Blazing New Trails Reinette Senum

Gina Gramenz

WORDS PEBBLES TRIPPET

Gina Gramenz Areas is a rare flower in the cannabis garden, distinguished for her generosity of spirit and skilled oil-making shared with those in need. Her small business GreenGoddessGardens with Jay Plantspeaker enables her day to day work.

PT: Thank you, Gina, for being available for this interview, sharing your decades of knowledge and experience. Can you tell us about your businesses and the projects you’re involved in?

GG: My boyfriend and I grow organically for ourselves on my farm, known as GreenGoddessGardens. We are fortunate in that we are able to share and teach organic cannabis growing and general gardening tips to people all around the world, thanks to the internet and social media specifically. See Jay’s Instagram page @jay_plantspeaker_ and GreenGoddessGardens along with my website Plantspeaker.com. These are some of the tools we use to get the word out. I started a business, Plantspeaker LLC, in December of 2020. This year we brought a new product to the growing industry in collaboration with the Buildasoil Company out of Montrose, Colorado, the premiere growing supply store in the US. The product is Quillaja extract powder (JayPsQP).

All in all, this keeps me pretty busy. I own, manage and run the businesses while raising and caring for my son Justin, who has downs syndrome. Jay is Jay. He spends all his time outside with a herd of wild deer growing plants.

PT: You have been referred to as the Mother Theresa of Weed. Is it your generosity and kindness that people are referring to?

GG: My reputation amongst the medical cannabis community for helping patients evolved from the onset of our state’s Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP). I was fortunate in that I was able to establish a niche, so to speak. I began a process of connecting state-carded medical patients to state qualified grow sites. The no-hassle system that I developed continually evolved until state recreational laws came in and took over, leaving what was previously a healthy and thriving medical program in shambles.

PT: Have you always been so helpful?

GG: Yes, of course. I was able to give medicine to people who a) lived in places where it was unavailable or b) could not afford access. I’ve always been that way with things, really. If I had something and someone needed it, I’d do everything in my power to help. That probably comes from the way things were growing up. We didn’t always have a lot, rarely, in fact. So I know what it feels like to need. I’ve also learned of the love that comes from providing, from making an impact in someone’s life who really needed it, that feeling of making a difference.

PT: ...with more people like you, I agree. Do you coordinate people and their medical needs with the oil you provide?

GG: No, not any longer. When recreational laws took effect, the idea and ability to share medicine from the growers to the patients, the oil supply, and everything surrounding it was turned upside down. Growers, in many cases, either dropped out of the medical program or instead tried to license up for recreational production. Patients have no growers in most cases now. Instead, they are forced to shop at recreational dispensaries. The laws are now written so that oil is to be made only in licensed facilities approved by the various state and local governments, fire marshals, etc. GG: My family background is a rather odd and circular story. I have seven siblings, six brothers, and one sister. I grew up with my single mom and a sister in and around Napa County and Lake County, California. They are both white, appearing to be of Caucasian descent. I always wondered about my ethnicity because I didn’t look like the rest of the family. They were more light-skinned, I am more brown. My roots are in Nicaragua. I am Latina.

PT: Tell me more about how you do and see things, a veteran’s perspective in what is the fastest-growing industry. Life’s lessons from inside, so to speak.

GG: It is a predictable and still yet sad situation, what legalization/taxation has historically done to industries throughout time as the government has stepped in. Cannabis is, in my mind, similar to what alcohol was back around the time of prohibition. Then, as now, it’s a situation where they couldn’t beat us, so they drafted laws to, in effect, join us. This simultaneously turned what was a single cannabis community into a take-sides situation of us and them. Or of rec or black market. Segregating us into sides has been born again today as “them against us.” Now you simply cannot be sure of who is really who anymore. We’re really fortunate (I know I keep using that word), but we’ve been at this a long time collectively, Jay and I both. I genuinely feel sorry for the patients who are going without medicine, as well as the men and women who are trying to break into this industry. Sadly I’m afraid that more will fail than will be able to make it.

