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“I’ve always been someone who was a minority among minorities, marginalized and also attracted to marginalized subcultures. I’ve found my family in rock ‘n’ roll, and I’ve found another family in cannabis.” Inspired by the “female expression of the most powerful plant on earth,” in her words, Tina Gordon of Moon Made Farms in Humboldt County, California, created a cannabis brand and name for itself. But it wasn’t always like that.
“I’ve lived in San Francisco for most of my adult life and during that time for about 20 years I lived a very underground lifestyle with art, music and playing in bands, releasing records, touring the van and so on,” he said Gordon. “I’ve been in a few different punk and metal bands; I made a mobile sound stage, something like that. And I used to do art exhibitions, photography and video. I am truly committed to living a fulfilling, creative life, living lean and living life to the fullest.”
However, after two decades of this lifestyle, things started to change. After going through a band breakup and a career change, she was searching for where to go next. Suddenly Gordon was spending more and more time in Humboldt County instead of the Bay Area, first filming a documentary, then even meeting someone in the area and realizing she wanted to spend all her time there. She also fell in love with growing the cannabis plant, something she would never have attempted in her previous life.
“Moon Made Farms recognizes the feminine in this plant as the moon is a symbol of femininity. The moon has a regular schedule with subtle changes every single night. So Sun-Grown isn’t just about the sun; It’s also about the moon and the night cycle.”
“I didn’t even have houseplants in San Francisco,” she admitted. “I was really urban. And then when I experienced my first season at Humboldt and saw this plant grow from seed to full flowering, I was completely mesmerized and it shifted my awareness to the natural world and how amazing it is. The sensory experience of growing this plant was life changing.”
As she began to listen to the soil and the plants she was growing, she began to see just how sacred the relationship between cannabis and the grower really is. Seeing how cannabis thrives when given rainwater, fresh air, full sunlight, and all the other natural elements that can be afforded by growing outdoors in the Emerald Triangle, Gordon knew she had a new obsession. Rather than making music and art, she is all about growing the juiciest and most beautiful buds. But she never left the element of social justice behind.
Gordon began learning regenerative permaculture techniques and incorporating them into her cultivation to develop more sustainable practices around cannabis production. As a proponent of outdoor growing, she’s always trying to learn more. And as a social justice advocate, she’s always trying to get queer people, women, and other marginalized people to work on her farm.
“I’ve always been someone who was a minority among minorities, marginalized and also attracted to marginalized subcultures,” Gordon said. “Rock ‘n’ roll is where I found my family, and I found another family in cannabis. And when something changes your life as much as cannabis does, there is a responsibility to pass it on, a responsibility to do activism work and social justice work, and to help educate people about the true value of this plant.
Through education, she wants to ensure that the focus is on sun-grown and natural cannabis, a personal passion.
“Misconceptions about flowers grown outdoors are based on the industry standard,” she said.
“It started with Prohibition when all outdoor farmers were forced indoors, so indoor farming became the industry standard. Now that we’re out of prohibition, it just feels like the plant should go back outside. Now, during that time, some incredible advances have happened. A lot has happened in terms of genetics and techniques surrounding this plant, but I would love to see this plant go back outside and that extensive research be done on the characteristics and potential of what this plant has to offer.
Today, Moon Made Farms is known in the market for producing high quality, sun grown, sustainable cannabis that stands out from the rest, but it wouldn’t be without the hard work and ethos that Gordon puts into their work been possible. She’s also thrilled to be able to revisit her music days and sell merch for her farm, and loves to study the plant’s growth cycle. For her, the moon is a celebration of the feminine in the cannabis plant, the darkness in the light.
“Moon Made Farms recognizes the feminine in this plant as the moon is a symbol of femininity. The moon has a regular schedule with subtle changes every single night. So Sun-Grown isn’t just about the sun; It is also about the moon and the night cycle. This is a light sensitive plant. It is sensitive to light. And that quality of light affects the plant in every way, so one of the most important things about growing plants outdoors is that they get exposure to the night sky. And so Moon Made Farms recognizes the techniques of lunar farming, an ancient way of cultivating all plants, as well as the symbol of the feminine that the moon represents.”
Read this story originally published in high times July 2021 edition in our archive.