The last tarps have been pulled in the Emerald Triangle and the harvest has been cured, but a question lingers.
What strains and names are the cream of this year’s light dep cannabis crop? The 4th annual Golden Tarp Award aims to find out on Saturday and you can watch it live online.
This California light dep competition attracted over 200 light dep flower entries this year (more than ever before!) and the judges will taste test the Top 16, 4 from each flavor category. The Golden Tarp Award will livestream from the Judge’s Hall at thegoldentarp.com — You’ll see interviews with judges, industry insiders, celebs and more, this Saturday, Nov. 18. Our live hosts will talk with these guests live, take questions from live chat, and give you an inside look at how a top tier cannabis competition is judged.
Our education stage at the Mateel Hall will also be livestreamed, so you’ll get access to the experts and the chance to ask questions via the live chat. Check out the schedule of panels.
The Golden Tarp Award was founded by Kevin Jodrey and William Pedro of Wonderland Nursery for one reason: to celebrate light deprivation techniques and the farmers who excelled at them. A.k.a. Light dep, this is the practice of regulating the amount hours of light a plant gets in order to maximize growth.
“We created the Golden Tarp to recognize producers who grow phenomenal light dep cannabis flowers and have developed best practices for healthy, quality cannabis for generations.” Jodrey said. “Our goal is to recognize these farmers while introducing consumers to the benefits of light dep cannabis grown outdoors with sunlight and healthy, nutrient-dense soil that is free of chemicals, pesticides and pollutants.”
A New Approach to Lab Testing
That means they use natural inputs to balance and enrich the soil as the cannabis plants transition through each phase of the season. California regulators have advocated for biodynamic farming practices by focusing on the detection of bacteria or molds that represent a real risk to human health and by NOT requiring a quantitative Total Aerobic Bacteria count, nor a quantitative mold count, according to Samantha Miller of Pure Analytics and the Testing Lab Sponsor of the Golden Tarp Award.
Testing clean of pesticides and pollutants has always been a requirement at the Golden Tarp Award — no judge even touches entries that haven’t passed a lab test from Pure Analytics. The Golden Tarp Award judging team decided this year that disqualification for microbial contamination will only occur if the lab can detect the presence of harmful bacteria or dangerous mold or the evidence of their presence in the form of mycotoxins OR if the non-toxic contamination exceeds 5% by weight of the cannabis product being inspected.
“It means we are not going to fail you organic farmers because of your use of biodynamic cultivation practices and the microbe levels it produces,” Miller said. “Bring your cannabis that fails under current standards in. As long as there is no presence of HARMFUL microbes and bacteria AND you meet American Herbal Pharmacopeia Microbial standards then you are good. You will be able to compete.”
Farmers affected by Fire
The fires that spread across Northern California in October devastated communities — burning over 245,000 acres across six counties, including Mendocino, and sending a blanket of smoke and ash into many more. At least 43 people lost their lives, making this California’s deadliest fire every recorded. Many others lost their homes, their businesses, and their farms amongst the nearly 9,000 structures that burned.
Cannabis farmers were affected by this in a couple unique ways. Farmers who were directly impacted by the fires through loss of farm or equipment, they cannot access relief funding due to Federal prohibition. To make matters worse, California Growers Association reported that it collected donations for farmers only to have them returned by YouCaring.com for being a “drug related” transaction.
For the Golden Tarp Award, more smoke means there may be more disqualifications. Kevin Jodrey noted that the competition had, in the past, disqualified more than half of the entries after a major fire season. Farmers were reportedly finding strains of mold and bacteria that don’t thrive on cannabis — ash can settle into the flowers and with it comes any contaminants it was carrying.
But a little smoke may not lead to disqualification: how close a farm was to the fires and what stage the plants were in during the smoky period are both big factors, Jodrey said. The timing of the fires may not prove too damaging for some.
Watch Live on Saturday
How much was this year’s light dep impacted by the fires? What will this year’s top winner be? Will your favorite flavor win? Find out during the awards! Go to thegoldentarp.com on Saturday as we livestream right into the palm of your hand from Humboldt County starting at 11 a.m. You’ll have access to the Judge’s Hall feed and the education stage feed. Sign up for a reminder to watch live and bookmark http://live.thegoldentarp.com in your browsers!