PT: Is there more to say about your niche -- what you offer that’s special? How does the spirit of compassion come in?

GG: Well, as I mentioned, when recreational laws took over and as the grower-patient relationships that I tended to begin to dissolve, it once again became clear that we’d have to adapt in an effort to overcome. Jay and I began to think about ways to continue on, with the idea of ‘helping’ in more of a ‘hands off’ sort of fashion. While the laws have changed with recreational taking over, the people and the patients in Oregon and California still have access to growing 4-6 plants per patient or household. Many of the other states have enacted medical or recreational laws with similar rules in place. Couple this with the exorbitant prices and taxes at recreational storefronts, not to mention the lack of consistency and varying quality.

All of these unfortunate facts led us into more of an “instructional vision,” so to speak. Generally speaking, the reality is that “stores are overpriced; taxes are too high; people are paying more for what is a lesser product than ever before.”

Jay has been growing plants for a long time. I’m still connected to or in contact with many in my former patient base, most of whom are growing their own now.

People and patients in other states all across the US are now in similar situations, attempting to grow their own clean organic cannabis, tired of taking someone else’s word for it. Tired of the

PT: Isn’t this what you were trying to deal with in your OMMP program? What is your specialty?

GG: hmmmmmm, that’s a good one. I guess I’d have to say that my specialty is communications and networking. The current industry presents many challenges, where I can connect people to places, situations, farmers, etc., creating all sides win scenarios.

PT: What is your connection to weed, the beloved cannabis plant at the heart of our community?

GG: Weed has always been a part of my life. In my earliest memories, the adults in my family were constantly smoking it. It was never hidden; rather, it was celebrated. I actually took a roach from my mom’s ashtray when I was around eight years old and made a kid’s fool attempt at smoking it. It wouldn’t be until early high school that it became a more regular part of my life.

PT All things considered -- medicine, sacrament, food, art -- how do you use and envision the plant?

GG: I 100% believe in cannabis -- food, medicine, religion, art, creativity, and overall wellness. I believe the feds need to take a step back and realign themselves with the people’s will and voice they serve. It is not the other way around; let us not forget.

There are many forces at play here. On the one hand, you have a government, many of whom are tied to the pharmaceutical and narcotics industries -- That is our supposed medical and health care system. On the other hand, you have a continually growing large population of citizens in every state who understand and realize that all synthetic drugs and pain pills are, in fact, based off a natural plant or derivative found in nature. Our awakening has long been underway as a result of the medical marijuana breakthrough, born out of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

PT: Yes, the remarkable thing about that is that something so positive--access to medical cannabis-helped transform something so negative as an epidemic, benefitting society as a whole. PT: What is your family background? How did you grow up?

“Gina is a true medicine woman out to heal the planet, and a true advocate.” ~ Beacon Nesbitt

always ridiculous costs and the hit or miss quality of the stores.

The idea was born out of who we are together as a team. I’ve always been patient-compassion-plant-oriented. Jay, while reclusive, has always been open-source and growing. Take who we are, add the farm, the idea is born.

Jay decided to become the consulting side of our industry’s worst nightmare by making GreenGoddessGardens an organic, growing open source information hub via his ig page, @jay_plantspeaker_. We have the professional and tech assistance necessary via a friend we’ll refer to as Alex, who helped us bring the visions to reality, designing the web pages, as well as lending his technical and professional expertise into the directional flows that we encounter.

This transition from being able to compassionately help people on a regional level has now shifted to a more global approach, sharing information, teaching, and assisting people in learning to grow their own medicine. Open sourcing organic techniques to people of all walks of life and from all over the world. In some cases, we are assisting high-profile athletes, musicians, and celebrities from various worldly genres. In most cases, it’s the everyday people like you and me. Perhaps they’re just starting out, switching from salts. It doesn’t matter. We all share a connection to the plant. This makes us all the same -- united through a mutual fascination with the cannabis plant.

PT: Beautifully said, Gina. Final thoughts before I let you go?

