Nearly a month away from a historic election for Californias cannabis industry, medical marijuana connoisseurs, cultivators and government regulators mingled together in Redway this past weekend for the third annual Golden Tarp Awards.
The event celebrates a popular style of cannabis cultivation – light deprivation – which allows farmers to manipulate light exposure to their plants in order for them to flower early, among other benefits. This year, nearly 150 contestants submitted their light-dep products with each undergoing a rigourous set of tests before they could even go before a judge.
Golden Tarp Awards co-founder and Wonderland Nursery owner Kevin Jodrey of Garberville said he treats the competition as a legitimate marketplace where bad product – such as that tainted by fungi, pesticides or other contaminants – wont get sold and therefore wont be allowed in the competition.
This is still the only competition ever where all the samples are completely lab tested before any judge ever touches it, Jodrey said. This is the cleanest competition of cannabis in the world. I figure the judge doesnt need to be a filter. What it does is it lets people really experience what world-class cannabis is.
Of the nearly 150 candidates, only two were removed for chemical contaminants and about six for fungus, Jodrey said.
Saturdays event drew a crowd of about 850 people, Jodrey estimated. Thats a bit less than last years number, which Jodrey attributed to the rainy weather that kept local cultivators at their farms to tend to their plants.
Among the crowd this year was a representative from California Board of Equalization Chairwoman and 2018 state treasurer candidate Fiona Mas office and a planner from the Humboldt County Cannabis Services Division.
They may not necessarily be part of the competition, but theyre about the fact that there is going to be close to 1,000 real cultivators where you can get a message out about compliance and how to function in the new world were in, Jodrey said.
The Dookie Brothers and their strain Skittlez claimed the 3-foot tall bronze Golden Tarp Award this year. Other notable mentions were Emerald Family Farms, which took home seven awards including highest CBD and THC content, Eden Farms and Tar Hill Genetics.
Each entrants product is judged based on four categories: visual, scent, taste and effect, with effect having twice the weight of the other categories.
We weigh the effects twice because the effect is why we consume it, be it medical or inspirational use, Jodrey said.
A judge of five to six industry experts sit on the judges panel with another 14 to 15 medical marijuana card holders in the crowd being randomly picked as judges. The names of the contestants are withheld from the judges in order to prevent favoritism, Jodrey said.
The number of contestants has more than doubled since their first competition in 2014, Jodrey said, which he attributes to the rising popularity of light-deprivation cultivation. The name of the Golden Tarp Awards refers to farmers using a tarp to cover some type of structure to decrease the light exposure of their plants. Jodrey said that this method allows the farmer to control the amount of light their plant receives and cause the plant flower in September rather than in November.
It also comes with other benefits, such as reducing the chances of fungal issues and gives the flowers stronger stability, Jodrey said.
The Golden Tarp Awards is sponsored by The Ganjier and Forever Flowering Greenhouses, and Pure Analytics Cannabis Potency & Safety Screening.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: The Golden Tarp Awards – ‘The Cleanest Cannabis Competition In The World’
Author: Will Houston
Contact: (707) 441-0521
Photo Credit: AP
Website: Redwood Times
