“I love learning from the plant and building the wisdom I gain from it every year. In the same way that it grows, I grow too.”
–Forrest Gauder
Entering the gardens of Sun Roots Farm in Covelo in Mendocino County is like entering a botanical fever dream. Giant purple cannabis plants rule instead of humans, and weed flowers the size of buildings sway under the weight of their own colas. Below their sticky canopy, medicinal and edible companion plants twist, bloom, and communicate in soil alive with insects and mycelium.
This sungrown Eden is a place where cannabis is encouraged to express her wildest potential. According to Forrest Gauder and Patricia Vargas, the husband-and-wife team of regenerative farmers who founded Sun Roots in 2015, the less human intervention on this potential, the better.
“The plant has its own potential that is not influenced by humans,” Vargas said. “When it’s exposed to a multitude of beneficial components, such as high-quality soil, the energy of the sun and the moon, clean water, clean air, and the intention we put into caring for