GG: Just a few. We appreciate all of the love and support in the last few years as our transformation has taken place. We are blessed to have the love, trust, and support of our industry peers. We want everyone to have access to the same quality of medicine and/or the ability to produce it for themselves. It’s our mission here at GreenGoddessGardens.

NEW PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT A Buildasoil x Jay Plantspeaker collaboration. Quillaja Extract Powder.

Quillaja Extract Powder comes from the Quillaja Saponaria Tree. It is also known as the soap bark tree, native to the warm and temperate South American country of Chile �� . Quillaja is known as a natural “GRAS” ..(generally recognized as safe) food-grade surfactant/emulsifier, rich in both saponins and sapogenins.

Saponins are water-soluble. Like many other phytocompounds, saponins are produced by plants as a natural form of pest control in addition to playing other roles. It is their bitter taste that makes them less palatable to insects and other pests.

Sapogenins are lipophilic (which means tending to combine or dissolve in fats and lipids.) -the role of these triterpene derivatives; to protect plants against hostile microbes, fungi, and other organisms.

Triterpenoid saponins are a diverse group of molecules with a complex sugar backbone and are considered defensive compounds against pathogenic microbes and herbivores— the most widely used of these triterpenoid extracts; Quillaja saponaria Molina aka Quillaja extract powder.

Quillaja will make your water “wetter.” It relieves surface tension at the soil surface. Great for peat-based soils or any soil/ medium where hydrophobic tendencies may occur and exist.

Its penetrating & surfactant qualities make it a wonderful addition to any ipm, foliar, or feeding program. Users may** note an increase in effects and uptake due to its vehicle-like effects. Being both fat and water-soluble makes mixing and combining it with just about everything in the garden a breeze.

Quillaja Extract Powder, or “The Q” as it’s now referred to as, is a new product being offered to the growing industry as a wetting agent due to its being a 200x soap bark extract. It is an organic, true foodgrade extract crafted from a single pure ingredient.

You can find it exclusively through Buildasoil, out of Montrose, Colorado., the go-to store for organic farmers all across the United States, or online at buildasoil. com as well as in grow stores that are authorized buildasoil distributors throughout the U.S.

We hope you like it. Your plants will love it.

Sources :::: https://sciencedirect.com https://innovative food processing technologies https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Wikipedia

** no claims or guarantees beyond the label

Blazing New Trails:

WORDS JULIE CHIARIELLO

AN INTERVIEW WITH REINETTE SENUM

As a born and raised Californian, I love this state and also know how special it is to not just the rest of the United States of America; the whole world dreams of The Golden State. One of our biggest challenges moving forward is creating an equitable and thriving cannabis industry, which we still currently do not have under Prop 64. Many folks find it next to impossible to survive with the overtaxation and over-regulation. There is insufficient help or true equity to bring low-income and minority communities access and opportunities after the heinous brutality of the drug war.

Reinette Senum has recently decided to run for Governor of California. One of the things I love most about her platform is the importance she places on rectifying the current dismal state of the so-called legal cannabis industry. I was blessed to sit down with Reinette and her partner Susan in Nevada City, and I believe you will find her as inspiring as I do.

JC: Tell me a bit about yourself and how you came to be Mayor of Nevada City.

RS: I was born in San Francisco. Fourth generation. My family built a house in Nevada County in 1971, when I was four years old, and we moved here. I fell in love with Nevada City the first time my family drove up Broad Street. Susan and I have been together for 13 years. I paint houses for a living, and I have a 22-year-old cat named Trina. I ran for local office in 2008 and received the most votes in the 150-year history of the city. Because I received the most votes, I became Vice Mayor my first year and Mayor my second year. I served my second term as Vice Mayor and Mayor ten years later in 2019.

My first term was a dream. I handpicked the best community members in their respective fields to be part of the Sustainability Team. We were the first to devise an official 20-year citysanctioned sustainability vision. Sustainability and creating a clear path forward had never been part of the conversation at the city council table. I wanted to change that. I championed the installation of solar arrays on every municipally-owned building in Nevada City, launched the county’s first organic farmers market in downtown Nevada City, and retrofitted a city-owned building into an energy-efficient model for the community. We also built a fleet of 40 micro-houses on wheels, and I spent three years, personally, wheeling those micro-homes out into the woods, wherever the homeless were. Following the construction of these micro-houses, I co-founded Sierra Roots, an advocacy organization for the undomiciled, and launched the county’s first Extreme Weather Shelter for the homeless.

