A Tour of Autumn Brands Farm

From Cut-Flowers to Cannabis Crops in Carpinteria

Inside a greenhouse at Autumn Brands farm | Photo: Leslie Dinaberg

The Autumn Brands cannabis farm is a leafy haven of greenhouses flourishing with weed and lady bugs. There’s a constant humdrum of fans and a subtle, yet unmistakable, smell to the operation.

On Friday, April 18, farm employees enjoyed free tacos as a celebration of the upcoming weekend holiday: 4/20. And a group of curious individuals, including this reporter from the Independent, enjoyed a tour of the Carpinteria-based family business. It was a peek into the somewhat controversial cannabis industry that has flourished in this small Central Coast beach town.

Johnny Brand gives a tour at Autumn Brands farm | Photo: Leslie Dinaberg

Autumn Brands was the lovechild of one pioneer in the California cannabis industry, Autumn Shelton, and a former flower-farming family, the Brands, joining forces. Thus: Autumn Brands.

Led by a fifth-generation farmer from Holland, Hans Brand, the family made the switch from growing cut-flowers to their new enterprise cultivating a different kind of “flower.” Shelton and the Brand family, including Hans and his children, Hanna and Johnny, led the tour on Friday.

One woman, dressed in all purple, arrived with a large group of seniors. She repeatedly expressed her gratitude for the company’s Muscle and Joint Cannabis Salve — a topical blend of THC, CBD, magnesium, and arnica — which she said has been indispensable in easing her shoulder pain.

To grow the necessary components of the salve, and the strains that stuff their pre-rolls, jars, and pouches, the family uses basically the same system they used to grow daises: coconut core substrate, which allows them to grow hydroponically and which they can reuse and recycle.

“When we first started we were not great at this,” Shelton told the group, as we walked around the nursery. “It took locking in and trial and error to get consistently healthy, quality plants.”

They did change at least one thing about their system. To replace the spraying of chemicals for their pest problem, they ‘hired’ some new employees: ladybugs. When walking through the Carpinteria farm’s greenhouses, little flashes of red can be seen flying around the plants.

The California native species lays its eggs on the plants, which hatch into larvae that eat any problematic bugs.

The ladybugs help protect the 50 different varieties of cannabis plants grown on the farm, which all have different looks, strengths, and flavors, Johnny told the group.

According to Hanna, consumers cough less when smoking their cannabis due to the lack of pesticides. She laughed as she told me a story about singers preferring their product for that exact reason. “They’re stoners, but they have to have healthy pipes to sing well,” she said.

Inside a greenhouse at Autumn Brands farm | Photo: Leslie Dinaberg

We made our way through the nursery, then a greenhouse containing more mature plants (all of which are female so they don’t have seeds), then a drying room, a room full of hand-trimmers that artistically snip and sort the flower products, and, lastly, a packaging room.

The work that goes into running all of this is immense. They have 72 employees to grow and maintain the plants that are shipped off to 240 dispensaries around the state.

Johnny Brand inside a greenhouse at Autumn Brands farm | Photo: Leslie Dinaberg

When asked about the money they make per plant, Hanna gave me a grin and said lightheartedly, “Less than what it costs to run a farm.”

It’s not all rainbows and butterflies (or ladybugs). There are many hoops they have to jump through, Shelton said, and the costs pile up. One of the main problems is odor. Carpinteria residents are not happy about the distinct cannabis smell that wafts from these farms, which has led to a dramatic saga around odor control that recently crescendoed into the County Board of Supervisors mandating clean-air “scrubbers” in all cannabis greenhouses.

Cannabis crop close-up at Autumn Brands farm | Photo: Leslie Dinaberg

As reported by Independent contributor Melinda Burns, since mid-2018, county records show Carpinterians have filed 4,050 complaints about the “skunky” smell of pot that wafts into their homes and neighborhoods, which they believe is the cause of headaches, runny noses, sore throats, eye irritation, and respiratory problems. For them, the new requirement for “state-of-the-art” scrubbers to clean any stinky air before it leaves a greenhouse was a win.

However, Shelton and the Brands contend that it is not fair. They already had a form of odor control — Byers’s Vapor-Phase system — in place before the complaints started pouring in, Hanna said. Her grandparents were living on the farm and they wanted to mitigate the smell for them. The Brands say it works.

Shelton added that, unlike other farms, Autumn Brands is placed much farther back from the main road. They don’t have as many (if any) close neighbors they can peeve-off with the smell. When I walked through the greenhouses, too, I noticed the smell was not overwhelming — which was surprising to me because I was privy to all the odor drama and expectating a strong stench.

“This [the scrubbers] is multi-million dollar equipment that they’re forcing onto an industry that is collapsing,” Shelton said. “They’re putting this blanket across everyone … We want to work with the community, but within reason.”

She said the entire situation is “frustrating.”

“There are many hurdles within cannabis, and we’re up against a lot of financial obstacles,” she sighed. “We’re asking ourselves, ‘Will we still want to do this? Do we just tear it down and build housing?’” she shrugged with a frown.

But despite the obstacles, the family made the farm seem like a labor of love. The group watched as Johnny carefully checked the roots of the plants and listened to Shelton and Hanna tell stories about how the farm came to be and what they’ve been able to create with their products. Hans gently helped the older individuals on the tour navigate the farm.

And we got to smell some of the strains. Just FYI, Peach Rings literally smells like peach rings.

Autumn Brands is now offering free cannabis farm tours the third Friday of each month. For more information, see autumnbrands.com/farm-tours.