A Colorado Homecoming
The sun was just rising over the horizon as I crossed the Nevada-Utah border bound for Colorado and two days of craft, solventless cannabis appreciation.
If you have traveled through Colorado on I-70, you’ve been to Parachute, too. The town is nestled into the mountains about equidistant between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs. Pulling off the highway into Parachute, I stopped in for coffee and found my way to the hotel. There was an off-the-path, very local feeling for sure, as I discovered the town was quiet and calm.
Visiting the dispensaries nearby to window shop and check out the state’s offerings, I saw the Edun concentrates right away and couldn’t wait to try some and hear the story. Edun is not just a cannabis brand but a family farm; they opened the doors of their home and their operations to us with warmth.
Who is Edun?
Jimmy and Michelle Brinkerhoff bring decades of cultivation and agricultural experience to Edun and are on a mission to grow the cleanest cannabis they can while elevating consumers and society along the way.
What makes this brand so unique is its commitment and dedication to regenerative, living soil and no-till beds. They use a blend of polyculture, Korean Natural Farming (KNF), and other methods to provide ferments, charred materials like bones and sunflowers, and plenty of beneficial microbes to their plants. Companion plants are sprinkled throughout the beds, including eucalyptus and even a mango tree, complete with a little group of ducks roaming the garden, meaning Edun is alive in the truest sense.
Working to grow cannabis like food and wine, not an industrial product, Edun has figured it out. Their methods are passionate, and their products tell the tale. Specializing in solventless concentrate extraction, they are doing good work for cannabis connoisseurs everywhere.
An Edun Dinner
To kick things off, dinner was served with great hospitality and care at the Brinkerhoff home. Michelle and Jimmy opened their arms, their kitchen, and their garden to us.
I arrived just in time for a solventless dab or three and the starter course, a delicious, roasted heirloom tomato soup. Jimmy and Michelle told us all about their mindset and perspectives on farm-to-table dining. Most, if not all, of the produce on the menu came from their gardens. A real example of practicing what you preach involved filet mignon served with Brinkerhoff Farm chimichurri and wild caught salmon with garden fresh tarragon aioli and honey-roasted carrots with toasted pine nuts and garlic.
The Edun team did all the cooking and service for the meal, adding a nice touch as we got to know folks from every department and really felt how the Edun team operates before seeing their facility.
After a day on the road, I couldn’t imagine a better welcome. The meal wasn’t infused to allow everyone to eat and enjoy as much food as they wanted, but pairings with live rosin were offered to all who were interested, which this writer definitely was. I have to say, live rosin, steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and good conversation in the crisp October air were memorable for sure. A glimpse at the Edun way of living.
Where Soil Becomes Solventless
The next morning, after a bit of coffee, we made our way to the operation for a two-building tour of the complete Edun process. Jimmy and Michelle brought us into the main room of the first building, where they had prepared several displays and examples of the types of natural products used within their cultivation process.
Running no-till, regenerative farming methods in their greenhouses requires a good deal of nurturing the environment and keeping the soil alive because it is not replaced but built and enhanced with every harvest. Korean Natural Farming (KNF) is used to bring in local microbes and terroir by creating the cultures outside in the weather and soil of Parachute before bringing it in to add to the soil. They also explained how other ferments are created in-house and used to keep the soil thriving. Happy soil creates happy plants. This bucks the common trend of running synthetic fertilizers and salts in sterile soilless pots and shows that there is a viable alternative.
The plants and canopies were dense and healthy, thriving off the natural sunlight available in the greenhouses. In standing beds supported by trellises, the foliage overflowed with trichome-dense flowers that you wanted to smell for eternity.
We also got to meet a different department of the company, the ducks! Yes, real ducks roaming around the gardens, eating bugs and doing their thing. The employees gather eggs as they happen and let the ducks move through the soil beds to fertilize, eat, and quack.
Many of the other plants included in their beds are used in ferments, like the aloe vera and banana trees, but some were added for character. A lone grapefruit tree was growing out of one of the back beds, weighted down with fruit. The whole greenhouse felt alive, and it was clear that every bit of that was done intentionally. Even the beds themselves were grounded with copper wire to the earth below.
After seeing the gardens, we made our way to processing. It’s worth pointing out: you will not find a plain white-washed hallway here leading from one room to the other. Instead, you have the Brinkerhoff touch everywhere you go, walkways, nooks, shelf tops, and available spaces were adorned thoughtfully with statues and carved art from different cultures.
This was something that wasn’t mentioned in the tour, but gave a contemplative feel when transitioning from one room to another. It was a complete 180 from almost any other hallway you may experience in a cannabis operation, showing that art isn’t limited by where and when it can be displayed or appreciated, while symbolizing the craftsmanship and art that is done within the operation.
Edun is all live rosin all the time. Live rosin encapsulates the plant, locking it in time to deliver the most potent and flavorful experiences to consumers. With this focus, their flower is fresh frozen to be washed in ice water and pressed into the live rosin, aromatic gold we cannabis connoisseurs love. We witnessed precision and care in every step of the process after tasting it the night before.
Their product line includes live rosin, cartridges, edibles, RSO, and infused pre-rolls. The infused pre-rolls happen to be the only way consumers can try some of the actual flower from Edun before it has been pressed. We met the rest of the teams and connected with familiar faces from the night before. The all-natural process creates such rich and complex flavors in the terpenes and plant expression, but it was clear the culture of the company and teams is also a major contributor.
There is, without a doubt, something special happening in Parachute, Colorado. Across the industry, quality is often shelved for quantity; we see subpar products on the shelves and a marketing reality that relies on discounts and sales. While Colorado certainly isn’t immune to those pressures, Edun has been able to create a successful top-shelf concentrate brand thriving on no-till, regenerative living soil methods with natural agriculture processes and extreme attention to detail.
This is how cannabis cultivation should be done, and this is how cannabis products should be. Plain and simple. If you find yourself in Colorado, look for Edun, and you’ll be pleased.