My second term was very different from my first. It was less proactive and more reactive to constant crisis: PG&E blackouts, the threat of fire, homeowners insurance policy cancellations, rising homelessness, and the entangled process of a cannabis and wireless ordinances. However, as a city council, we still

managed to approve a solar farm so as to meet our 100% renewable energy goals as a city, and we approved a fivelevel, 190-space parking structure with 6,000 square feet of storefront, solar, EV charging stations, and the ability to transform into an extreme weather shelter for the homeless or— now that fires are more catastrophic, anyone for that matter.

JC: You have decided to run for governor of California; can you tell us a bit more about what brought you to this important decision and some of the issues that you seek to address in running and holding office?

RS: I never intended to run for California Governor. In fact, I had just won my third election for the Nevada City city council in February of 2020. I was on the verge of finishing my 2nd term as Mayor, but instead of taking my oath for a third term as Mayor, I resigned. I could see what was happening in our local government around COVID-19, and it was very disturbing. Ultimately, I made the decision to “step down to step up,” though I really didn’t fully know what that was going to look like at the time.

I have now spent this last year consulting with a diversity of world-renowned doctors, lawyers, and health experts, and it has become apparent that critical data, therapies, and solutions are not being shared with the public. We can truly protect the vulnerable without trashing anybody’s constitutional rights, and there are terrifically effective protocols for dealing with the virus that are affordable and readily available.

JC: California is the 5th largest economy in the world, it sets the standard for progressive policies such as higher fuel emission standards and electric car tax incentives. We are a vital part of the national and international economy, and we can lead the charge on fostering sustainable industries in all sectors; can you share your perspective on this?

RS: Yes, and my perspective on this is different than most. I want our state to get less entangled in bureaucracy and more rooted in common sense. My platform is explored in detail in the Contract with Californians; it embodies and celebrates the inherent value of always making decisions with an eye to the next seven generations and with an ear to our elders and the last seven generations. Focusing on what is best for our children and using the basic wisdom that we have acquired over generations provides us with the means to step out of our current destructive trajectory, set aside our differences, and realign our priorities to set the state back on a good course; a sustainable course.

The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy — the Great Law of the Iroquois — played heavily in the creation of the US Constitution. The Contract with Californians has been crafted in the same spirit, but with the reinclusion of two of the most critical principles from the Great Law of the Iroquois that were not included in the Constitution: the Seventh Generation Principle and the Wisdom of Grandmothers and Elders Principle.

It’s a cultural shift, actually. This is where the Seventh Generation Principle comes in. It removes the need for so much bureaucracy and allows all California citizens a chance to reset their compass for a different direction: we adjust our thinking in such a way that we always ask, “Is my/our decision serving seven generations from now?” If we do this, everything else will begin to fall in place.

Under my Contract with Californians, our children — the future of our state — are at the center of our wheel, but every spoke in the wheel counts. The Contract with Californians should inspire us to consider what is possible when we work together to rebound from Newsom’s thoroughly abusive reign of terror as a California that our children, and the children of our children, can thrive in.

California’s heritage craft cannabis producers include a large number of farmers who have built their practices on sustainability, controlled growth, and dedication to protecting and replenishing our natural resources. Do you see a role for cannabis cultivators as leaders in planning California’s agricultural future?

Yes! We would be fools not to. I know many cultivators that take great pride in their sustainable practices, and I would like this to become the gold standard for all of California. We have been leading the way for years. Banning pesticides and chemicals is paramount if we are to improve the number of pollinators, clean our waters sources, soils, and improve the health of Californians. Cannabis farmers can take the lead in this. And we have thousands of potential entrepreneurs and boutique business owners that would like to enter the market and simply can’t afford it; we can change that.

Would you use the power of the governor’s office to