care. taken flight during the wake to flamingos roostwork to how we celeThat’s where The Fancy pandemic. Owner Cyndi ing in their yards, and you brate special occasions.

Flamingo shines.

DeBoard launched The can add on gift bags, perWith new shutdown orUsing a fleet of plastic Fancy Flamingo in May to sonalized birthday signs, ders canceling all gathpink flamingos and perspread joy during the pan- and holiday surprises.

DREAM ON

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A L L D OW

STAYCATION

NHILL FRO

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BENEVOLENCE BEYOND BORDERS Mexico’s former first lady continues her philanthropy

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Excerpts from a new memoir

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Your new favorite skin-care brand

NEW YEAR, NEW LOOK Redo your interior vibe

MICHIGAN

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JANUARY 2021

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SNURFING USA

The origins of snowboarding

DON’T OVERDO IT No-effort resolutions that are easy to keep

WORD TO THE WISE Amanda Goetz’s womanempowering enterprise

MADE IN THE MITTEN New film explores snowboarding’s origins

SEE ALL THE JANUARY EDITIONS NOW AVAILABLE!